Will you fulfill your destiny and become a tangerine octodecillionaire?

January 23, 2015 12:45 PM

"Tangerine Tycoon is a realistic tangerine economy simulator. Get your hands on quadrillions of tangerines by harvesting, gambling or trading them on the stock market. Most likely a combination of all 3. They say money is the root of all evil but surely tangerines can't do any harm."

Incremental games, previously.

posted by jbickers (78 comments total)

Too soon. {/hamburger}

Welcome back, Flash Friday!
posted by filthy light thief at 12:50 PM on January 23, 2015 [6 favorites]

The peak citrus theory in action.
posted by fairmettle at 12:51 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

I hope this isn't Frog Fractions 2.
posted by cacophony at 12:52 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Oh God no.
posted by slogger at 12:53 PM on January 23, 2015 [4 favorites]

why is there an ominous "death count" at the bottom
posted by poffin boffin at 12:55 PM on January 23, 2015 [4 favorites]

Ohmy. I spent too much time yesterday on this.

Regards the cat, I couldn't bring myself to do it.
posted by slipthought at 12:59 PM on January 23, 2015

These incremental games are all beginning to get a little monotonic.
posted by RobotVoodooPower at 1:00 PM on January 23, 2015 [8 favorites]

I'm going to make tangerine cookies and then my evil click based empire will be complete.
posted by msbutah at 1:01 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Nope, nope, nope, nope. I know my limits.
posted by Curious Artificer at 1:02 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Well I wasn't planning on getting anything productive done this month anyway.

And just when I'd forgotten about Clicker Heroes...
posted by Green Winnebago at 1:03 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

The ThoughtBox is what makes this one, for me.

"Tangerine farms are creating jobs for children"
posted by mstokes650 at 1:04 PM on January 23, 2015

I'm still playing Clicker Heroes...
posted by Curious Artificer at 1:05 PM on January 23, 2015 [10 favorites]

Well, I learned what the death count is for.
posted by backseatpilot at 1:06 PM on January 23, 2015

Is it for death?
posted by Madamina at 1:07 PM on January 23, 2015 [4 favorites]

Made by Gaz Thomas, whose games are always simple but fun, with a good dose of humour.
posted by Thing at 1:08 PM on January 23, 2015

http://youtu.be/6SuTLMp6Ytw
posted by a fiendish thingy at 1:08 PM on January 23, 2015

I justify these games to myself by believing that it must be innoculating me to the psychological hooks behind slot machines, or Farmville, or crack or something, you know?

Reddit's r/incremental_games is a pretty good source for these. Just in the past few days I took over the galaxy and matched three to save some toons.
posted by books for weapons at 1:11 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

NO I DONT WANT TO PUT A CAT IN THE FRUIT MACHINE YOU MONSTERS
posted by poffin boffin at 1:14 PM on January 23, 2015

I am not progressing because I keep gambling away all my tangerines.
posted by backseatpilot at 1:15 PM on January 23, 2015

(I'm still playing the Kittens Game.)

(My automator script is on the verge of becoming self-aware.)
posted by The Confessor at 1:17 PM on January 23, 2015 [8 favorites]

i have over 100k tangerines but it will not let me have the 100k tangerines thing, this is an outrage
posted by poffin boffin at 1:19 PM on January 23, 2015

I am taking a fucking bath on Tangerine Canteens. The Invisible Hand is killing me!
posted by Mayor Curley at 1:21 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

i have over 100k tangerines but it will not let me have the 100k tangerines thing, this is an outrage

Put the cat in the machine.
posted by backseatpilot at 1:22 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Yes, the deathcount is indeed for death. This can only be discovered after putting the cat into the machine.
posted by slogger at 1:25 PM on January 23, 2015

NO i have closed the browser window FOREVER
posted by poffin boffin at 1:25 PM on January 23, 2015

Yes, the deathcount is indeed for death. This can only be discovered after putting the cat into the machine.

Not true - you do not have to put the cat in the machine. Another event occurs later. (You have to save up and buy the more expensive item to progress.)
posted by jbickers at 1:26 PM on January 23, 2015

The cat will survive the machine.

