KOL Journal (12/15/2014)

Well, so Crimbo Town is finally here.

My initial analysis:

Molds are restricted per day. This allows people to not have to use all their adventures farming. It means that more turns doesn't necessarily mean more returns. Also, it might keep the prices of fuel and molds fairly high, which means more long term profits for me.

Tainted flasks drop in the mining camp, and give only 1 turn of each effect. Due to the fumbling at the start when the flasks gave 10 each of each effect, this feels like a particularly harsh nerf. However, because molds are restricted, it doesn't affect my fuel rod selling strategy. What it does affect is if I'll try to get peppermint tailings to turn into crimbo credits, for a possible outfit or familiar which may cost many hundreds of credits. If the outfit pieces/familiar hatching are tradeable, I can buy them from the mall, hopefully for a reasonable price.

My possible strategies:

The hedging bets strategy: 

sell half the fuel, use half the fuel in the factory (with balanced stats, using the cheap schematics)

Pros: if the stuff I'd actually want from the vending machine is untradeable, it's more likely that I'd be able to get it. Even if it is tradeable, it would reduce the amount of meat I'd have to spend to get any interesting items.

Cons: I might make less meat. Also, lots of clicking.

The kinda risky strategy:

sell all the fuel

Pros: I'm more likely to make meat. No thinking required?

Cons: If the stuff is untradeable, I probably can't get it, since the tailing:credit ratio is 10:1. I might switch my strategy to getting more tailings vs nuggets, however, I'd need a lot of tailings to balance it. Also, this runs into the flasks only giving one turn problem.

The river changes every time you step in it strategy:

Monitor prices of fuel, as the price falls, gradually switch from selling all the fuel to using all the fuel.

Pros: Can adjust to market conditions.

Cons: More and more clicking. Maybe I'll buy fuel.

I'll likely just change my strategies based on what is revealed in the vending machine.