Cauldrons 102: Production V1.0

[Darielle]

Ahhh, but there's the rub. I like murky issues where there's enough complexity to make it worth figuring out, and I needed to learn more about Google Sheets and Frontline Solver in any case. Very much to the point, Programmers RARELY understand all of the implications of what they're creating. They're trying to tick off bullets in the Program Specification, and they're just grateful when it actually works, somehow.

To me "the grind" is the Tournament and the Spire, because there's nothing to learn nor investigate once you've been through it a couple of times. The only real challenge is figuring out how to set up your city to produce enough stuff to throw away as soon as you have it. And for WHAT? Some buildings and stuff that just makes the entire model MORE erratic? No Thank You!

On the other hand, it's a great joy to wade into something complex enough to be worth understanding, and in a gaming environment I can keep at it as long as it's still interesting, without somebody bugging me about budgets and schedules. And if something useful is accomplished, so much the better.

For me THAT'S stress relief. Grinding out Troops and Goods that I can throw at the Tournament, Spire, and FA Pit, is just mind-numbing.
View attachment 15518

Fair point.

 

[ajqtrz]

You know what's stress relief for me? Cracking codes and playing music. Everyone has things they love doing and others simply hate. If I had a nickle for every student who complained that practicing 15 minutes a day was just too stressful.... you'd call me Elon Musk and I'd own Twitter.

What I've learned to appreciate is that others can find joy in the strangest things. My wife goes to Brewers games. 40 to 50 times a season, even to spring training camp, and away games. She's a bit of a sports nut, but I am definitely not. I go to one or two to please her. Each night during the season she gets home, stands by my desk where I'm busy typing some long post (I'm always typing long posts, aren't I? LOL) and gives me an inning by inning account of the game. It usually takes twenty to thirty minutes. When she first started doing this I would continue with my work and just be irritated at her. But after a couple years and a couple of exchanges of over heated words, I realized that if my wife loved it, I could love that she loved it. So now I stop whatever I'm doing, turn off my screen and listen. I am now the smartest, most informed, non-Brewers fan in Milwaukee. And I get the fun of sharing my wife's strange love.

So, I don't understand half of what Katwick says, and half may be an understatement, but I do underrstand his love of doing it and I'll just keep rooting for him to find the final answer to it all and arrive at the pearly gates of math heaven on wings. Joy is sometimes found in the strangest places.

AJ

 

[Katwick]

Witch Points are Scary!

Be very glad that you can't actually use 78 Ingredients, but I needed a comprehensive test.

I'm pretty much done with the 1-24 Diplomas version of Katwick Cauldrons, and expect to release Cauldrons 103 - Beta V2.0 next week. At the moment I'm pouring some end-game recipes into the Recipe Library. While I can't directly test the recipes (I only have 10 Diplomas) my results are matching the other models.

You'll still need a Desktop computer, but generating a new recipe is pretty simple

• Initial Setup
  • Download a copy of the Katwick Cauldrons Google Sheet for your own use.
    • There will always be a current copy in Katwick Cauldrons > Beta or Katwick Cauldrons > Production
  • Add the Solver extension and enter the linkage data, once. There's no subsequent fiddling.
  • Indicate your Diploma Level, once per chapter
  • Indicate how many Total Ingredients you can probably afford, as you advance through the Tech Tree
• Once per week
  • In-game, check which Ingredients require Diamonds, this week, and transfer that information into the spreadsheet. Plugging in the current date will serve you well, but any non-blank will do.
• Once per Recipe
  • Check the (one or more) Effects that you want the most
  • Press Solve
  • Check the Use Diamonds box if the 8 Ingredient recipe requires an outrageous number of Witch Points, per the above snapshot
  • Rinse and repeat

Katwick Cauldrons Version 2.0 will have the following characteristics:

