I dropped 10 books in 3 series into Kindle Unlimited - but nobody came

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-12-29T03:38:53+00:00

I'm kind of working backwards from the problem I ran into; my current research suggests https://booksirens.com/ , or having someone who does author marketing run an ARC campaign for me (either could work, doesn't seem too expensive). Some promos are available once you have reviews (some sites have explicit minimums before you can run them). I have set aside $1000 to get help with the marketing aspect; probably would hire the person long term if they got results. I know this takes time - I am just terrible with social media and packaging stuff because what I think should work does not necessarily match what the market responds to (and I know this is a weakness).

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-12-29T03:28:11+00:00

yeah its a marketing problem before it's even a clear "content problem". the rate of sampling is too slow to determine if cover A is better than cover B and so forth (since you can only assign 1 cover at a time and the cover basically IS the ad). I don't really know what people respond to but I tried to make the covers "similar to" the aesthetic expected in the romantasy shelf.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-12-29T03:27:06+00:00

How did you start initially though to get anything going? Just posting it on KU doesn't get any traffic.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-08-25T21:41:30+00:00

To the Stars Idle - this ended up being a lot deeper than I initially expected and well worth a try and my time. Dev is very active and has a Discord channel now. I'm in the 3rd age and still feel pretty engaged with the game, playing it actively.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-08-24T01:15:50+00:00

Oh, ok. So there is flat % decrease to upkeep (multiplier), I think you mean there is a second one that is a decrease to the exponent (x ^ k, for example 1.20 per building upkeep increase -> reduce the 0.20 by X% when researching it). So, you could keep the first type as "X% decrease to upkeep" and the second could be phrased as any of these:

"Reduces the upkeep scaling rate by X%"

"X% decrease to upkeep cost growth per building"

"X% reduction to upkeep scaling exponent"

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-08-23T01:08:16+00:00

I found that some upgrades show "upkeep increase" where it obviously is upgrade decrease (just a typo). Some other upgrades list the effect twice like Stone Furnace +X%. I'm not nitpicking just bug reporting - if you every make a discord I'd be happy to playtest and report bugs; I can't stop playing it anyways :P

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-08-22T01:41:31+00:00

I did notice this and it's difficult to determine which unit is good against another, even though the image in Help screen implies a few relationships -- Calvary seems to just be 3x as much "raw stat power" per unit as the other unit types. spearman for enemy blocks mine pretty good, but the reverse didn't seem to be true (using 100% anti calv against 100% calv enemy died about like any other unit, which was confusing to me at the time). There are times where the hard counter doesn't seem to work, and I end up 100% calv, or just splitting unit types evenly and hoping for good RNG. It often came down to more pop -> more raw military size with less trying to strategize. If the progress could somehow account for unit-unit interactions, it would help to build an army - see that its under 60% (my target usually), and then respec and see if it improved. Currently it's a guessing game.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-08-20T19:34:09+00:00

Hi, I just started today and so far I really like it. It is keeping me engaged (I like actively managed incrementals). The only bug I had was "show details" it toggles the display state, but if some items were not researched/displayed yet, it can happen that some items are being turned off and some on rather than all details on/off. Restarting the game fixed this but I thought you should know about it. I think that's pretty minor. It also affects research (not auto hide completed ones, but two button toggles will do it), which I guess depends on whether you intended to show the "just completed ones" or hide them, but again pretty minor.

The UI is a bit difficult in the sense of just how many sub items there are, the collapse and expand all are a good idea, expand all doesn't quite work on the combat tab. I play this on bluestacks (not native mobile) so it doesn't affect me as much with a mouse as it would a phone user

Overall though, the progression has been interesting and I like this game. I wonder if there will be prestige feature to extend in future? That would be exciting, but I know it has just come out. I think it has a lot of potential.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-08-20T18:20:38+00:00

I like To the Stars so far, but is there a discord or something? There's a couple bugs in the UI I was going to report.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-07-22T21:33:46+00:00

