10

Vlad wants the mall smashed up.

I have three grenades.

Which three stores should I use them on to get the most buck for my bang?

3
  • Do I detect some "blowing things up for science" soon?
    – Unionhawk
    Commented Jan 19, 2014 at 23:29
  • @Unionhawk - As soon as I can figure out an algorithm to let me test it properly. I think it's going to be X + Y + Z + n*C where C represents skylights.
    – Steve V.
    Commented Jan 19, 2014 at 23:30
  • math.stackexchange.com/questions/644354/…
    – Steve V.
    Commented Jan 19, 2014 at 23:55

2 Answers 2

11

The Car Showroom is the most valuable store.

After that are the following stores in an unknown order:

  • Jewelry
  • Computer
  • Men's Suits
  • Cosmetics

The "Windows" number in the table below indicates how many windows I needed to break after tossing a grenade into each of those stores to reach $50,000. I tested all stores, but did not include results in the table for any store which required me to break more than 20 windows afterward.

Many civilians were harmed in the making of this table

Store 1    Store 2    Store 3    Windows
Car        Jewelry   Cosmetics      0
Car        Jewelry     Suits        0
Car          Pear     Jewelry       0
Car          Pear    Cosmetics      2
Car          Pear      Suits        3
Pear       Jewelry   Cosmetics      6
Suits      Jewelry     Pear         6
Car       Cosmetics    Suits       12
Jewelry   Cosmetics    Suits       16
Pear      Cosmetics    Suits       20
6
  • I don't know how to do the math analysis to order the next four stores.
    – Steve V.
    Commented Jan 20, 2014 at 1:24
  • Its a good table though I notice it isn't mathemtically rigorous. Presumably because sometimes you destroyed more of a store than others... In particular I note Suits and cosmetics - when with Jewelry and Pair both needed 6 more windows. When with Car and Pair one needed 2 and the other 3. This suggests that they were destroyed a different amount each time. Still useful findings though. Just that the maths on them is inconsistent leaving it only ever as a loose ordering. Very useful to know though. :)
    – Chris
    Commented Jan 24, 2014 at 0:09
  • @Chris It's most definitely not rigorous, but it's not a total crapshoot either. I made sure to throw the grenade in the same place in the store each time and if an area of the store didn't get destroyed, I discarded that data.
    – Steve V.
    Commented Jan 24, 2014 at 1:42
  • Cool. My only point was that I was trying to treat them as simultaneous equations to work things out precisely to try to take your data and order things and that way lay madness. I may try some more woolly maths to order them but that's harder to do in my head. ;-)
    – Chris
    Commented Jan 24, 2014 at 9:28
  • @Chris What you're saying would only be true if windows were worth $1. Since they're worth much more than that, it could easily be the case that Cosmetics vs. Suits could require the same number of windows to push them over $50k with one pair of other stores, but with a different pair they each require a different number of windows. In fact, as far as I can tell, these numbers are consistent, and imply Car > Jewelry > Pear > Cosmetics > Suits. Commented Nov 2, 2014 at 5:35
4

Using the information determined by @Steve V, we can set up a system of inequalities and use a linear programming solver to determine the value of each store.

Unfortunately, right now there is not enough information to determine exact values, but we can determine ranges:

  • Car: 17k~21k
  • Jewelry: 17k~19k
  • Pear: 16k
  • Cosmetics: 11k~16k
  • Suits: 10k~15k

So, you want to bomb Car, Jewelry, and Pear (computers) first, in that order.

2
  • For jewelry, are you adding the sum for the stolen goods as well? I don't think stolen counts, and there is little valuble glass to break there. In fact, a nade to the wine shop is a lot more valuable for what I have done. Usually use this destruction route: Roof (~15-20k), wine shop, car shop, pear shop. Add the destruction of windows to get around and I hit the 50k mark with ease.
    – Sharain
    Commented Dec 19, 2014 at 8:16
  • @Sharain: No, I'm using the information provided by Steve V, see his post above. Commented Dec 19, 2014 at 15:29

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