Spark Run!

[MillForce2k]

They threw a kink in the pig cost pattern. Total points needed delta went up by 100.

317: 2,295 pigs (+5); 3,170 sparks (+10); 1,361,000 points (+7000)
318: 2,300 pigs (+5); 3,180 sparks (+10); 1,368,100 points (+7100)

[BarbieB]

I’m really happy with the new Spark Run. Even happier now that we can use pigs (Thank you!!!), but this does mean that I’ll have to stop expediting missions in order to save up on piggies.

It’s clear that they were thoughtful in the upgrades made to the Spark Run, and overall, I believe it’s a net positive :-)

[ABT]

Updated chart:

Thanks @millforce2k and @grimlockdown for confirming some of the values

[GrimLockdown]

@exientgreg
I have a couple of UI suggestions or tweaks

• Report the number of stages/segments you completed at the end
• Is it possible to give some kind of countdown meter for the arrival of the Astrotrain (after it has been called)?
• I would prefer that the Destruction bar and the numbers flying into it to be a little bit smaller. Maybe 75% of the current size … but then I play on iPad

[Greggers]

noted :)

[MillForce2k]

319: 2,310 pigs (+10); 3,190 sparks (+10); 1,375,200 points (+7,100)
320: 2,315 pigs (+5); 3,200 sparks (+10); 1,382,300 points (+7,100)

I think the difficulty has increased a bit. It seems like it took more shots to take down towers and not as many flying pigs fell with the EMP.

[MillForce2k]

321: 2,325 pigs (+10); 3,210 sparks (+10); 1,389,400 points (+7,100)
322: 2,330 pigs (+5); 3,220 sparks (+10); 1,396,600 points (+7,200)

So, it must have been a long day yesterday and my brain was a bit glitchy thinking the difficulty has increased. Runs seemed normal today.

[MillForce2k]

323: 2,340 pigs (+10); 3,230 sparks (+10); 1,403,700 points (+7,100)
324: 2,345 pigs (+5); 3,240 sparks (+10); 1,410,900 points (+7,200)

L15 Warpath did well. First run was with all accessories at grade 1. took seven shots to take out a WMT and the weapon cooldown is slow. Almost got taken out by a swarm of flying pigs waiting for the cooldown. Half dozen pigs pummeled him so he finished with one heart.

Second run had Rocket Launcher (damage) and Treads (cooldown) at grade 3. Still a long cooldown, but took out a WMT in five shots. Finished with two hearts because of waiting for the weapon and was hit by a smaller swarm. Probably need to upgrade Cannon, but that’s quite expensive.

[ABT]

@millforce2k Thanks for updating the numbers. I’m using Warpath with some accessories upgraded as well. I have him at Lvl 16 promoted to Red Crown and is doing well in the Event as well. The Weapon Cooldown accessory is definitely very important:

[MillForce2k]

325: 2,355 pigs (+10); 3,250 sparks (+10); 1,418,100 points (+7,200)
326: 2,360 pigs (+5); 3,260 sparks (+10); 1,425,300 points (+7,200)

Runs at 1,680% are now typically taking six stages, though my first run today took five since I had a forest stage. Used L15 Drag Strip on my second. He did well, but left a lot of debris. He died in the sixth stage because of his slow weapon reload when he got scrambled by a missile and pummeled by a swarm of flying pigs. had to enter the seventh stage to finish because of the debris left.

@abt You’re quite welcome. I did upgrade cannon, so I have a total of 82% weapon cooldown. It helped a bit. If we have WMT day in the event, I might upgrade to grade 3, but that costs 15 gold crystals and 600K coins.

[MillForce2k]

327: 2,370 pigs (+10); 3,270 sparks (+10); 1,432,600 points (+7,300)
328: 2,375 pigs (+5); 3,280 sparks (+10); 1,439,800 points (+7,200)

Greenlight was terrible, and Grapple was even worse. Neither were effective against flying pigs.

@exientgreg Should a “boosted” bot be better in the spark run, and not worse? My Warpath was “boosted” in my first run today. It took eight shots to kill a WMT and that’s provided the shots were completely clear of other obstructions. Normally, it would take five, maybe six, if the shots were clear.

[ABT]

That’s strange… spark run requires coins instead of pigs again.. is it supposed to alternate?

Level 328 costs 237,600 (instead of 2375 pigs)

[ABT]

@andrewinireland

I wonder if it will be like a weekly thing- alternating between eggs and coins starting each Monday…

I think you might be right!

[Greggers]

yes, boosted should be more powerful. investigating. cheers

 

[Pinokio]

Boost is working now. Yesterday Blaster was boosted in Spark run – same effect as from current event “boost boxes”. Thank you exientgreg

[Pako]

@exientgreg, something strange happened to me. About 15 minutes before the coneheads event ended, decided to play the spark run. Because of the bot I’d used I’d finished the run 3 minutes into the new event. My bot boarded astrotrain and went away, nothing wrong up to this point. I was expecting a reward, instead I got a how unlucky message, no sparks were awarded, nothing. I should’ve been given the sparks even though the run spanned through two event, right?

[Greggers]

hmmm maybe it changed the rules/scoring for a different squad. aka you lost your 4x score multiplier? will investigate… cheers. To clarify, was that midnight on the ‘conehead’ token exchange day into the new ‘save a bee’ event?

[GrimLockdown]

I made a graph of how many points are needed to complete a level.

Not only points grow non–linearly but there are several different growth rates.

As I have no data points beyond level 400 I don’t know how many points are needed for level 500. The previous speculation of 3M points seems invalid.

[Poncho]

Speaking of the promotion multiplier, I receive the same amount of spark for a completed run regardless of which bots I use.  Where does the bonus come in?

[GrimLockdown]

@poncho The higher the promotion of your bots the shorter the run (i.e. fewer stages) until the required amount of points is reached.

[ABT]

@grimlockdown Nice plot and graph fit.

The same thing occurs for Sparks required for promotions. There’s some kind of step function at various interval ranges. It is probably still plottable once you get more data-points. When I have more data and time, I will try to see if i can fit a trend as well. I’m at level 366 now.

[ABT]

@poncho The bonus from the promotion multiplier affects how many points you receive from destroying objects/pigs, but doesn’t affect the number of Sparks you receive in the end. An indirect impact is that, it may be more difficult reaching the full points to complete the run if you have lower promotion bonus. If you do not finish, you get no Spark reward at all.

The only way to increase the Spark reward is by watching a video ad after the run. It will boost your Spark reward by 10%. That’s the only ad bonus I do. I think is definitely worth it.

[Pako]

@exientgreg, yes, it was the midnight of the exchange token day of the conehead event.

[GrimLockdown]

@abt Yes, I like those R–squared values too but on the other hand levels 1–299 have only few data points.

For levels 300 and up the formula in the graph isn’t exact and the value it gives can be off ±100 from the real one. I actually have a better formula than the one in the graph.

[JoeBlack]

spark run is fine…now if the other part of the game would update and the support actually cared to reply w/a heady response…I mean, come on…do the job…