In a sense.

Its memory will live on.
posted by boo_radley at 1:57 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Fuck you, Tangerine Cookies. You used to be valuable.
posted by nubs at 1:57 PM on January 23, 2015

This game is so unrealistic. There is no exchange in the world where you can make transactions without paying someone a transaction fee.
posted by jeffamaphone at 2:08 PM on January 23, 2015

For best results, play while listening to Tangerine Dreams.

Related: http://www.metafilter.com/146393/Edgar-Froese-1944-2015

It's at once a great, and deeply melancholy, day for Tangerines on Metafilter.
posted by Green Winnebago at 2:17 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

I have a gambling problem.
posted by sparklemotion at 2:18 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

Where? Are you getting cats?
posted by Rock Steady at 2:28 PM on January 23, 2015

Patience, Grasshopper. The cats will come to you.
posted by sparklemotion at 2:29 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

This game is so unrealistic. There is no exchange in the world where you can make transactions without paying someone a transaction fee.

In fairness, most exchanges also let you purchase things in amounts other than "Half of the money you have" and "All of the money you have". Clearly tangerine exchanges work differently.
posted by Copronymus at 2:30 PM on January 23, 2015 [7 favorites]

Double or Nothing is a fickle, fickle mistress.
posted by Steely-eyed Missile Man at 2:44 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

Last weekend, I stopped playing Kittens Game after finding a glitch that let me get a lot of paragon really quickly.

I did not even realize Clicker Heroes was posted before, but I started playing that last week.

I... I don't think I can afford to click that link.
posted by halifix at 2:47 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Metafilter has given me valuable tools to help me spend my time away from metafilter.

And taught me that there are worse ways to spend my time than being on metafilter.

(as I check my kittens.ru game before switching tabs to my newly found crack)
posted by el io at 2:56 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Man, do I have alot of tangerine labs. Breaking Tangerine.
posted by XMLicious at 3:03 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Who the hell is buying my 600mil tangerine figurines?
posted by T.D. Strange at 3:08 PM on January 23, 2015

I AM BECOME TANGERINE
posted by Foci for Analysis at 3:22 PM on January 23, 2015

halifix: that sucks that kittens was ruined by a stupid bug. um... care to describe that in a bit more details - i have... research to do.
posted by el io at 3:24 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

These incremental games are all beginning to get a little monotonic.

This one distinguishes itself by adding gambling to the mix, which plays with the math in weird ways. For example, buying a stock when it's below 30 seems to always be a good idea, because prices trend to the 40-50 range fairly quickly.

Double-or-nothing is vulnerable to streaks of bad luck, but if you cash out quickly and buy buildings you increase your earn rate, which can make it worth it. Also every time you lose at Double Or Nothing, make sure to flip to the screen to the right and watch it fill up. There are achievements for watching that screen fill up once, 10 times and 25 times (and probably more), it fills fastest when starting from 0, and achievements increase your global earn rate.

All of that said -- no, I don't think I'm going to be playing this one. I still have my Clicker Heroes game going, but I come it it a lot less often now. I'm still loyal to Cookie Clicker, for being a pure example of the genre and because it was made by the brilliant Orteil, but haven't opened that in months.

I think I could still play a new Candy Box because it mixes things up a lot over the basic click game paradigm, but seeing how it has an actual end game, I'd pretty much need a Candy Box III to get interested in it again.
posted by JHarris at 3:27 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

I AM BECOME TANGERINE

no you are not
posted by tangerine at 4:03 PM on January 23, 2015 [5 favorites]

Hmm. Had to step away from the computer during a mutant epidemic and I may have doomed humanity. :(
posted by Rock Steady at 4:08 PM on January 23, 2015

Don't get on that ship! To Serve Tangerines, it's a cookbook!
posted by ckape at 4:11 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have become a major kittens widow, my partner is way into it. (I tried to get into the game but just couldn't, unlike Cookie Clicker which has a much stronger visual element.)

