{"action":"created","issue":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/blackhole12/PonyClicker/issues/74","labels_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/blackhole12/PonyClicker/issues/74/labels{/name}","comments_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/blackhole12/PonyClicker/issues/74/comments","events_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/blackhole12/PonyClicker/issues/74/events","html_url":"https://github.com/blackhole12/PonyClicker/issues/74","id":80035742,"number":74,"title":"Pony Clicker Analysis","user":{"login":"blackhole12","id":3387013,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/3387013?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/blackhole12","html_url":"https://github.com/blackhole12","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/blackhole12/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/blackhole12/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/blackhole12/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/blackhole12/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/blackhole12/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/blackhole12/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/blackhole12/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/blackhole12/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/blackhole12/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"labels":[{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/blackhole12/PonyClicker/labels/help%20wanted","name":"help wanted","color":"159818"}],"state":"open","locked":false,"assignee":null,"milestone":null,"comments":1,"created_at":"2015-05-24T03:29:13Z","updated_at":"2015-05-24T07:44:24Z","closed_at":null,"body":"I have developed a *very primitive* analysis of Pony Clicker's gameplay using an automated buying mechanism which is now available in the master development branch under `utilities/analysis.html`. I re-organized ponyclicker.js so that **all code with DOM side-effects** is now at the bottom of the page, under a `if(disable_ponyclicker)` statement. I also had the ponyclicker JS file return a few basic public objects. This allows the analysis page to load up the game logic without loading the game itself.\r\n\r\nThe game simulator works by selecting an optimal building purchase, then fast-forwarding time to the exact moment at which it can buy it, then selecting another building purchase, and repeating. The optimal playing algorithm *should* be:\r\n\r\n> 1. Find building with lowest per +1 SPS cost. This is the target building.\r\n> 2. Look for other buildings that can be bought before the target building, and whose SPS bonus result in a reduced time-to-buy for the target building that exceeds the amount of time lost by purchasing that building instead.\r\n> 3. If such buildings exist, set the target building to the one that results in the greatest time reduction.\r\n> 4. Buy the building when it becomes available, go back to step 1.\r\n\r\nI attempted to implement steps 2 and 3, but it didn't seem to work and it doesn't make enough of a difference to bother with right now.  Simply following step 1 repeatedly seems to produce a reasonable playthrough all by itself. The algorithm skips the very start of the game by starting at 100 smiles and going from there. It also has special handling for when it wants to buy a friendship, but can't - it will attempt to buy a pony instead.\r\n\r\nCurrently, at precisely 101 steps, this happens:\r\n\r\n![pony clicker analysis](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/3387013/7786492/1ccd4ac4-0188-11e5-840b-d3a47f4a898a.png)\r\n\r\nIt seems abundantly obvious that the moment a grand galloping gala becomes available, the entire game begins to fall apart. The SPS curve completely explodes once anything with a 2^P is purchased, to an almost hilarious degree:\r\n\r\n![ponyclickercurve](https://cloud.githubusercontent.com/assets/3387013/7786493/21b10990-0188-11e5-86de-7eaa7d5e07d5.png)\r\n\r\nCurrently, this page uses Google Charts, because I needed to get this up and running as soon as possible. Even with this comparatively primitive analysis of pony clicker, it has already demonstrated precisely where the game unravels, which will be instrumental in rebalancing it to something more sane. A properly balanced game will have a smooth SPS curve and a time-to-buy delta average that increases **very** slowly over the course of the game.