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    Your Elvenar Team

What is the best use of diamonds?

maeter75

Well-Known Member
hmmm, had no idea, only think I have heard of is 60% more, never seen the 100% more though if I did I would buy it without question.
 

SoggyShorts

Mathematician par Excellence
Since starting in June(July?) I've seen teh 100% bonus twice, and won 25 diamonds from the only forum contest offered during that time.
I would not spend them on anything you can get with a few hours of waiting, nor on a culture building that you will outgrow in a couple weeks.
Expansions, builder, magic academy would be my preference.
 

mikeledo

Well-Known Member
I haven't bought any and I passed on 50%. Buying diamonds makes building a worthless cyber city too easy. Anybody can buy a city and ranking. Can we sell our cities? Are these worth anything like bitcoins? Where is the challenge when you use diamonds? To me the challenge is having to figure out how to grow with limited resources. What building to I tear down to build another? What % culture is best? Is having more factories producing at 100% better than less producing at 150%? Should I just build factories that give me the best production and trade for the rest? These are aspects everyone treats differently. Some people don't care about efficiency and use roads to make a pretty city. Eye appeal is their goal. I mean for $80 I could have gotten 16,000 diamonds and expanded the bejesus out of my city. Don't get me wrong. When the 100% offer comes through, I sometimes jump on a bargain because I can and say "never mind" to all of this. But I will still feel dirty and live with it.
 

SoggyShorts

Mathematician par Excellence
But I will still feel dirty and live with it.
heheh

Personally I have played 3 other "free" games, each for about a year, always quitting within a month of buying premium currency. On a couple I left a fair chunk of real money still sitting in my account.

For some players spending a little bit to speed things up and make it a little less of a grind (or less of a math problem) increases their overall enjoyment. For myself, I like the math, and creating an efficient city in the limited free space available is the whole challenge, and I enjoy that.

I haven't had a serious conversation with a diamond spending rank player, so I'm not sure what their motivation is--but if they want to keep paying for my game, more power to them.
 

DeletedUser61

Guest
I too enjoy the challenge of playing a constrained game. I don't mind spending some diamonds on frivolous items, so that the programmers can buy shoes for their babies, but when it comes to the core elements of the game I'm far more interested in mathing my way through the gates, rather than caving in and paying the bridge toll.

I suspect that my motivation is unusual, but that's the way engineers think. We LIKE problems.

BUT a few years ago I did spend some serious money on Worlds of Warcraft.

The leadership team in our WOW guild was falling apart, but you're NEVER going to win the "respect" of the top players unless you can beat them on their own terms. So I simply BOUGHT my way to the top score in the guild, and smashed a few egos, and ended up as the Guild Master. I retained that position for a couple of years.

My lead Tank was a single Dad, and when his kids got to Little League Baseball age he had to cut back on his in-game time, a couple of our best healers finished grad school, and career changes ate up several of our best raiders, but you soldier on. Attracting "top-notch" people actually isn't all that difficult once you've established a solid reputation.

The disadvantage of being an Engineer is that once you've SOLVED a problem you automatically start looking for new challenges. So once the Guild was ticking along smoothly, after a couple of years I moved on to other challenges.

So I'd suggest that the primary motivation for spending diamonds is NOT to maintain a high score, but is rather a means by which you CAN shift your playing style, when your current approach has become stale.
 

mikeledo

Well-Known Member
I too enjoy the challenge of playing a constrained game. I don't mind spending some diamonds on frivolous items, so that the programmers can buy shoes for their babies, but when it comes to the core elements of the game I'm far more interested in mathing my way through the gates, rather than caving in and paying the bridge toll.

I suspect that my motivation is unusual, but that's the way engineers think. We LIKE problems.

BUT a few years ago I did spend some serious money on Worlds of Warcraft.

The leadership team in our WOW guild was falling apart, but you're NEVER going to win the "respect" of the top players unless you can beat them on their own terms. So I simply BOUGHT my way to the top score in the guild, and smashed a few egos, and ended up as the Guild Master. I retained that position for a couple of years.

My lead Tank was a single Dad, and when his kids got to Little League Baseball age he had to cut back on his in-game time, a couple of our best healers finished grad school, and career changes ate up several of our best raiders, but you soldier on. Attracting "top-notch" people actually isn't all that difficult once you've established a solid reputation.

The disadvantage of being an Engineer is that once you've SOLVED a problem you automatically start looking for new challenges. So once the Guild was ticking along smoothly, after a couple of years I moved on to other challenges.

So I'd suggest that the primary motivation for spending diamonds is NOT to maintain a high score, but is rather a means by which you CAN shift your playing style, when your current approach has become stale.

I can understand that. And since they take Paypal, it doesn't feel like real money. Someone mentioned they eventually will come up with a 100% diamond buy bonus. I will hold out until I can get the best deal possible. I don't think the designers will lose any money by giving me more cyber diamonds per buck, but then again, by then I might grow bored with a Windows 98 game with updated graphics. So they might want to skip with the increased 10% offer every few days/week and go right to the top . I sure could use some expansion. Right now I have to destroy the village to save it. I need that level 9 dwelling and that is a long long way off.
 

