Heli Pilot cash exploit. Cheating or fair?

[a hairy baboon]

Hey guys. I just finished a game against a player who used a heli pilot exploit. To my knowledge, this exploit only works in a Bananza mode where income is doubled. To perform this, you must have enough cash to upgrade a Heli 1-4 which will unlock the "Support Chinook" ability. This gives the Heli the ability to drop a cash crate. Cash crates are valued between $1500 and $2000 in normal gameplay. In Bananza, they are worth $3000-$4000 which allows you to make a profit once you sell the tower. When you have collected the cash, you delete the Heli and repeat, basically giving you unlimited cash. With each cycle you will net between $850 and $1850 which does not seem like much, but in the early game it is huge.

Here is a breakdown of the costs and earnings from the exploit:

Cost of upgrades needed: 10750
Selling the tower: 8600
Cash Crates: 3000-4000
Net: 850-1850

Also, here is the replay of the guy using the exploit. I do not know if they replay will actually work though.
battles.tv/watch/TADALRU


I think the exploit needs to be fixed. Unless I start using it myself, I will continually run into players who completely destroy me because I am playing in a more traditional way. But what are your thoughts? Is it cheating or should it be considered a viable strategy?

Cheers.

[Kampfkekskrieger EXP Folk Master]

to be honest, its not that bad in comparison to cobra rush or kidnap or such, where you need to act suddenly.

in large games you need to have a good control speed to get this done frequently enough to outplay other cash creators.

but i do not judge if its wrong. in bananza you can sell several towers and buy stuff for 2x price anyways, so thats not that much outstanding.

In the point of view of a player, you are not at all lost out of strategies.

[a hairy baboon]

Well the Heli exploit is not used as a stand-alone strategy. When the strategy was used against me, the player had created enough income to have a Banana factory on round 4. He used Cobras to rush me with rainbow bloons on round 5. A RAINBOW RUSH ON ROUND 5! He sent blimps on round 7 and 8.

I use Cobras in Bananza. I can produce a substantial rainbow rush at round 7 or 8 using efficient monkey farm techniques. I can rush with blue blimps around round 8 or 9. The difference is that it is not that hard to defend against a rainbow rush and blimps at around 8 or 9. By then, you should have at least one Banana factory and plenty of cash. But defending this same rush at round 5 is very difficult. You just don't have enough cash. I will admit it is certainly possible with the right towers.

My point is that it is a different type of strategy. Using Cobras to rush early is a strategy that the makers of the game purposefully built it into the system. I am not so sure that the creators intentionally created the Heli exploit. Which is why I think it should be fixed.

[Kampfkekskrieger EXP Folk Master]

oh doint worry. the carelessnes is everywhere. they are not your mother, they think, so they can have some problems unsolved. but thats not yet time to answer the secrets. wait for them to reveal themselves. its obvious what happpens with those MANY companies that try to babisit people, and then forget about them.

[coolcashgames]

this is not an exploit, per se, but rather a strategy. This strategy only works in bananza, and in bananza, farms generate insane amounts of money and it is much easier to do so, and Helis are not great lategame because you cannot fit many on the map with how wide their hitbox is. There's a strategy commonly used called micromanaging (often just referred as microing) that involves buying a tower's ability, using it, and selling it (most commonly with 0-4 heli, 0-4 ace and ace targeting, 0-4 spike factory, and 0-4 buccaneer) and that seems to be what's happening here. its very time consuming and shouldn't really be used unless it's your 4th tower, because heli doesn't provide much lategame value and 2 eco towers really isn't necessary. I 100% understand where you're coming from though, as it is the only ability that actually gains profit while microing. Who knows, maybe you can perfect this strategy and gain millions of medallions and hopefully grind your way to some t1 prestige ranks.