Wednesday, February 23, 2011

The Hours of Nymphomania

Apparently, the post warning of the perils of Nymphomania has caused a stir of interest in the Nymphs. I suppose the saying "There is no such thing as bad press." has proven true once again!

I've gotten a few requests for more information on the Nymphs as well as tips on how to best tackle these enticing encounters.






As you can see from the vid, and for those who read the previous post, the Nymph Legion has 11 Units comprised of the following (in attack order):

Middle
Right Flank
Left Flank

Mousika
Gymnastika
Nymphe

Arktos
Hesperis
Dysis

Aergia
Hesperides
Hecate

Eris
-
Thetis



From this, you can see that position 1 and 3 have 4 opponents and position 2 has 3.

This means that assuming you have a powerful group of players and are aiming to finish the fight with as few players as possible, you need only 4 players with the toughest player taking position 2. If you have a 5th weaker player (or player who is low on faculty), you'll want to put them in position 5 because they will take the field without having to fight. This applies if you have 6 players as well, put your weakest at position 5.

In a 7 player config where the top 4 can take 3 each, the player in position 7 gets a free ride. Obviously an 8th player will also get a free ride.

The real question of course is what if your players cannot take 3 each? In such situations, the exact matchups are harder to predict but the same basic rules apply. Position 1 & 4 gets the middle lane, Position 2 & 5 gets the right flank and Position 3 & 6 gets the left flank. Because the Middle Lane is the easiest, the one position 7 may take the field but may not need to fight if there are no enemies left in the Left Lane and the player in position 8 manages to defeat the Right Lane.


Interestingly, the Nymph Legion consists of 6 of the 12 Hours or Horae (thus the reason for the title of this post) which are:

Mousika - or Musica, the morning hour of music and study
Gymnastika - or Gymnasia, the morning hour of gymnastics/exercise
Nymphe - the morning hour of ablutions (bathing, washing)

Arktos - night sky, constellation
Hesperis - evening
Dysis - sunset

Mousika, Gymnastica and Nyphe actually do occur in sequence. The latter 3 seem to be in reverse sequence since Hesperis occurs before Dysis and Arktos denotes the end of the day.

Mesembria (noon) , Auge (first light) and Anatole (sunrise) do show up in the zone and you do fight them if you try to take the Locris farm. Sponde ( libations poured after lunch)however is not found in the zone and is instead a recruitable (at M13) hero for the Athenian faction. Same for Akte ( or Cypris, eating and pleasure, the second of the afternoon work hours ) which you get at M18. The only missing Horai is Elete ( prayer, the first of the afternoon work hours ) .



Their specific in game formations:

Mousika Lv 48


2- Thorakites
3- Grosformachoi
5- Mousika (Medical Soldier)
8- Thunderbolt Mage

Gymnastika Lv 49


2- Hammer Phalanx
6- Gymnastika (Trojan Horse)
7- Armored Trojan Horse
9- Medical Soldier


Nymphe Lv 50


1- Griffin Rider
2- Forest Pyromaniac
3- Flaming Cavalry
5- Nymphe (Hydromancer)
8- Soul Hunter

Arktos Lv 51

Hesperis Lv 52

Dysis Lv 53

Aergia ? -assumed Lv 54.

Hesperides Lv 42 (obviously higher in Nymph Legion)

Hecate Lv 44 (obviously higher in Nymph Legion)

Thetis Lv 48 (obviously higher in Nymph Legion)

Eris Lv 52 (obviously higher in Nymph Legion)


... yes yes, work in progress. I'll get the pics and formation info along with suggested formations for the first 3 strong players combo up sometime in the next few days.

Monday, February 21, 2011

Trapped by Nymphomania

Maddened by lust, we ignore rational thought and plunge headlong into hedonistic desires.

Red will be the mist that clouds your eyes,
Crimson beauty that spells your demise!




You know how it happens in every game... the call, that ever so alluring call of Epic Lewt.

The game: Batheo
The place: Dispute of Golden Apple
The problem: A harem of nubile Nymphs equipped with gear such as High Hopes, Caged Desire & Claire's Whip taunt players with the chance at their first piece of red equipment.
The culprit: Sword of Ares Fragments


The Nymph Legion is a necessary step to completing the Dispute of Golden Apple in order to open the next zone, Roaring Sea. It is composed of 11 units comprising the prior ladies in the zone. The rewards are 600 Laurels and the chance of a fragment drop.

It is this fragment that causes the problem. The Sword of Ares is the first red drop that players are likely to see (with the exception of those who invest heavily in Commissions). But instead of the full Sword, you are rewarded with 1 of 10 fragments. Once a player has obtained a fragment they are thus induced into trying for all 10 fragments. Because of this, players will try to run the Nymph Legion as frequently as they can.

While all this may seem quite harmless, indeed players justify it as "I'm just running it for the Laurels." the danger is quite acute. Mathematically, the fragment has an approximate 1 in 10 chance of dropping. A 1 in 10 chance of a drop is actually fairly good odds... indeed it is no different from the other 'Low Odds' drops. What players fail to factor is that only ONE of the players who took part in defeating the Nymph Legion gets the drop. Assuming you run with the full 8, you will on average need to run the Nymph Legion 800 times for a half chance at completing the Sword of Ares.