This tangerine game, though - it's all right...!
posted by joseph conrad is fully awesome at 4:12 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

The heroic tangerines are turning the tide, though. We may squeak by with less than half the population of Earth killed.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:13 PM on January 23, 2015

Hmm. No, the dead outnumber the living, but I think the species is going to be OK.
posted by Rock Steady at 4:19 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

I'm still loyal to Cookie Clicker, for being a pure example of the genre and because it was made by the brilliant Orteil, but haven't opened that in months.

Neither has he. I think he basically burned out on everything cookie-related.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 4:27 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

I have no idea how these people got their cats wedged into their machines, or why.
posted by Western Infidels at 4:29 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Double-or-nothing is vulnerable to streaks of bad luck, but if you cash out quickly and buy buildings you increase your earn rate, which can make it worth it.

I think the optimal strategy (or at least the one that guarantees you can milk the house for as long as you want) must be something like: at each order of magnitude, make the payment to increase your win odds by 1%, then pick some strategically useful bet amount and repeatedly bet that amount at every opportunity, which will accrue dollar cost averaging, until your win rate equals the odds percentage you've paid for. Then stop betting until the tangerosit reaches the next higher magnitude and pay for higher odds, select a new bet amount, and repeat it all.
posted by XMLicious at 4:30 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

What is a multiverse breach?
posted by jeather at 4:46 PM on January 23, 2015

$20, same as in infinitely many towns with infinitely many variations.
posted by mccarty.tim at 4:52 PM on January 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

The human race was saved, mostly because the first mutant tangerines weren't spawned in Madagascar.
posted by delfin at 5:09 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

Double or nothing could be better executed. Like, pull the number of bounces from a truncated-from-the-left geometric distribution, and double the time each bounce.

(No, I haven't heard of any paradoxes in St Petersburg. What are you talking about?)
posted by PMdixon at 5:22 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

The fate of the world rests on my ability to win at double or nothing.

It was nice knowing everyone.
posted by backseatpilot at 5:26 PM on January 23, 2015 [3 favorites]

Good soundtrack:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=82zmuzDM7d4
posted by The Ted at 5:36 PM on January 23, 2015

The human race was saved due to careful stock trading. I'm sure that's the first time that's happened.
posted by solarion at 5:51 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

(Real markets aren't infinitely liquid!)
posted by PMdixon at 6:00 PM on January 23, 2015

(Real markets aren't infinitely liquid!)

I don't think this one is either; it just appears as such because of the amount of tangerine juice available.
posted by solarion at 6:09 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

Real markets also can't be timed.
posted by XMLicious at 6:11 PM on January 23, 2015

Real markets also can't be timed.

This is actually an interest rate market. You're betting on where the peak is/how many cycles to get to your chosen market. Either case, you have to compare to the 'risk free' rate of double or nothing/waiting.
posted by PMdixon at 7:22 PM on January 23, 2015

oh noes i am trapped by the central limit theorem halp me
posted by PMdixon at 7:29 PM on January 23, 2015

Mutant Tangerine runaway is terrifying. I think my Heroes have the upper hand now.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 7:31 PM on January 23, 2015 [1 favorite]

you guys double or nothing is equities
posted by PMdixon at 7:42 PM on January 23, 2015 [2 favorites]

> Real markets also can't be timed.

This is actually an interest rate market.

I may misunderstand something about the concept of market timing, if your response is implying some incongruity between an interest rate market and market timing. I just meant that there are some prices (ones in the teens) that only appear to occur shortly after a buy transaction that's made in the twenties, and I feel like I'm hence able to predict prices enough to take advantage of that.

Conversely, in High Tea, the other browser-based arbitrage game MetaFilter has introduced me to, the prices appear to change completely at random which is how I would have expected a theoretical market model to behave.
posted by XMLicious at 1:42 AM on January 24, 2015

I have a 91% win rate on Double or Nothing... I'm just living on borrowed Tangerines, waiting for it all to come crashing down.
posted by Gordafarin at 4:43 AM on January 24, 2015

This game is teaching me clever tricks to rationalize gambling addictions.

