Feedback Chapter 21 - The Vallorian Legend

[Deborah M]

I am pretty disappointed in this chapter There are almost no dragons. I was expecting them to be a major part of the theme. Even the culture building with the dragon is a tiny tiny dragon. It seems to be more about lava than anything else in the artwork. I do like the big snake culture building even though I don’t like snakes.

 

[Caribbean Kat]

Is it really the dev's intention to reward ONE Unurium per collection if you switch from coins to Community Work in Magic Residences? Doesn't this relegate the Vallorian Seal Tower to the nearly useless pile of AWs? I am really not liking this. VST was one of my favorite AWs for value and artwork. Now it's downgraded to .1% ( = ONE UNURIUM) and if I upgrade it I will get a whopping .104% Unurium? Pfffffft!

 

[Pheryll]

Is it really the dev's intention to reward ONE Unurium per collection if you switch from coins to Community Work in Magic Residences? Doesn't this relegate the Vallorian Seal Tower to the nearly useless pile of AWs? I am really not liking this. VST was one of my favorite AWs for value and artwork. Now it's downgraded to .1% ( = ONE UNURIUM) and if I upgrade it I will get a whopping .104% Unurium? Pfffffft!

I would be happy if they gave the unurium bonus for coin collection in general, rather than for residence production of community work. The golden abyss and seal tower could then be a good combo.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Is it really the dev's intention to reward ONE Unurium per collection if you switch from coins to Community Work in Magic Residences? Doesn't this relegate the Vallorian Seal Tower to the nearly useless pile of AWs? I am really not liking this. VST was one of my favorite AWs for value and artwork. Now it's downgraded to .1% ( = ONE UNURIUM) and if I upgrade it I will get a whopping .104% Unurium? Pfffffft!

My Seal Tower is for the Unurium decay reduction. The Unurium collection for residence coin collection is minor.

 

[Henroo]

I am waiting until the upcoming Fellowship Adventure is done to start chapter 21. In the meantime, how bad are Unurium requirements going to be in ch 21? Should I work towards further upgrades for my Temple of Spirits in the next week or 2, while I am still dumping all KP into my AWs? I think I have Temple of Spirits currently at level 18 in all 3 cities.

 

[Pheryll]

Below is an arrangement that works well for me in my city. It is not a perfect rectangle arrangement, nor does it minimize prey trails, but it nicely leaves gaps for the new building size changes of the barracks and training grounds.

 

[Yogi Dave]

But this might be my new favorite, 33 Prey Trails, in a long slim pattern, which will save roads as well.

Spoiler: 33PreyTrailsLongSlim

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Thanks for this design. Yesterday I did an entire reorg of my city using this. I'd looked at a lot of different ones, but this was perfect to put on the left edge of my city. It was mainly my AWs, MH and columns of evolving buildings. Only 12 armories stayed in the same place, and I teleported 9 armories. Here's the link to the city with the guest village expanded and no roads. ElvenArch Aug. 12, 2023 My guest buildings are only level 1 and tower is level 3. You may wonder about the group of buildings toward the right side. That's my Moonset Library Set. I use different pieces for each building type. It makes my work a lot easier.

 

[MenolyDragonmist]

Cannot complete chapter quest line because it requires that you upgrade your barracks. My city has no army, my barracks is level 5. The quest to upgrade barracks does not allow you to skip that quest. As much as I enjoy Elvenar, my choices are to not complete the chapter quest line or to stop playing. I made a choice a long time ago to keep army buildings to a bare minimum. It is sad that 21 chapters later, that choice is no longer an option. Very disappointed.

 

[iamthouth]

So, one week in. I'll preface this by saying that I finished Ch20 in Dec last year, so have had 7+ months to save up instants. As it is the latest chapter, I thought I'd just use them all, and I can earn up more if I'm still around for Ch22. If coming straight from finishing Ch20 your experience will be different.

When the chapter was announced with a live date I also saved up KP to get a head start into Ch21 on day one, as it coincided with the end of an event. By being in Ch21, I could then win Ch21 buildings and prizes.

I thus started with plenty of all resources, including 6500 Vision Vapor, which I used to win KP and other resources to progress through the beginning. I had saved blueprints to upgrade all my Magic Residences and Magic Workshops, and Royal Restoration to upgrade Evolving Buildings and Mana producing buildings.


As usual I played around in ElvenArchitect to find an optimal Settlement layout, which I posted earlier.

I had quite a good start, and used coin instants, supplies instant, time instants, and teleports generously. I am now halfway through research which I will progress, but on Quest 82, where I will stay for a while, as it is late chapter.



City layout with a fully upgraded Settlement layout


So, mana. Mana is my limiting factor. I found a Mana Rune in my Sorceries Tomes, which gives a 70% boost. In addition I apply the 20% boost from Ads in the builders hut. I now have 27 Dragon Rock Gorge buildings, a Ch21 building excellent for Mana per sq per hour. It will take another 21 days at least, as the Mana Rune will expire after 15 days active. I can instant and boost most other things, but not Mana. I do not have Enar's Embassy, but I have placed a Cryomana, reducing decay to 5%. But when there is nothing left, decay is insignificant. I also don't have the Dragon Abbey, but I can see how a high lvl one would be useful this chapter.

