Day Twenty-one: A New Approach?

Let's start off with an explanation of the picture of a tank I sold earlier on the day. As you can see it is possible to have a filthy tanks with fish that have never been fed and still get full over 90% happiness points. That tank of Green Snappers should sell for only 637 coins but it isn't. Maybe I'll explain how to do this someday, but for now, more pressing matters....

Today was a frustrating day because I didn't get near the 40,000 XP I wanted and had to settle for 31,000. The biggest reason for this the New OS 4 software released by Apple. It is great for my IPhone 3GS, but disastrous for my Tap Fish game. Because of this upgrade, Tap Fish now takes long pauses when selling or restocking fish. which slows my selling pace. A week or so ago I timed myself selling/restocking a whole tank at a 17 second pace, and this was an early-morning time when I was still groggy. Today I retimed myself fully-away and found my pace has dropped to 25 sec a tank. What is 8 seconds you may say? In this game, a lifetime! Needing to sell 267 tanks a day, this 8 secs adds 36 minutes to my tap fishing day. It makes it nearly impossible to totally sell my fish during work coffee breaks, which leads to XP totals like to day. To top it all off, I made just a pittance running Greenies all day long.

All of this brings me to a suggest posted by two gentlemen on my blog two days ago. There advice was basically to fill 6o tanks will Grunts to be sold at the end of the day and then have one tank of Greenies that I relentlessly sell over and over again the moment they are hatched. Basically, I would be paying 500 coins for 150 XP because newly-hatched Greenies don't bring in any money. However, all the extra Grunts would more than pay for this loss.

Now we all know about this, and we all have probably done this from time to time. I have done this in this game mainly when I am really close to going over a level (say 500 XP away) and want that extra tank quickly. I haven't done this much, however because it is very hard. Individual sales take three times more tapping than bulk sales it takes much more time to sell off a whole tank. That means increased playing time and hence more exhaustion. Remember that those baby Greenies are much smaller and thus harder to tap on compared to an adult, and if you miss, they take off like a rocket making it even more difficult to tap them. You then have to concentrate hard in this method compared to the absent-minded selling of the bulk method. All in all, it doesn't seem like a very wise strategy, especially for a working stiff like me.

I have, however, been considering this method, and will give it a run tomorrow. Why? Well, first of all, with the sluggishness of Tap Fish on OS4, I am taking more time anyway. The bulk sales advantage is a lot smaller now than it once was.

Second, with all the other tanks full with day long fish, I have no real need to change tanks during the day, which will save me a little time there too. Third, with all the other tanks full with coin-makers, I should make an obscene amount of coins in one day. Finally, and here is the best advantage, is that this method allows me to tap at any time of the day without waiting for tanks to mature. This method makes a five-minute toilet break be as valuable as a 20 minute coffee break.

But can a person really do this? Can a person sell 40,000 XP of fish using this method and still have a life or even a job?

Let's do the math.

First the bulk method: 267 tanks need to be sold in a day to reach 40,000. At 25 seconds a tank, that's 111.25 minutes a day of tapping. Spread out over five times, that's 22.25 minutes for one sell/restock session. If the speed ever returns to 17 seconds a tank, its five fifteen minute sessions or one hour, 15 minutes.

Now, the (what shall I call it?) the baby selling method: 267 tanks all sold by hand, at say one minute a tank, would take 267 minutes. However if I bulk-sell the grunts and don't worry about how happy they are, I could shave off 35 minutes. Still that is 232 minutes or 3.87 hours of tapping. The bulk sales seem to be the victor.

But wait a minute! I need to factor in that I do not have to wait to sell or set specific times like in the bulk method. Let's give this freedom say, a 15 minute advantage to the Baby-Selling method. Still, it is 111 versus 217, a hundred minute difference.

However, what if I sold faster than 1 tank a minute. Is 1 tank in 45 seconds possible? If it is, I could sell them off in 174 minutes. Factor in the 15 minute freedom advantage, the gap between bulk and Baby is only 48 extra minutes.

A lot then, rests on how fast I can individually sell a tank. I think 45 seconds would be hard for the small, speedy Snappers, but could be possible for a bigger, slower fish like a goldfish or a lion fish(although a lion fish would be a more expensive proposition).

I decided to try this tomorrow because I 1) do need the money and 2) so far using the bulk method,I haven't hit 40,000 XP once and the new OS4 is not helping. I won't however, be quite as drastic as the 61 grunts versus 1 Snapper scenario my readers suggested. I will stock 50 tanks of Grunts and the rest will be Green Snappers. In case this method turns out to be a total burn out, I will at least not have totally wasted the day if I keep twelve tanks of Greenies on hand.

So,any predictions? Is this baby selling method a saviour or the worst idea I've had yet? We'll find out tomorrow!