Pink Poogle Toy Forum

CW - what Siniri said about codestone prices. The regular codestones aren't being affected as much this year as they have in the past, but the red ones definitely went up a bit - some up to 4k higher than usual. I've noticed this trend over the last few years, though it's been somewhat better since the battledome was revamped.

Gloat?:
...after I finish getting to my training goal.

OUCH! Count Von Roo appears in a puff of smoke and bites (petname) on the neck!

A new challenger appears! Count Von Roo will be waiting for you in the BATTLEDOME.

Yay! I only have a few more random challengers to get.

Fruit Machine win today:Could've been a nicer p/b, I guess (or is that only with the top wins?), but I"ll take it anyways!

Also, got an Icetravaganza Scratchcard yesterday, woot!

Gloat/cry: I would be sitting on 282:50 in Food Club for a trophy run right now had I been sure I could collect on the first. Gloat because that's a lot of NP in five days, but cry because this would have been the best shot I've had so far for gold.

Won all my round 1 montly games, but didn't get any more challengers. Now at the end of the month, my round 2 challengers appear. Grr... I wish TNT would hurry up and fix these glitches.

Picked up a Halloween Y14 Goodie Bag from the blue grundo plushie and sold it for a nice chunk of NPs. Woot!

ETA:

Woot!

ETA2: Spontaneously got a bronze trophy in Geos this month...when I didn't even get it for a 3rd round. Yet...I didn't get one in Kacheekers, which I made all the way to 4th round. So weird. Guess I just need to get randomly lucky to get the Kacheekers one, and then I've at least got a bronze in all 3...

I think I upgraded my Armada to silver this month. Weird, because though I got 1 third-round game, I'm pretty sure it was in Kacheekers (and we didn't finish it) -- and I definitely didn't have any fourth-round games.

Oh, well. That almost makes up for the one gold I should have already earned. I'm at 1 silver, 2 bronzes.

ETA: Currently sitting on gold for Spinacles (since the first, though with a pretty low score) and bronze for Food Club (since yesterday). We'll see how long I can hold onto that Food Club one; I bet it won't be long enough to make up for the lost interest. I'm still kicking myself that I didn't hold for July -- I would have upgraded to gold, but I really didn't know if I'd be able to get online while on the mission trip, and I wasn't going to risk losing 3M NP... *sigh* Oh, well. If I did it once, I can do it again. It'll just take some time until I get lucky again.

I attempted to get an upgrade on one of my bronze trophies, but got bumped out of silver a few hours before trophies were awarded. Sigh. Set a new record high on that game for myself, too. Ah well.

Bummer on only bronze, Siniri! I really need to take the time and get in on food club. I just don't know if I have the time/brain power to really figure things out on my own right now, and I hate just following the "standard" bets. Maybe I'll try and spend some time this month figuring out how it works, and then next month tackle it. I'm trying to get to a specific amount in my bank account before I do any more spending. Hopefully I'll be there by the end of this month.

I'm considering (once I get to said amount in my bank account) saving all the nerkmids I win off daily battling for a month and redeeming them at the beginning of the next month in attempt to get a trophy. Thoughts?

Pickles, I can send you my Excel spreadsheet if you're interested. It makes it so I can pick my bets in 5-10 minutes once I copy the pirates' names, starting odds, and current odds. The spreadsheet is color-coded so that arenas with a pirate with >50% probabilities are highlighted green. I then just type in the pirates' names for each bet I'm considering (and I have the names in hidden cells, so I actually only have to type 1-3 letters...), and it auto-calculates the expected value and probability for each bet. It even auto-bolds the EV over a set value (I set it manually each day) and any probability over 3% (so I can pick my safeties; this number could be adjusted). I still have to pick my set of 10 bets, but the spreadsheet makes it super-easy. The only thing I haven't figured out how to automate is calculating the overall chance that my set of 10 bets will win something (I have a formula for it, but I have to click the cells each day.) (And this spreadsheet is definitely not cheating -- it just helps me do the math, but I still do all the actual work.)

I'm up to 82% net long-term (so I'm not quite doubling my NP on average every day), so I'm steadily pulling ahead of Hugo's statistics with my new system (which uses the starting odds to calculate the probabilities for each pirate, taking into account the uncertainty based on said starting odds). To put things in perspective, I've spent ~38M on bets and won over 31M net. It's my primary source of income. And although I've had losing streaks (never lasting more than about 1M or so before I get my NP back up), it's obvious that my system is profitable and not risky at all in the long-term. I don't consider it "spending" as much as investing, just like the stock market and certain dailies. If I only had time for 3 things on Neopets, I would do bank, stocks, and Food Club.

