Ask Timon and Rike! (Questions we'd like answered in the next Q&A)

[DeletedUser3507]

I have done every squad size up to chapter 12 and I am skipping the optional this time
and I have drastically improved my fighting AW's

 

[qaccy]

I have done every squad size upgrade on the tree through the Orc chapter. I admit it has not gotten easier but why should it? Larger armies do not make fighting easier. I have been upgrading my AW 's also. The various bonuses have helped my larger armies win more. Try that.

The 'issue' at hand regarding squad technologies is that there's a huge disconnect between their intended purpose and reality. If you keep your completed provinces low, around the number needed to unlock the chapter chests, the armies in those provinces are going to be around half the size of your own with all available squad researches. Even for someone who regularly clears provinces, squad size researches are obviously unnecessary. Given that these researches also arbitrarily make tournaments more expensive to participate in, the question is: What really is the benefit of upgrading squad size?

 

[SoggyShorts]

The Q&A was this morning, right?
Anyone have a link, or preferably an edit from @Jackluyt ?

 

[DeletedUser9601]

The question is: What really is the benefit of upgrading squad size?

It makes life significantly easier if you want to over-scout. Over-scouting means more expansions. You can of course cater those provinces, but they're rather expensive in goods and orcs. The trade-offs might not be particularly close (given the savings in tournaments from a low squad size), but there's definitely something there.

 

[SoggyShorts]

It makes life significantly easier if you want to over-scout. Over-scouting means more expansions. You can of course cater those provinces, but they're rather expensive in goods and orcs. The trade-offs might not be particularly close (given the savings in tournaments from a low squad size), but there's definitely something there.

Except that party ends, doesn't it?
Once you clear 457 provinces and get all of the expansions, the easy world map fights are largely useless. A 3 day scout to get 8 relics a rune and 8 KP? That's pathetic compared to doing 40% more in the tournament forever.

 

[Pheryll]

Going through the video

1. The main event prizes are easier to get because of more double days.
This I find misleading because the lack of quests makes the total received from doubling much less this event

2. Most KP are spent on wonders.
This is correct, though early players find KP in tech bar as a restricting factor.

3. We are thinking about adding a second city.
Not sure how this will be, if implemented, but the context of consideration was based on space limitation.

4. We are working at full play for the mobile app. We hope to be done this year.
This is exciting news as having established a non-flash code will really help in the future.

 

[DeletedUser9601]

Except that party ends, doesn't it?
Once you clear 457 provinces and get all of the expansions, the easy world map fights are largely useless. A 3 day scout to get 8 relics a rune and 8 KP? That's pathetic compared to doing 40% more in the tournament forever.

Again, I'm not saying its a close analysis, but there's a tradeoff.

Plus, 457 provinces takes a long time. Years. And in the meantime, you're picking up a lot of expansions. And we can all agree that space (i.e., expansions) are the most valuable resource in the game.

I'm personally taking optional squad sizes because I just feel like this issue will be resolved at some point in the future. But I wouldn't recommend to anyone else to do the same.

 

[DeletedUser3507]

I belive your making the fatal mistake, I am already using 150 squad in tourney, So go ahead and do what you wish.

You been warned

 

[SoggyShorts]

Plus, 457 provinces takes a long time.

I am curious how long it takes. I just sent out a scout for what will be province 384 and he needs 39h, and another scout for province 389 for 40h.
If it goes up by 15 minutes each scout, I need 160 days which is very close to 2 years of playing. I did stay at the minimum provinces right up until the end of orcs iirc, so others may be faster. If another event comes before another chapter I might just go all in on 20h timers which should be worth a month of scouting.

I'm personally taking optional squad sizes because I just feel like this issue will be resolved at some point in the future. But I wouldn't recommend to anyone else to do the same.

I made sure to get extra guest race stuff to complete them just in case, but I don't think I'd need those goods. Can you imagine the outrage if players had to go back and build copper mines or day farms etc?

If my provinces weren't all "easy" maybe I'd feel differently and miss those SS upgrades, but the rings are so large at this point, that I have 34 more easy to go and one more mandatory SS tech which might change the "hard" to "medium"- If so, I'll be really close to 457 without even hitting a very hard.

Obviously a lot depends on how much you do in the tournament, I know for me with 40h scouts vs 2,000 tournament points there is no question which is better.

 

[DeletedUser9601]

Obviously a lot depends on how much you do in the tournament, I know for me with 40h scouts vs 2,000 tournament points there is no question which is better.