Ashrem

Oh Wise One
Every diamond special offer is a trade-off of will they sell enough more to make up for what they would have sold at regular price. I don't know what they are doing, but I know if I was running things I'd be making the deal offers to the people that don't need them. Anyone who is logging in daily and short on space is not a good target for a deal, as there is a high probability they are going to buy them at full price soon.
 

Risen Malchiah

Well-Known Member
Tops out at 100%. I have no idea how long you have to resist to get that offer. The only people who get it are players who have never purchased diamonds.
I just got the 100% diamond offer yesterday. I normally don't buy them and was down to something like 30 diamonds. I started using them when I was just a few copper short (finishing one tech cost me 5 diamonds instead of waiting til morning for instance).

My brother rushed to log on hoping the deal was server-wide but no such luck. He's got his credit card waiting for the deal to pop up.
 

mikeledo

Well-Known Member
I bought a few expansions and I am ready to buy a few more if they ever offer me a diamond deal again. I am near the end of chapter 3 and I am delaying entry into chapter 4 as it increases to completing 10 provinces for one expansion, where now I only have to do 6. I am not sure of the trade off. I can take my time and build upward for a while. Slow up and stretch the game out longer. Is there any reason I should move ahead as fast as possible? I may try to stay and spin my wheels getting expansions at 6 instead of 10. I also started my own fellowship so I can do Tournaments. No rules and a Batman/Marvel theme would be nice.
 

Risen Malchiah

Well-Known Member
I bought a few expansions and I am ready to buy a few more if they ever offer me a diamond deal again. I am near the end of chapter 3 and I am delaying entry into chapter 4 as it increases to completing 10 provinces for one expansion, where now I only have to do 6. I am not sure of the trade off. I can take my time and build upward for a while. Slow up and stretch the game out longer. Is there any reason I should move ahead as fast as possible? I may try to stay and spin my wheels getting expansions at 6 instead of 10. I also started my own fellowship so I can do Tournaments. No rules and a Batman/Marvel theme would be nice.
The number of provinces needed for each expansion gets bigger the more expansions you have. It is not dependent on which chapter you're in. https://en.wiki.elvenar.com/index.php?title=Expansions

So don't delay moving to the next chapter just because of this. If anything, it could actually be a bad thing to wait. If you scout too much before unlocking the next Advanced Scouts tech, you could quickly find yourself in a situation where the negotiation costs are really high and the fights too difficult to win. Go ahead and push forward into chapter 4 and beyond.
 

mikeledo

Well-Known Member
The number of provinces needed for each expansion gets bigger the more expansions you have. It is not dependent on which chapter you're in. https://en.wiki.elvenar.com/index.php?title=Expansions

So don't delay moving to the next chapter just because of this. If anything, it could actually be a bad thing to wait. If you scout too much before unlocking the next Advanced Scouts tech, you could quickly find yourself in a situation where the negotiation costs are really high and the fights too difficult to win. Go ahead and push forward into chapter 4 and beyond.
Yes, I was using that chart when I came to the conclusion that as long as I am in chapter 3 it is only 6 provinces. I haven't been able to win a fight in a long time. I have been negotiating since I started chapter 2. So higher negotiations and 6 provinces or slightly smaller negotiations and 10 provinces. I think the four less provinces more than make up for it.
 

Ashrem

Oh Wise One
So higher negotiations and 6 provinces or slightly smaller negotiations and 10 provinces. I think the four less provinces more than make up for it.
I think you're confused. It is not staying at six provinces per expansion for as long as you are in the chapter. Each new expansion you open moves you along the progression of how many provinces you need, regardless of your tech tree position.
 

SoggyShorts

Mathematician par Excellence
@Ashrem is right, your chapter has no bearing on how many provinces are needed to unlock an expansion, it simply goes up as you clear more provinces.
As mentioned above, your scout/negotiation costs for clearing provinces goes down by 25% every time you get the "advanced scouts" tech at the beginning or a chapter, so moving along the tech tree will make expanding your city cheaper.
 

Risen Malchiah

Well-Known Member
I'm in chapter 6 with about 126 provinces complete and my expansions don't cost 10 yet. I'm not sure how you got 10 from that chart.
 

SoggyShorts

Mathematician par Excellence
So what does that chart mean with the 1, 2, 3, 4 ... on one side and 1, 3, 6, 10 on the other?
On the left side is the number of expansions you have earned from clearing the world map.
On the right side is the total number of provinces you have cleared on the world map.

2ij4s2t.jpg
 
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mikeledo

Well-Known Member
On the left side is the number of expansions you have earned from clearing the world map.
On the right side is the total number of provinces you have cleared on the world map.
I am confused. So you are saying I can only get 3 expansions at 6 provinces before I have to get 10?
 
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