[MicroBob]

okay, here's the long-winded response. You asked for it.
(well...no you didn't I guess...but you're getting it anyway)


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If you are adding the additional VPPs that are required to clear the bonus, are you ALSO adding the value of the FPPs that the player is going to accumulate during this "clearance" period? I think you are but just wanted to check.

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The rate at which you accumulate FPP's remains constant throughout so there is no need to factor it in at any point whether you are clearing a bonus, on your way to a milestone, or anything else.
You are always getting 5.25c/VPP (to make things simpler).

In milestone bonuses, for the first 510k VPP's you are getting an additional 2.13c/VPP on top of that.

IOW - I count the FPP's as full-value as you continue to earn them all the way through from 0 to 1 million or whatever.
I then subtract $750 that you spend to purchase each bonus.

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Also, maybe the clearance period should be discounted a bit in the case that the player was going to play during that period regardless?

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Absolutely not!
Although I'm sure Stars prefers that players look at it that way.
What if they gave you the $4250 in cash right at 500k points instead of 515k?
You probably wouldn't say, "Well, I can count the money as being in my possession when I reach 485k points...because I was going to play those next 15k points regardless. It's not like I'm going to leave the site."

That's silly.
If you get the money at 515k then that's how it should be counted.
You should not say, "Well, I kind of got it at 500k or 485k or whatever which is close enough."


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Also consider that while clearing the bonus you could already be starting the next year's accumulation

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This is a valid point.
If I get the milestone bonus granted to me at 740k (they frequently will give it to you a little early) and then decide to stop playing at Stars until Jan 1 and then finish off the 35k play-through in 2008 then I'm putting those points to extra work.
They definitely have more value that way.

This is difficult to define precisely though....especially since we don't even know exactly what changes are coming for the next year and you don't know what your milestone value for the next year is going to be unless you know EXACTLY how much you are going to play ahead of time.

But it's not exactly like you are earning double points really because you still only get 5.25c worth of FPP's.
It's only the milestone value that is effectively doubled since I count the $6750 milestone as actually taking place around 775k and not at 750k.

Anyway you can approximate:
You are getting double milestone-value while your FPP-value stays the same.
So if your 2007 milestone earn was 2.4c/VPP and you expect your 2008 milestone earn to be 2.4c/VPP or something then your milestone-value for each of those 35k VPP's to begin 2008 is now 4.8c instead of 2.4c.

This is an $840 additional you are getting extra by doing it that way if indeed my way of looking at it is correct and I'm really not certain it is.

So if it doesn't matter to you when you actually get the money and you feel like taking a break at some point then taking time-off for the last 2 weeks of 2007 and saving the rest of that bonus to be cleared for the beginning of 2008 could very well be the better way to go.

This is actually something I'm going to have to think about more as I expect I'll get to 750k-ish somewhere around mid-Dec or later.
I was probably going to take a rest for the holidays once I got that bonus granted to me anyway but that's only because I knew it was 'in the bag' so to speak and that getting to 800k or 850k has no additional incentives.
Now that i think more in detail about how those very same VPP's will be performing double-milestone-value duty I think I'm encouraged even more to do that.


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I don't really count the additional bonus-clearance requirement

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As I indicated before, I don't think you should do that.
The money really doesn't count until it's in your pretty little hands.
Although for purposes of calculating the money/VPP value of the various milestones the effect is negligible. but it still counts.

If you got the money right smack-dab on 300k and 400k we wouldn't be looking at it as getting you 'pretty much' got the money at 285k and 385k because you were going to keep playing there regardles.