For me I hit 1,600 tournament points at the tail end of S&D without much effort auto-fighting. I might cater maybe 1 fight a day, but only if its an 8-enemy squad with 2+ of the "counter" units. I don't closely track how many units I've spent in that auto-fighting, but I find if I am constantly training units, I can slowly increase my stacks.

Obviously I'm giving something up in those 400 points (or more, who knows). But I also notice that even going from Easy to Medium in most provinces is a substantial increase in unit attrition. An Easy province usually means less than 1 full unit lost per fight. A Medium province typically means 1-3 full units lost. Since we're talking full units (vs the much smaller squad sizes in the first 6 tourney rings), those kind of losses take a long time to rebuild.

I think my biggest complaint in all of this is how hard it is to carefully track units actually used/lost. Losing a squad in a tournament has very little meaning when squad sizes changes every 4 fights. I could track "starting" and "ending" squad sizes, but that doesn't appeal very much, and then I'm still backing out that data even further based on training size/speed.

Lots left to be desired in the fighting side of this game (which should probably be expected in a city builder, but still...).

 

[DeletedUser5800]

I am curious how long it takes. I just sent out a scout for what will be province 384 and he needs 39h, and another scout for province 389 for 40h.
If it goes up by 15 minutes each scout, I need 160 days which is very close to 2 years of playing.

Sounds close... I just started 401 at 43:20... I should cap at really close to 2 yrs even, maybe just a little over. Was where I should be at orcs and have ran scout solid since give or take a few hrs here and there when it finished while I was asleep. 2yrs even sounds like a good standard, where I slacked a bit I made up for by rushing 8 or so with instants.

 

[SoggyShorts]

I could track "starting" and "ending" squad sizes

A few players in my FS tracked it at various chapters across 5 tournaments and found that 100 full size stacks +-20 was used to get 1600 tournament points.
Skipping zero techs increases your stack size around 40%, so I think you'd need to save ~40 full size stacks per week on the world map to break even.
4 provinces x 8 encounters per week = 32 fights.

where I slacked a bit I made up for by rushing 8 or so with instants.

The more I think about it, the more I like instants as a choice in events. Hitting 20hx3 ten times, and 2x14h 5x using all essence is pretty close to 2 expansions, which kinda trumps all other prizes. If your scout times are lower, like 24h which the devs have said you "should" be at, that's 3 expansions.....

 

[qaccy]

If your scout times are lower, like 24h which the devs have said you "should" be at, that's 3 expansions.....

I think at some point, if your scouting times are that low you won't have enough provinces conquered to open up the next chapter. It seems like it'd be a pretty narrow window where scouting time is actually right around exactly a day, since the discount from a new scouting tech doesn't quite nullify the additional time you've gained from scouting your way up from one chapter to the next.

 

[Jackluyt]

Here is an edited video of the Live Q & A with all the important topics - for those who do not have the time to watch the full session!
　
Here are the topics covered, with Time-stamps

1. The Easter Set - more Double Feather Days this time too! 0:20
2. Changes to the Knowledge Point Awards in Tournaments 0:52
3. The possibility of more than one city 2:04
4. The Wishing Well – it will come one more time 2:32
5. A 'trophy case' for buildings you no longer need 4:06
6. The new Community based building 5:56
7. Would you like to see more information about the Event buildings in the in-game News window? 7:29
8. Comments 8:14

 

[SoggyShorts]

I think at some point, if your scouting times are that low you won't have enough provinces conquered to open up the next chapter.

That sounds true. The benefits of over scouting seem to be worth it though, so wouldn't be able to test it

 

[DeletedUser3507]

Spoiler: my 465 province

 

[SoggyShorts]

Spoiler: my 465 province

Perfect, my guess at a 15m increase says 465 should be 59h 15m, off by only minutes.
Thanks for the info!

 

[DeletedUser4955]

Yes...a toggle is a good idea. An end to confirming trades would be especially nice. Confirming can be helpful to a new player or for those that like to double check their choices. Nice to have the option.

The escape key is not working anymore to clear the "awesome" box. Even being able to clear a confirmation box (trades, rewards, goods, etc.) with the Enter key would be helpful.

 

[SoggyShorts]

The escape key is not working anymore to clear the "awesome" box. Even being able to clear a confirmation box (trades, rewards, goods, etc.) with the Enter key would be helpful.

I believe that this was said to be part of a fix for the quests not appearing after you cycle through all of them in the FA.(but it didn't work)

 

[Ashrem]

I believe that this was said to be part of a fix for the quests not appearing after you cycle through all of them in the FA.(but it didn't work)

I think it more likely was intended to fix "I'm filing this trouble ticket because I didn't get my whatchamathingy when I finished my [encounter/province/quest]"