Difference between revisions of "Lancer Knightz (Guild)/Missions"

Revision as of 20:07, 8 October 2013

This page is part of the Lancer Knightz data collection project. Its goal is to quantify the crown payouts of all missions. These particular data were collected by Vanzanz, Epoxee, Bopp, and Donkeyhaute. The "Classic" data were collected between April and July of 2013 — just before release 2013-07-30. We are currently collecting Normal, Advanced, and Elite data.

Procedure

For missions that exist on multiple strata (danger missions, Operation Crimson Hammer, etc.), we always measure on Tier 3 / Stratum 6. The tester carries out the entire mission, from mission lobby to mission report. The tester goes down every side path, killing every monster. Slashing plants and lamps to get extra crowns is optional. The tester does not spend any extra energy opening treasure rooms, danger rooms, etc. After the mission, the tester examines the mission report, and sends this information to Donkeyhaute:

1. The difficulty: Normal, Advanced, or Elite.
2. The number of knights in the party. If the number changes over time, then an estimate of the average (1.5, 2.3, etc.) is fine.
3. The total crowns earned by the tester (not the other party members). This figure appears at the top of the mission report.
4. The total number of Forge, Grim, and Primal Sparks earned by the tester. These appear at the bottom of the mission report.

The tester may optionally add a note at the end. For example, the note could indicate which branch of depth 26 of the King of Ashes was taken, or it could report that many Beast Scales were found. (Crowns earned by selling lucrative materials do not enter into our other calculations.) Donkeyhaute enters the data into a computer program that outputs the wiki markup for the table below. Each mission is measured multiple times, to give a better idea of the crown and spark payout.

New Crowns Data and Analysis

Here is a summary of the new (post-2013-07-30) crowns data for all of the fighting missions beyond level 1. We'll post spark data later.

• Levels: The number of levels in the mission, excluding non-fighting levels (treasure levels, depth 29, etc.).
• Ns: The number of data for each difficulty: Classic, Normal, Advanced, Elite. When there are fewer than three data for a difficulty level, those data should be regarded as preliminary at best. Data collection is ongoing.
• Classic, Normal, Advanced, Elite: Average crowns earned on each of these difficulty levels.
• Cla/Lev: The average crowns earned per level on Classic difficulty. We use Classic difficulty because we have the most data for that difficulty. In the future, we will probably switch to Elite difficulty. For now, this column should give a rough idea of which missions are most profitable at any difficulty level.

Preliminary results suggest that:

• Normal payouts are about 80% of Classic payouts.
• Advanced payouts are about equal to (98% of) Classic payouts.
• Elite payouts are about 122% of Classic payouts.

Classic Data and Analysis

Here are classic (pre-2013-07-30) data for all of the fighting missions beyond level 1.

• Levels: The number of levels in the mission, excluding non-fighting levels (treasure levels, depth 29, etc.).
• N: Number of data for sparks. The number of data for crowns is at least this high, but often higher, because we didn't start collecting sparks data until we had already collected lots of crowns data.
• Crowns: Average crowns earned. See the wiki markup for detailed data.
• Interval: Confidence interval for crowns earned, based on two sample standard deviations. When the number of crowns that you earn falls in this interval, you should not be surprised.
• Sparks: Average number of sparks (Forge, Grim, and Primal) earned. See the wiki markup for detailed data.
• Total: The total crowns earned, computed as the sum of three terms. The first term is average crowns earned. The second term is average sparks earned times 100. (100 sparks can be traded for a 5-star trinket, which can be vendored for 10,000 crowns. Thus each spark is worth at least 100 crowns.) The third term is three boss tokens earned (where appropriate), times 75, 233, 175, or 1,000. (Again, these figures are based on exchanging tokens for an item and then selling the item to a vendor.)
• Per Level: The average total crowns earned per level.

Prior to release 2013-07-30, each level cost 10 energy. So, while a knight was gaining crowns, materials, and everything else on his adventure, he was also spending energy. A natural question to ask was: Am I gaining crowns faster than I'm spending energy? The table below shows some benchmark prices for 100 energy — in other words, 10 levels — from 5000 to 9500. For each price, the table shows how many missions have a payout per level exceeding one tenth of that energy price. In other words, this table gives tells us how many missions were profitable relative to the price of energy.