I also had to place in more unurium producing buildings, but I don't think I'd need to if I wasn't rushing it. I am using Portal Profits exclusively for the base Settlement resources Prey, saving coins for KP purchases and building upgrades.

The settlement combinations are intricate, but you'll get the hang of it quickly. Balancing resources can prove a challenge.

Community Work is required in great quantities at first to place all the buildings, later for research. I probably had a harder time with this since I'm rushing the chapter, if more paced out I think you'll be ok. I have 16 Magic Residences all producing Community Work exclusively, as I have a lvl 33 Golden Abyss and can visit all neighbours daily, plus gold instants. But I still removed manufactories to one increase space for mana and unurium producing buildings, and to increase the culture bonus, which affects the Community Work production. I also saved up Basic Ascended Goods to be able to upgrade all the roads early on for the extra culture.

Finally, it took a little while to understand Prosperity, the new Settlement booster. The more settlement buildings you place, the higher your used prosperity is, which increases the production. That is, production speeds up later as you upgrade. Main Hall, Barracks, residences and workshops provide plenty of it, but adding more will not increase production, production boost is measured only on the settlement buildings of a base in the Vallorian Dragon Tower.

More in a week, let's see where I get to.

 

[Deborah M]

Cannot complete chapter quest line because it requires that you upgrade your barracks. My city has no army, my barracks is level 5. The quest to upgrade barracks does not allow you to skip that quest. As much as I enjoy Elvenar, my choices are to not complete the chapter quest line or to stop playing. I made a choice a long time ago to keep army buildings to a bare minimum. It is sad that 21 chapters later, that choice is no longer an option. Very disappointed.

I am not seeing a reply so here goes. Elvenar has always stood by the initial assurance that you do not have to battle in this game. In the past, when players got stuck because somebody forgot to add the decline button to a quest like this one, support has ALWAYS progressed the player to the next quest. All you should have to do is submit a support ticket. Worth a try?

 

[Dhurrin]

I would be happy if they gave the unurium bonus for coin collection in general, rather than for residence production of community work. The golden abyss and seal tower could then be a good combo.

Overpowered combo in my eyes, that really would seem a bit unbalancing. And in that case all the event-buildings generating coins probably would have to be included as well. The only way to keep that balanced would be to drastically lower the percentage of unurium generated, which would not be well received.
Don't get me wrong, I'd like to get unurium for collecting from the GA, but the fact it would benefit me does not mean it wouldn't be unbalancing.

That being said, I do agree that bringing in an AW at the end of chap 19, then completely nerving it in chap 21 is an incredibly poor choice by the devs.
Even if I do 50-50 between my residences it basically means the yield from the VST is suddenly halved.

This was NOT something players could foresee. In fact, players could reasonably expect unurium to stay a relevant resource for a while, so building the VST and upping it to lvl 30 (for maximum effect on decay) was a reasonable choice. With it's size that required a significant investment in KPs, which now maybe could have been spent better on other AWs.
The fact one had only 1 chapter to really enjoy the benefits (end of chap 19 to even build it, so only full benefit in chap 20) is utterly ridiculous.

 

[Pheryll]

Overpowered combo in my eyes, that really would seem a bit unbalancing. And in that case all the event-buildings generating coins probably would have to be included as well. The only way to keep that balanced would be to drastically lower the percentage of unurium generated, which would not be well received.
Don't get me wrong, I'd like to get unurium for collecting from the GA, but the fact it would benefit me does not mean it wouldn't be unbalancing.

My point is that they encouraged residence building from the Vallorian Seal Tower by coin generation, and then encouraged residence building by the chapter 21 community works. The latter was all that was needed to shift people towards residences, and the former is not needed to serve the goal of focusing on residences. So they implemented this 1 unurium reward for collecting community works, which serves no purpose given its meager quantity (also this amount is technically outside of the description as it is not taxation).

If the Vallorian Seal Tower is not needed to drive people to have residences, then why must its bonus be limited to them?

 

[Dhurrin]

So, one week in. I'll preface this by saying that I finished Ch20 in Dec last year, so have had 7+ months to save up instants. As it is the latest chapter, I thought I'd just use them all, and I can earn up more if I'm still around for Ch22. If coming straight from finishing Ch20 your experience will be different.

When the chapter was announced with a live date I also saved up KP to get a head start into Ch21 on day one, as it coincided with the end of an event. By being in Ch21, I could then win Ch21 buildings and prizes.

I thus started with plenty of all resources, including 6500 Vision Vapor, which I used to win KP and other resources to progress through the beginning. I had saved blueprints to upgrade all my Magic Residences and Magic Workshops, and Royal Restoration to upgrade Evolving Buildings and Mana producing buildings.
View attachment 16402View attachment 16403

As usual I played around in ElvenArchitect to find an optimal Settlement layout, which I posted earlier.