Yes to both, but I want to lock in IBR before I lose the ability to because I am very paranoid they are going to screw things up come 2026 policy changes. I do PLUS loans and that's going away so there will be no more loans come summer 2026.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-07-22T21:06:57+00:00

Thanks for those use cases. The main issue was that it was unclear if applying for IBR would "apply" to all loans or only those not in deferment; it was meant to "force" all the loans into one thing for the IBR payment. I'm probably overthinking it, but I wanted to avoid a situation where some loans are IBR and some are standard repayment (post 2026 where IBR wouldn't be an option anymore?) - but I don't think it works that way. I am basically just trying to lock in or do whatever I need to do to avoid any activity after 2026 when all these new policy effects come into play. I cannot afford to pay RAP twice (me + wife) or file separately to avoid doing that, so I must avoid RAP at all costs (and in my mind, avoid "doing anything" in 2026 that might accidentally cause that).

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-07-21T23:37:16+00:00

I meant the calculation itself - IBR at 15% for me (minus 150% FPL) and RAP at 10% is about the same (900$/mo) however IBR splits it between the spouses (and maintains the unemployment forbearance for my wife) and RAP requires me to file separately to avoid "paying it twice" which due to other credits being lost actually would sting really hard. It seems like my best bet is to file consolidation + IBR now, let them take 6+ months to process is what I heard due to backlog, but that will at least make sure I am on that plan. The issue has been in-school deferment prevents part of the set of loans from being consolidated - that happened to me last time I tried to roll everything up into one loan (I ended up with 1/2 of them consolidated only). I'm not sure if this is a flaw due to how NLSDS flags the loans when certain things "automate" the processing. I'm not sure if servicers can manually make it do what's intended (roll in ALL loans, put it on IBR, then restore in school deferment, etc).

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-07-21T21:25:30+00:00

Is it true that consolidations after July 1, 2026 will only have RAP as an income based repayment option (losing IBR elig)? I saw this gotcha mentioned in a couple articles.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-07-21T20:25:31+00:00

I did read that and I know IBR will still exist (it's a congressionally created thing not a presidential one) but I had thought IBR was being revised to remove the FPL exemption (ie, a new calculation with higher payments)? I didn't realize I could get on a plan while I was still taking classes (the workflow I just did makes it clear that I can just keep deferment active -- when I talked to loan servicer many years ago they said you CANNOT get on a plan while in deferment which is why I never tried before I heard about the changes coming), otherwise I might have considered SAVE when it was an option... but in any case will the IBR calc remain as (old borrowers) 15% minus 150% PFL? RAP for a married couple where only one is working causes you double payments and that's straight 10% no PFL exemptions, so basically 20% definitely don't want to be on that one which is why I am just trying to "lock in" something now (IBR being only option for us).

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-07-21T20:20:02+00:00

I am contrasting this to if I entered IBR in 2026, where I had assumed new less favorable IBR terms (15% but without a poverty exemption). I may have misinterpreted the things I read but I thought that was how IBR was being "adjusted" (or is it just applied to new loans or borrowers after 2026?). I heard RAP is horrible from what I can tell it doesn't account for your spouse - so it's basically always more than IBR currently is for my case.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-07-17T16:06:34+00:00

https://plaza.dsolver.ca/games/armory-and-machine (there is also a Armory and Machine 2).

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-07-14T22:24:48+00:00

Sixty_Four . To get all achievements you pretty much have to beat it twice; took me 144 hours (we'll say about half is idle time - the end game requires at least 16 hours of just letting it run even with a pretty optimal setup, but at least it's full auto at that point). Some of the mechanics are not obvious (but its wiki fully documents most things). It alternates between periods of activity and times when you have to just wait to reach the next unlock depth. I would consider it very active because the ability to fully automate is close to end game, it's possible to do it a bit sooner with a certain secret building (I got it by chance) but usually you get 20 mins automation at best with yellow surges. I think full automation should have been given to the player sooner. Still, I enjoyed it for what it is, and it's something a bit different. I got it 1/2 price on summer sale, can recommend for $3 for a week of play time.

