Due to the combined nature of cert/weapon gain, weapon purchases are actually a functional form of experience booster based on the amount of certs the weapon costs and the number of certs you gain. If you buy a weapon, you have not gained negative certs equal to the cost of that weapon. This doesn't give you the certs that you would otherwise have spent, so you still have to play the game, but you are effectively earning certs 100% faster for however long it takes you to earn the cost of the weapon. In short a kind of "matching bonus". For every cert you earn, you effectively get two. Using your average cert gain rate, you can determine whether or not its better to just outright buy a weapon, or purchase the much cheaper boosts. Its important to remember that boosts only give 50% cert gain and last 7 days at maximum. We'll ignore weapons that cost 375 certs as there's no real reason to buy these with cash ever since I believe they all cost $7 in station cash which would just be an inferior cert "matching bonus". We'll be ignoring how immediate weapon need is for now we're just trying to optimize cash expenditure. If we assume very high cert gain rates(probably impossible) like 2000 a day, you should never buy weapons ever. 50% of 2000 is 1000, the cost of the highest weapons in the store. 7-day 50% exp boost= $5 1000 cert weapon =$7 cost of weapon at natural 2000 cert gain per day using 7-day boost = $5/7days = 72 cents so at this (impossible) gain rate, its about 9 times as effective to buy a cert boost. Now lets consider the lowest possible gain, 4 certs per day from passive accumulation. 4 certs per day means 250 days to get a 1000 cert weapon. An additional factor needs to be added to account for the 50% cert gain here because we're using sane numbers. Yeah I'm only doing this calculation for thoroughness sake. 7-day 50% exp boost= $5 1000 cert weapon =$7 cost of weapon at natural 4 cert gain per day using 7-day boost = $5(250days/7days)(100/50) = $357.17 so here it costs you 51 times as much money for the same weapon. Granted you aren't actually playing much here, so...yeah. Lets generalize this formula. To calculate the cost of a weapon using a boost, take the number of days it takes you to make 1000 certs, divide by the length of boost. Multiply this times the cost of the boost and 100 divided by the gain rate of the boost(so if its %50 it would be 100/50). The result is the cost of the weapon using that boost. In short. C= cost of boost L= length of boost D= days to get 1000 certs G= gain rate increase of boost Cost using boost= C(D/L)(100/G) One last example. Lets say I make 205 certs a day. An achievable number. I pick up a %50 boost for 7 days. How much does it cost me to get shiny 1000 point weapon? C=$5 L=7 D=1.25 G=50 Cost=$5(4.9/7)(100/50)=$7 So for those wanting a simpler way to figure it out, if it takes you more than 4.5 days or so to earn 1000 certs, you might as well just buy the weapon. You get it instantly, and you gain rate doesn't adequately take advantage of boosts. In short. If(daysTo1000<4.5){ BuyBoost(); }else{ BuyWeapon(); }
Keep in mind that buying a weapon can increase the rate at which you gain certs, so it's not quite that straight up. If you like to fly and are just starting out, you can increase your cert gain rate immensely by buying rocket pods, as opposed to grinding that first 1k certs out manually. Same goes for some of the better infantry weapons or Zephyr, etc.
I buy the weapons on sale and cert them experience using 7 day experience booster. I'm also premium, so I'm averaging 500 certs a session. Finally, I bought my SC on the triple sale. It's been quite effective.
True, the accumulation of certs is so glacial in speed that to spend them on things other than character progression means endless, endless grinding. I have been playing two weeks, an hour or two a day and with the Alpha Squad boost I have gained about 1500 certs. Not even enough to fully upgrade the Magburner. That's one aspect of one vehicle not even fully certed after two weeks even if you ignore all other cert trees! I'd love to put a boost in but my Alpha Squad will be gone forever if I do - this needs to be made passive.
you frekin get 2000 cert per day , if i play 8 hours i maybe get a bit over 100 certs WTF yesterday was my record i got about 150 in about 8 hours
This is pretty much what I was thinking as I was reading the OP. No where are the gains for having a weapon quickly in some cases factored into this equation. Also in some cases buying a weapon allows you to play in a fashion you desire quicker making you enjoy the game more.
I don't think that there is an idea of average cert gain. As with K/D ratio, playstyle, computer capability, time of playing, groups, and forum boasting can all muddy the numbers a lot.
Useful thread, thanks OP. Can you account for the 25-50% bonus that premium membership gives to cert gain? Are boosts additive to (so you'd have 100% base + 25% premium membership + 50% boost = 175% of normal cert gain. So what was originally 100 certs/hr is now 175 certs/hr) or is it something like 100% base + 25% premium membership = 125%, or 125 certs hour, then a further 50% bonus from the boost? (125 *.5 = 62.5 or 185.5 certs/hr)?
I think there is some good information in this topic, but good lord it needs some editing. If you purchase a 1000 cert weapon for $7, then you are effectively buying certs at a rate of $.007/cert If you purchase a 7 day EXP boost for $5, then you need to play enough to get 2000 (pre boost) certs to buy the same weapon with the bonus certs alone. You gained an additional 1000 certs at a cost of $.005 per cert. The break even point for buying a weapon with certs gained through an EXP boost vs. buying it with cash is 1430certs/week. If you would normally gain more than 1430 certs in a week, then it is less expensive to get an EXP boost and buy weapons with certs. If you would normally gain less than 1430 certs in a week, then it is less expensive to buy the weapon with cash.
A few things: I didn't take into account weapon availability affecting cert gain rates. Too complicated for me to deal with since they vary with playstyle and opponent's tactics(AA less useful if opponent doesn't have air. AV less useful against an army without tanks. etc). A better system wouldn't vary gain rates with weapon availability as much as PS2 currently does. I ignored subsciption/alphasquad bonuses. I'm not sure if they stack multiplicatively, additively or some other wierd way. If I find out I might post about it. If someone knows and can cite a source, they should point people there. I never have, nor do I believe that anyone has ever had 2000 certs a day on the live version of PS2. I believe I noted that this rate is probably impossible. I just used it as an easy to calculate starting point. I didn't account for enjoyment here either. Its too variable between players. I'm just optimizing certs for money here. Sales can be adjusted for by multiplying the result by a sale factor: S=1/sale multiplier Really this doesn't make too much of a difference since it reduces both the weapon and the boost cost by the same amount. In other words, the cheaper one will still be cheaper. It does give you the direct money value though.
You are correct. Another way to express the same math I used is 4.9 days(my even price point) to get 1000 certs is 204 certs per day. 204*7 days is 1428 and change certs per week to break even. Accounting for rounding errors, these are equivalent.
Also it is worth taking into account SOE's two for one or three to one station cash sales, the weapon bundles, and sale items. If you buy station cash in big chunks when it is on sale (most cost effective way) it will never be more advantageous to buy the boosts.
Anyone who thinking of buying the 50% boost, DON"T. It currently bugged, I been using it for the past 3-4 days and if you get any bonus type kills you won't get the boost on your base XP. For instance, if you're on a streak you only get 100 xp + the bonus xp (x the boost).
Weapon bundles/sales do make buying weapons more effective, but cash sales do not as they make both weapons and the boost cheaper.