Like, "This double or nothing game with all of my savings is fine, as I put half of my funds into volatile stocks whose fundamentals I have no understanding of."
posted by mccarty.tim at 11:17 AM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

Good to know that the stock market will continue to function after there is no human life left on earth, though.
posted by Gordafarin at 11:52 AM on January 24, 2015

I'm on my second universe and am saving up for m 96th Extra Terresterine. Meanwhile, my editing work is piling up. Thanks a lot, MetaFilter.
posted by languagehat at 12:07 PM on January 24, 2015 [2 favorites]

By the way, the only time I lost money on a stock market transaction was when my finger slipped and I accidentally hit the wrong button. Why would anyone sell for less than they bought for?
posted by languagehat at 12:08 PM on January 24, 2015

Conversely, in High Tea, the other browser-based arbitrage game MetaFilter has introduced me to

NO NO HDU REMIND ME OF THAT GAME NO i had things to do this month dammit
posted by poffin boffin at 12:45 PM on January 24, 2015 [1 favorite]

Why would anyone sell for less than they bought for?

If circumstances look favorable, I buy a tiny amount of a stock that's in the twenties, which sometimes appears to cause it to dip down into the teens, then sell and immediately buy a huge amount at the teens price. When it goes well and I can sell at a high enough price I make 200%-300% profit. I haven't run a comparison to high frequency trading with smaller profits though, that might work out to be better.
posted by XMLicious at 3:33 PM on January 24, 2015

I am pretty sure the stocks are just doing a drunkards walk kind of thing. The only reason to take a loss is to get the achievement.
posted by jeffamaphone at 11:27 PM on January 24, 2015

Yeah, I sell and rebuy if a commodity continues to fall, to increase my holding by my tangerines in hand. The game counts this sale as a loss; I don't care because I'll make it back when the commodity inevitably goes back up.

I am pretty sure the stocks are just doing a drunkards walk kind of thing.

Me too; and buy-at-30 sell-at-60 is such a reliable cycle that gambling on Double or Nothing seems utterly pointless.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:30 PM on January 24, 2015

If you don't do any transactions, do you ever see prices in the teens? I don't think I have. Like I said above, the behavior just doesn't seem particularly random to me the way High Tea does - in High Tea, you can buy a commodity near the minimum price and it might (rarely) immediately zoom all the way up near the maximum monotonically.

But I've never seen that behavior here; the prices don't move in any direction for very long before switching to the other direction. There's certainly randomness here but it's constrained so that only certain sorts of behaviors manifest. If it was more genuinely or freely random, buy-at-30 sell-at-60 wouldn't happen reliably in any fixed period of time. I've also had games in High Tea, for example, where prices stick in the top or bottom half of the price range for nearly the whole game. (again, rarely... obviously, having a limited range of values is itself a constraint, this just seems very forcibly set up to "look" random to the degree that it's exploitable, like if you ask someone to randomly draw dots on a blank background and they always draw them evenly distributed.)
posted by XMLicious at 4:14 AM on January 25, 2015

Some updates: when I started a new universe I decided to try the get-to-a-million-without-any-buildings thing, though I figured I'd get bored quickly and start buying stuff. Amazingly, if you're good at stock trading (I always buy below 30 and wait till I get at least +30 profit), it goes quite quickly, and when I got my million I thought "I know this won't last, but I'll start on a billion"... and I got a billion (and the corresponding WOW achievement) quite soon.

Also, I bought the Upgod upgrade (x100), and boy am I glad I did. Next universe I'm going to get the further upgrade.

And I learned that if you don't put the cat in the machine, the cat rewards you much later on!
posted by languagehat at 9:07 AM on January 26, 2015

I suspect I'm almost played out on this. I've saved the cat and sacrificed the cat, beat the mutants and let them run wild to extinction; what's left seems to be mostly grinding towards those last few achievements.

(Although languagehat reminds me that I haven't tried the only-by-trading challenge yet.)
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:32 AM on January 26, 2015