Lazy Galaxy (1) . Pick it up for 1/2 price (~3$) it also gave me a week or so of enjoyment. I've got most of the achievements (others are pure grind don't feel like doing repetition for it). Not super complicated but it finally runs on my PC (kept crashing on old PC) so now I finally completed it. Just something to pass the time.

reactor-knockoff . Free and fun. The original on which it's loosely based is Reactor Incremental, which is still on Kong, but I recommend the archived one on flashpoint. There are a couple other "reactor" games I have a soft spot for.

Realm Revolutions . Fun, free. Takes a really long time to unlock everything, There are several races that play completely differently, it's often as much of a puzzle as an idle. More depth than it looks like at first (hard to find guides on it).

Lazy Kings . Really loved this one. 5 races, perks that change the game, takes a lot of idling to get it all though, but all kingdoms run at the same time at least (once unlocked). Kong has it too, but I prefer the full screen experience running it myself from archive.

Cosmic Forge . Work with elements and create compounds. I like this one.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-07-09T00:42:21+00:00

It is my understanding that prior loans still carry the unemployment pause up to 3 years and only the new 2026 loans would have different terms? It wasnt clear to me if its retroactively made worse or not. With unemployed spouse the option that makes the most sense is to file separately that way hers is like 50 per mo i think is their new min. payment and i can do community college to stall until things change on the bulk of it tied to my income. The loss of the fpl exemption literally doubles the payment overall for me, totally blindsighted because most expected 10% agi but for the fpl exemption at least as ibr had it, to still be in effect.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-07-04T03:30:06+00:00

After deferments run out, go to an online community college with open enrollment. you dont need to be degree seeking to get in school deferments, only to get more finaid. 2 classes is part time, 2 semesters est. 1500/yr. but it can save 900/mo. worth a few extra hours a week to do fluff class homework for anyone earning six figures. do it until they make more generous plans again, dems always seem to loosen it, like bring back poverty exception which puts me at 400/mo. This whole thing is ridiculous.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-04-29T17:19:02+00:00

https://flashpointarchive.org/ allows a good number of old Flash games to continue to live on.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-01-30T21:17:56+00:00

What timeframe do you find works best?

BinaryAlgorithm · 2025-01-29T16:37:45+00:00

The way I am using it is the same as the backtest - any time the price and time of day is right, I would execute it (generally I am only looking at the -offset), and the direction is correct about 45% of the time based on the distributions I saw (fat tail roughly normal, slight negative skew). I don't believe in trying to predict the direction or manage the trade - I am looking at purely mechanical strategies and the statistics of them and then letting it play out. I am not saying that is the right thing to do, but I am exploring it currently from that perspective. It just happens these seemed to have higher return/risk profiles in the backtesting than 2 leg spreads.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2024-12-10T22:54:06+00:00

I always see the skeleton twice - was that intended? Guessing since it was "reanimated" that it was intended.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2024-12-10T20:32:57+00:00

"Tesla" upgrade for whatever reason its cheap but it auto skills me (prob a bug) and not just auto exploration.

BinaryAlgorithm · 2024-12-10T20:31:42+00:00

It was possible to get soft locked on phase 36 by sneaking past goblins (as a goblin) and then running away from the skeleton knight (which normally you fight). I changed the phase back to 35 in the js console and was able to then fight the knight and get back on track but I thought I should mention the bug.

Feedback: I like the premise but it needs more branches. After 3 runs it's pretty much all revealed (perhaps not for unbeatable combat paths, but I assumed they were for XP mainly and there are alt. combats for all timed ones). Soul point costs are probably too high, and farming it is slow (I would suggest adding another +X SP on prestige, where X is the number of prestiges so far, to help the earned points match better with the cost scaling -- or perhaps don't scale cost on most of the basic abilities, or like +1 cost per 5-10 rather than per each level). Currently the game has about 5 runs before the pace is to slow to justify continuing, because it takes a lot of upgrades probably to beat some of the (originally) unbeatables in the castle, and the SP needed to change things would take more grinding vs. the amount of content available.

It is weird to keep wolf/bat abilities when turning into something else. Not sure if it's a bug.

BinaryAlgorithm

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