• Diplomas 1-24 are supported, although Diplomas 21-24 are just an educated guess.
• The Effects are now in Diploma sequence, rather than Ingredient sequence. There's definitely some strong symmetry, but being able to hide the columns that you can't use anyway is more beneficial than the insight provided by the symmetry emphasis.
• You can avoid the Weekly Diamonds without modifying the Solver. Once you identify the Weekly Diamonds, those 4 Ingredients are clamped to 0, unless you Checkbox your willingness to spend a few diamonds, whereupon the program will show you how much your Diamonds are worth this week, in Witch Points, as indicated in the above snapshot.
• The Factored Effect Values, rather than the % Success Rates, are the now the Optimization Target, which yields a crisp solution in less than 15 seconds. The Sum of the Factored Values is no longer part of the solution set, it's just a scaling factor for the Brewery, so the consequent recipes are more expensive, but when 20 different Effects want a piece of the action you need a tight focus, rather than a low cost.
  • Check boxing 0 Effects will yield a very low cost, 222222...3 recipe, so that you can see what you're up against.
  • Check boxing 1 Effect will yield an expensive recipe with a tight focus on a single Effect.
  • Check boxing Multiple effects will optimize for the Average of those Effects, with modest Costs and modest Rates.
  • You can also tinker the Recipe Ingredients by hand, to see if you can beat the Solver.
• Once you discover a recipe that you like, you can
  • Click on the Library Range, _Live_Data_Copy_Paste_Special
  • Ctrl+c to Copy the highlighted values
  • Click on an empty (or HoneyDew) row
  • Ctrl+SHIFT+v to Paste Special JUST the values
    • If you get a blue background you forgot the SHIFT. Undo it and try again
  • Click on _initialize to get back to the Recipe Creation tab, and press Delete to clear the highlighted Ingredient Amounts
• Or you can start out in the Recipe Library
  • Use the Sorting and Filtering tools that are inherent in Google Sheets
  • Ctrl+c the Ingredient Amounts for your favorite Recipe
  • Click on _initialize to get back to the Recipe Creation tab
  • Paste Transpose to load your favorite recipe into the highlighted Ingredient Amounts, perhaps to see how much damage has been done by the new Weekly Diamonds
• The Charts are still the same, but they're a lot more important when you're chasing 20 different Effects

 

[Rip Outtheir Spleens]

Is there any way to get rid of the Cauldron? No one, that I play the game with, EVER uses it. We'd rather have a USEFUL item. I've been playing the game since 2019, and this is the worst thing they have done to the game.

 

[Silly Bubbles]

Is there any way to get rid of the Cauldron? No one, that I play the game with, EVER uses it. We'd rather have a USEFUL item. I've been playing the game since 2019, and this is the worst thing they have done to the game.

Why would they got rid of it? They already invested in it, even if just one player uses it, it's still better than nobody if they removed it. And you might change your mind. It looks like that your circle talked each other out of it. There are a lot of players that benefit from it for not much effort. I personally get 2 to 4 military boosts every week, either 15-20% strength or 8-10% health each for around 9 hours.

 

[Moho]

Is there any way to get rid of the Cauldron?

Yes, there is.

When I first started playing the game I didn't really like the idea of "chapters" in a city building game. Also I often heard players' moaning and whining about the tribulations and vicisitutes they went through as their cities "advanced" through these so-called chapters. I decided to park my city once it became a self-sufficient entity and ignore the futile progression.

And that's how I got rid of chapters.

 

[gernsey]

Is there any way to get rid of the Cauldron? No one, that I play the game with, EVER uses it. We'd rather have a USEFUL item. I've been playing the game since 2019, and this is the worst thing they have done to the game.

Yes, never open the cauldron tab in the MA, and you will have achieved your goal.

Unless you mean, "i don't want others to use it" . in which case, why?

 

[Ashrem]

Everyone's experience is unique, but I am perplexed by thinking that a feature one doesn't use is worse than the nerfs they make every now-and-then. To my mind, the worst thing they've done to the game was before I started playing, when they re-monetized the premium expansions by going from a flat cost per to an escalating cost which can exceed the entire cost of a decent game.

 

[defiantoneks]

did i miss some announcement about the cauldron schedule changing?