\r\n\r\nIn the future, I'd like this page to incorporate buying upgrades and highlighting where upgrades get bought, as well as showing where certain store-based or smile-based achievements would be earned in a master timeline. Ideally, it should display the SPS generation algorithms and cost curves of each store item, as well as the governing SPS ratio curve in editable text fields that dynamically update the graphs when they are changed to facilitate analyzing new formulas. In a perfect world, I would build a customized master timeline graph using D3.js, but this is nontrivial and very time consuming, so for right now, Google charts will do.\r\n\r\nI will be actively updating this analysis page as I add more graphs in an effort to settle on a gameplay experience that isn't completely broken. **I do not expect this to be finished in time for v1.0**. The v1.0 release only needs to un-break the late game and make it at least not completely stupid. Given how utterly broken the game is right now, simply selecting subexponential functions will likely suffice. I want to continue developing this analysis page well past v1.0 so the game curve can be carefully tweaked as time goes on. It will also allow us to test new features and ensure they don't make something violently blow up."},"comment":{"url":"https://api.github.com/repos/blackhole12/PonyClicker/issues/comments/104988849","html_url":"https://github.com/blackhole12/PonyClicker/issues/74#issuecomment-104988849","issue_url":"https://api.github.com/repos/blackhole12/PonyClicker/issues/74","id":104988849,"user":{"login":"Abion47","id":587117,"avatar_url":"https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/u/587117?v=3","gravatar_id":"","url":"https://api.github.com/users/Abion47","html_url":"https://github.com/Abion47","followers_url":"https://api.github.com/users/Abion47/followers","following_url":"https://api.github.com/users/Abion47/following{/other_user}","gists_url":"https://api.github.com/users/Abion47/gists{/gist_id}","starred_url":"https://api.github.com/users/Abion47/starred{/owner}{/repo}","subscriptions_url":"https://api.github.com/users/Abion47/subscriptions","organizations_url":"https://api.github.com/users/Abion47/orgs","repos_url":"https://api.github.com/users/Abion47/repos","events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/Abion47/events{/privacy}","received_events_url":"https://api.github.com/users/Abion47/received_events","type":"User","site_admin":false},"created_at":"2015-05-24T07:44:24Z","updated_at":"2015-05-24T07:44:24Z","body":"I'd be curious to see where your analysis page goes if you let it run further.\r\n\r\nI'm sitting at 26 Ponies, 307 Friendships, 310 Recitals, 276 Parties, 240 Parades, 214 Concerts, 200 Festivals, 181 Raves, 161 GGGs, 125 Coronations, 105 National Holidays, and 93 Elements. On top of that, I have 21/21 upgrades and 209 muffins. This is sitting me at +36.24 octillion SPS, which sounds like a lot, but upgrading any further seems impossible to do in any amount of time. \r\n\r\nEvery upgrade of the Elements gives me septillions of SPS for decillions of smiles, and the Holidays and Friendships give me quadrillions of SPS for tens of nonillions. Everything else is labeled under the ambiguous but very clear label of \"almost nothing\". The only thing I can upgrade that will give me significant gains are Ponies, but the next one costs 10.5 decillion, which would take days to achieve at the speed I am currently stuck at. To make matters worse, when at some point I actually am able to get it, it will only increase my SPS by shy of a nonillion, which has limited usefulness when everything is costing me hundreds of nonillions or more and increases greatly on every purchase. I shudder to think how much the next pony will cost.\r\n\r\nThere is definitely a drastic pattern of diminishing returns currently in the game. The only apparent strategy has been to try and get muffins from the building mile marks, as that increases my SPS by a percentage rather than by a flat amount that ranges from laughably insignificant to utterly useless. But I have reached a point where the buildings are prohibitively expensive without increasing my SPS by any margin that is even noticeable. The next closest batch of muffins would be the 200 Raves mark, but I am still 19 Raves away from achieving it, and when the next rave costs almost 400 nonillion which will take me nearly 3 hours to get, I feel like I could easily be weeks away from seeing a single new muffin.\r\n\r\nThis happened on the v0.88 patch. Before then, I was sitting at a comfortable increase in scale. Once that patch hit, my SPS fell by several orders of magnitude, and I literally couldn't afford anything. At v0.89, the prices of buildings fell a bit so I was at least able to do something, but the overall damage is still there."}}