Anyway, the spreadsheet would make it easy for you to "try" Food Club without spending real NP. You could pick bets, then see how they did, and keep track of your net "winnings" for as long as it takes for you to feel comfortable with your system before diving in with actual NP. (And the spreadsheet offer stands for anyone active at PPT.)

Pickles, I think Daze said that she had pretty good luck saving nerkmids for the trophy. Is there a limit to the number of nerkmids you can use in a day? Maybe save 2-3 months' worth? If you get lucky, you may actually make money off it.

Siniri, I might take you up on the spreadsheet. If I could get these crazy kids to go down for naps at 1 instead of 1:45, I'd probably even have time to look at it.

I don't think there's a limit to how many nerkmids you can use in a day. I've seen people with boards doing over 50 in a day. I'm not counting on making money off them - usually it's not that great, but there are some good possibilities.

Mini-gloat: sold 7k of BB at 60, which really helped bump me closer to my goal!

ETA: Mini-gloat. Got 10k off Faerie Caverns today!

*sigh* I had the same opponent for Geos and Kacheekers for the first round. I NMed him that we had to finish yesterday and asked for a time window when he might be around to play them out, but he dragged his feet all day. He completely poofed as soon as I had him in a spot where no matter which of his 3 remaining checkers he moved, it would be jumped (I still had 6 -- the game was guaranteed to end in 3 moves each). (I had also just bombed most of his rectangle after figuring out where it was in Geos, though he knew sort of where my square was, and I was trying to nudge it over slightly, so that game could have gone either way, though I'm fairly certain I had a pretty good leg up on him in it, too).

Quitting because you're losing just shouldn't be allowed. It's such terrible sportsmanship. It doesn't hurt you either way to lose outright or just have no one win in time, but it sure screws over your opponent. And you wouldn't want them to do that to you. The only real "defense" I have against this is to report them... but that doesn't really help dissuade others from doing the same. Maybe an editorial question about what to do in this situation? They can move just enough to keep you from move-or-losing, and yet not enough for you to win. So frustrating...

And the jerk was all "I only got an Armada game for next round"... I didn't get any games at all, and I won Armada outright (creamed my opponent -- my final score was over 57), and should have won the other two. Blurgh. Maybe I should send in an editorial question...

(P.S. Is there a way to see your own "level" in these games? I wonder what mine is, but I can't figure out how to see it.)

Ugh. That happened to me last month - getting the same opponent for two games. I actually changed what hour I sign up for because I've been stuck against the same person in multiple different months that refused to finish the game. I lucked out and move/losed on all 3 first round, and actually got all 3 for round 3. Guess we'll see if that makes a difference.

I'm not sure how to see your own level.

Illusen has just asked me for a Super Bright Rainbow Pool Stamp. A thing for which there are only two in the Trading Post at all, so unless someone *happens* to be on now and to agree with reasonable negotiation in the next ten minutes I am going to be once again stopped at almost quest thirty. You know, it's one thing to ask for expensive items, but I don't think it's fair to ask for impossible items.

Edit: And then someone did reply... about two minutes too late.

Ugh, CW, that's terrible. I haven't attempted to do Illusen for a while - mainly because of that very problem. Some day, I'll give it a try again...maybe.

Gloat: Made it to my goal number of NPs in the bank! My next goal is quite a ways away, so I'll probably take the next month (or two) to collect Nerkmids and redeem a bunch on Oct. 1 or Nov 1 (depending on what I decide to do).

Apparently when I hit move or lose for the first time with my Kacheekers opponent, they must've clicked the "give up" option...because all the sudden that game has poofed. I've only got one more move-or-lose for my Armada game, and I'm hoping to play out my Geos game. Of course, it all means nothing - I may or may not get the trophies anyways. Buggy buggy buggy...


ETA: Lost my Geos game, but move/losed on Armada.

Gloat: Made it back to my NP in the bank number. The scrolls I bought have already gone up in price a fair amount, too. Guess we'll see what happens on Monday.

Also, won 20K from Buried Treasure here!!

I just added the new Usukicon Y16 Mug to my collection

I'm sure I really overpaid, but I have the first one in the wild