Quote Originally Posted by sharon View Post
I guess each one takes longer to get to than the last though. Still all those increases stack on each other and since I sell a lot even a tiny increase will add up to a lot over time.
I think you just glimpsed the devil (diminishing returns) hiding in the upgrade details, but you haven't quite realized how big'n evil he is yet.

Let's examine the neon sign for a moment, as an easy example.

When you upgrade the sign you gain +0.2X to your shares. Period. No matter how many stocks clicking the Upgrade button cost you, that's the actual benefit.

I don't recall the cost of its first upgrade (to level 2), but I'm certain that it was something laughably low. For the sake of argument, let's pretend that it was 10K shares.

Every upgrade costs more than the previous one, every time. I'm too lazy to track down the actual inflation rate on upgrades, but I think 10% is way below what the game actually charges us. That'll work well enough for this illustration.

You have to upgrade to level 5 to get +1x shares (that's DOUBLE shares right there, don't let the 1 fool you). Four upgrades at 10% inflation is 10K+11K+12.1K+13.31K = 46.41K. To double that benefit again you need five more upgrades, up to level 10. Continuing the previous math, that would be 14.64K+17.1K+18.81K+20.69+22.75 = 93.99K to hit +2X bonus shares.

Here's where it gets extra nasty... To double your shares AGAIN you have to upgrade to level 20 (+4X shares), ten upgrades instead of five. To double THAT, you need level 40 (+8X shares). The numbers get ridiculous in a hurry, you're always paying more stocks for same actual benefit gain, but receiving less and less relative benefit.

Real number time: My sign is at level 45, giving me +9X shares. Its next upgrade will raise the bonus to +9.2X shares, and cost 132.45 e6.
Not much of a relative benefit, considering how much the upgrade costs.

Quick selling can get you through low level upgrades at a good pace, but exponential growth in costs without a matching increase in relative benefit is going to hamstring your progress. You get to successive upgrades slower than their predecessor, not faster. You'll reach a point where the benefit doesn't help you enough to offset the time it took you to earn it.

The only upgrade immune to diminishing returns is the Store Multiplier. It's the opposite of decorations, it offers a fixed cost for a benefit with exponential growth. That's what makes it the best choice for investing most of your gems.

Your autoclicker is impressive, obviously more advanced than the scripts I've put together so far, but it can't compete with a full stock market run for earning shares.

As for entertainment value, I say to each their own. I set a goal for myself of maxing my decos, and I'm pursuing that goal using the quickest method I can. That's more fun to me than clicking girls mindlessly for hours or, even more boring in my eyes, watching a script click girls for me and not being able to use my computer.

That said, when somebody pops in here saying they spend all their gems on doubling and asking for advice, I think it's safe to assume that they're trying to progress into the endgame as quickly as possible. Even though you prefer using your script, that's demonstrably not the fastest route and it requires tools+knowledge that aren't built into the game.