800 times is a 'mere' 800 divs which being 800 hours is 'only 33 days' .

... and this is where it starts to get more insidious. Believing that red loot is within their reach, players will begin to run the Nymphs whenever quota is available... and this is the part they forget... QUOTA.

You can only run Nymphs 8 times before the quota needs to be refilled, and it is refilled thrice daily for a total of 24 runs. This may seem to still follow the idea of 'only 33 days' but players often forget that they have to compete with other players for that quota. This competition will drive players to launch as quickly as possible to 'grab' their share of the quota before others can. Indeed many will favor running with as few as possible in order the maximize the chance that they will get a drop. (If you run with 4 players, your chance of getting a fragment is improved from 1 in 80 to 1 in 40. Twice as good! ) This rush to launch with as few as possible adds greatly to the risk of failure. With 11 units to defeat the minimum you can launch with is 4 players but if even a single player fails to kill the maximum streak of 3, the Nymph Legion ends in failure as defeating the last Nymph without any reserve results in a win for the defending legion... which in this case is the Nymphs.

As more and more players gather fragments, more and more will begin to compete for the limited quota. This results in a spiral where ever more players are caught by the Nymphs. Having 3,4 or even 6+ fragments, they can no longer afford to quit the race to complete their red weapon and thus become devoted to farming the Nymphs every chance they get even when they reach the higher levels of 60 to 80. At 60, the Nymph Legion gives only 400 laurels... by 80, a mere 60.

What started off as a single fragment becomes an expensive collectors desire to 'complete' their collection even as the costs escalate. This results in lost divs (from failed attempts at Nymphs) and slower progress (meaning you get the more powerful heroes and items from the later zones slower).

If you really want to farm laurels... do the smart thing, run the Prometheus Legion instead. It gives 600 laurels just like the Nymph Legion does but you only need to defeat 10 units and those units are lower level and less deadly than the Nymphs. So not only are you more likely to succeed, you take less faculty loss from the fight AND the item drop from Prometheus (same 1 in 10) can be sold for more.


Thursday, February 3, 2011

The Babel of Chinese New Year

Kong Xi Fa Chai to all who celebrate it, welcome to the year of the rabbit!

And what better way to hop of to a start for the new year than gaming! In this case, what I've discovered during my travels up the Tower of Babel!

The Tower of Babel is found in Starlight Highland and according to this post ( http://forums.mochigames.com/showthread.php/391-Server-Maintenance-Announcement-on-Dec.16th ) has 120 levels and the following loot:

Level 20 : resource card at random.
Level 35 : one Level 1 Red Fragment or one Level 1 Blue Fragment or one Bronze Card.
Level 40 : a special equipment reward. ( Poseidon )
Level 45 : one Level 1 Red Fragment or one Level 1 Blue Fragment or one Draft Card.
Level 55 : one Level 1 Red Fragment or one Level 1 Blue Fragment or one Draft Card.
Level 60 : a special equipment reward. ( Hades )
Level 65 : one Level 1 Red Fragment or one Level 1 Blue Fragment or one advanced resource card.
Level 70 : one Level 1 Red Fragment or one Level 1 Blue Fragment or one advanced resource card.
Level 75 : a magic key.
Level 80 : a special equipment reward.
Level 85 : one Level 1 Red Fragment or one Level 1 Blue Fragment or one advanced resource card.
Level 90 : one Level 1 Red Fragment or one Level 1 Blue Fragment or one advanced resource card.
Level 95 : one Level 1 Red Fragment or one Level 1 Blue Fragment or one advanced resource card.

Level 101,105,109,111,115 or 119 : one Level 1 Yellow Fragment.

Level 110 or higher, there are Olympia sets (red equipment) and Typhon sets (red equipment)

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Might and Hero XP Experience per Level List

The official website lacks a lot of information, and is often not entirely accurate. ( For example, it gives the wrong rank titles for heroes and the names of the units are not those in the game. )

This is a xp chart that starts at lv 55... why 55? Because it's really only at that level ( actually 57 which is the highest you can safely take your heroes without bumping yourself to 60 at the Blood Lion Wrestling Arena ) where you start to use Silver Training mode in order to get your Heroes to 60 for Reincarnation. This way you can calculate how much silver you need to spend to reach your target level.

The list isn't complete because sometimes my heroes skip a level or three overnight or I forget to copy down the xp required.


Lv : Xp Required

55 : 278,221
56 : 314,848
57 : 326,182
58 : 337,516
59 : 348, 851
60 : 360,185
61 : 422,998
62 : 455,795
63 :
64 : 521,390
65 : 554,187
66 : 632,138
67 : 667,458
68 : 702,778
69 : 738,098
70 : 773,418
71 : 866,506
72 :
73 : 942,192
74 :
75 : 1,017,878
76 : 1,126,102
77 : 1,166,468
78 : 1,206,834
79 : 1,247,200
80 : 1,287,566
81 : 1,410,928
82 : 1,453,816
83 : 1,496,706
84 : 1,539,594
85 : 1,582,483
86 : 1,720,982
87 : 1,766,394
88 : 1,811,806
89 : 1,857,217
90 : 1,902,629
91 : 1,948,040
92 : 1,993,451
93 : 2,038,862
94 : 2,084,274
95 : 2,129,685
96 : 2,175,096
97 : 2,220,508
98 : 2,265,919