Attack / Defense Sum Calculations?

I agree that transparency would reduce anxiety about how much of something is appropriate.

I want to know why I'm at a level and I see messages on the Dashboard for people at similar levels, and the attack and defense is like 5x more then me?

It appears to me that contrary to the informational text on the black market page, only spymasters get bonuses from purchased equipment. Buying enough equipment for regular spies seems to have zero effect on my A/D Sums, rather than the reduced effect stated. I don't know if this is a bug or just incorrect text, but an official answer on this would be appreciated.

Your attack and defense sums are based much less on your level and much more on the number of spymasters in your spyring and the items they are equipped with. Each spymaster can hold one attack and one defense item, always the best ones available.

If this is still not clear, please let me know.

Taken from the Black Market page:

How multipliers are calculated

"Multipliers are calculated based upon the strength of your spy ring. Both spies (ordinary followers of yours on Twitter) and spymasters (your Twitter followers also playing Spymaster) are equipped with weapons from your spy ring in a combat scenario. The system will automatically equip spymasters with the most powerful weapons and defenses in your inventory, then equip what‘s left to as many spies as possible. The attack and defense strength of an item differs depending upon who is holding it: a spy is only able to utilise an item at a drastically reduced rate. This is why having spymasters in combat is essential. For example, if you have a ring of 3 spymasters and 2 spies and buy 5 automatic knives, you will not see your attack multiplier increase by 20; instead, it will increase by roughly 13 as the spies holding knives are not as powerful as spymasters."

From your statement and my own observations, though, it seems that ONLY spymasters can be equipped with purchased items, which is contrary to the very explicit example of lower bonuses when equipping regular spies. So, which is it? Are regular spies supposed to give bonuses from equipment or not?

*Also, according to the the comment spell check, utilise is spelled wrong on the Black Market page ;-)

Yes, I did leave out that spies are equipped with items as well, but the sum added to your attack and defense is not of equal value to spymasters.

*Utilise is spelled correctly. I believe it is the English, that is to say Queen's English, way of spelling it. Z's are replaced by S's.

Ok, well equipment I purchase in excess of the number of spymasters I have has ZERO effect on my A/D Sums. If I sell/purchase items and take screenshots to submit a bug report, will I perchance get a refund on the wasted $$??

Jason, you will not receive a refund on these items, as a lot of weaker items offer you no benefit when you acquire stronger ones. It would, however, be great if you could send us a before/after screenshot so we can see if this is a problem that needs to be fix or a miscalculation.

Ok, after having tested I see that I was wrong, mostly. The gain from equipping spies isn't zero, just very close to it. I was getting approximately 1 point in my Attack Sum for every 5 spies I equipped with a UMP45 Submachine Gun (+14 listed attack). This makes Spies about 1.4% as effective as Spymasters. If that sounds right to you, then everything is working. If this is correct, though, I think there needs to be more transparency, either as Adam Eivy suggested above or even just a better explanation on the page.

That's cool, and it makes total sense. It just wasn't clear from the text on the page how it worked and it took a wad of cash to figure out, which is less than ideal.

I think @Adam Eivy has a point...

Do all spies count towards Attack/Defense sum equally? If i have 400 spies and 25 spymasters, will my 26th Dragunov SVD count the same toward my Attack Sum as my 398th Dragunov?

Thanks to spymasterphil for pointing me here.

No, your spies do not supplement your attack and defense sums in the same way your spymasters do. While spymasters can be fully equipped with an item, spies only attribute a fraction of the items bonus to your overall sum; very little in fact. They will increase your score, but by very little.

I think I may have worded my question badly. I understand that my spies contribute a minimal amount to my Attack/Defense sums, I'm asking if all of my spies contribute equally minimal amounts to my Attack/Defense sums.

Speaking of sniper rifles what level do you unlock the Barrett M107?

I really need some help.

I wrote out how many spymasters I have, and how many of each attack weapon I possess at my level (21). I multiplied the attack values of each weapon times the number of spyMASTERS I have, and the value was significantly higher than what the game indicates I have. Having not factored in my regular spies, the game is off by roughly 519 points.

I really want to understand what I'm doing wrong.

Ok I just don't quite get it. How do some people have 28,000+? do they seriously buy that many weapons?

I'm just not really sure how it works

anyone care to explain?

This reply was created from a merged topic originally titled
Confused about Attack/Deffense?.

Hope that helps.

SpyMasterPhil - I'm not seeing anything in your response but "Hope that helps."

Attack/defense sums should be easy formulas that can be interpreted by all players and that add up in a sensible manner. E.g. for TOTAL ATTACK SUM each weapon's individual attack value should be multiplied by a player's number of spymasters, then the sum for each weapon added together to get a total attack sum. It really should not be this complicated, but it is, and my numbers are really off from where I feel they should be.

ugh. im still confused...
i have alot of spymasters. not going to say the exact number but its quite a good bit.
so what does that have to do with anything?
if i buy a weapon, should i get more attack points simply for that reason?
or am i seriously going to have to buy one kind of weapon for all of them?

Why can't the math behind attack defense sums be broken down for everyone to understand?