I had quite a good start, and used coin instants, supplies instant, time instants, and teleports generously. I am now halfway through research which I will progress, but on Quest 82, where I will stay for a while, as it is late chapter.

View attachment 16404View attachment 16405

City layout with a fully upgraded Settlement layout
View attachment 16407View attachment 16406View attachment 16408

So, mana. Mana is my limiting factor. I found a Mana Rune in my Sorceries Tomes, which gives a 70% boost. In addition I apply the 20% boost from Ads in the builders hut. I now have 27 Dragon Rock Gorge buildings, a Ch21 building excellent for Mana per sq per hour. It will take another 21 days at least, as the Mana Rune will expire after 15 days active. I can instant and boost most other things, but not Mana. I do not have Enar's Embassy, but I have placed a Cryomana, reducing decay to 5%. But when there is nothing left, decay is insignificant. I also don't have the Dragon Abbey, but I can see how a high lvl one would be useful this chapter.

I also had to place in more unurium producing buildings, but I don't think I'd need to if I wasn't rushing it. I am using Portal Profits exclusively for the base Settlement resources Prey, saving coins for KP purchases and building upgrades.

The settlement combinations are intricate, but you'll get the hang of it quickly. Balancing resources can prove a challenge.

Community Work is required in great quantities at first to place all the buildings, later for research. I probably had a harder time with this since I'm rushing the chapter, if more paced out I think you'll be ok. I have 16 Magic Residences all producing Community Work exclusively, as I have a lvl 33 Golden Abyss and can visit all neighbours daily, plus gold instants. But I still removed manufactories to one increase space for mana and unurium producing buildings, and to increase the culture bonus, which affects the Community Work production. I also saved up Basic Ascended Goods to be able to upgrade all the roads early on for the extra culture.

Finally, it took a little while to understand Prosperity, the new Settlement booster. The more settlement buildings you place, the higher your used prosperity is, which increases the production. That is, production speeds up later as you upgrade. Main Hall, Barracks, residences and workshops provide plenty of it, but adding more will not increase production, production boost is measured only on the settlement buildings of a base in the Vallorian Dragon Tower.

More in a week, let's see where I get to.

Here is what my set-up will look like. Not everything has been upped to lvl 4 of course (gate is still being upped and the other buildings I need to do the research for upping beyond lvl 2).
But it will fit very nice and snug in a space of 9x3 expansions

 

[Dhurrin]

My point is that they encouraged residence building from the Vallorian Seal Tower by coin generation, and then encouraged residence building by the chapter 21 community works. The latter was all that was needed to shift people towards residences, and the former is not needed to serve the goal of focusing on residences. So they implemented this 1 unurium reward for collecting community works, which serves no purpose given its meager quantity (also this amount is technically outside of the description as it is not taxation).

If the Vallorian Seal Tower is not needed to drive people to have residences, then why must its bonus be limited to them?

I understand what you're saying, and it does have merit, however I feel it may be unbalancing with the GA, way more than the event buildings.

My main issue here is that players made a choice whether or not to build this only to have it screwed over after such a short use in a way nobody could foresee.
And it could easily be solved (or better yet prevented) by having the production of the VST tied to residences period. If community work would trigger the effect as well as coins do, there would be no discussion on whether it should include the GA or eventbuildings.

 

[Pheryll]

Here is what my set-up will look like. Not everything has been upped to lvl 4 of course (gate is still being upped and the other buildings I need to do the research for upping beyond lvl 2).
But it will fit very nice and snug in a space of 9x3 expansions.

You can save yourself 9 prey trails by flushing your vallorian workshops left against your portal.

 

[Dhurrin]

You can save yourself 9 prey trails by flushing your vallorian workshops left against your portal.

True, thanks, so I may change that when making the final set-up.
But I think I need the extra trails for now because the buildings change size while upgrading, meaning I have to move them around a bit. Especially since with 4 builders I can only up so many at a time and I'm not in a hurry to rush those.
I already rushed through enough of the chapter

 

[vermp]

What is the rate of decay of Community Work?

 

[Pheryll]

I believe I have been losing 10% each day of Community Work.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

What is the rate of decay of Community Work?

All Decay goods decay at the same base rate of 10%.

 

[Vigali]

UPDATE: Made various changes to add a "How much longer?" table, and changed the Settlement Building Progress Table so that you just directly enter how many buildings of each level you have (instead of entering how many upgrades you have remaining to make), and updated calcs to fit.
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I've made a spreadsheet for Ch21 tracking in case it's useful for anyone else. The tab is "Vallorian Legend." There are a ton of other tabs you're welcome to explore as well if you'd like, but many of the previous chapter tabs are not fully complete (on some of them I basically stopped because there was enough variance in production strategies that it would be overcomplicated to put in a spreadsheet).

Note: I'm sure there are problems, maybe mistakes in calculations. Please point them out if you find them!

Vigali's Ch21 Spreadsheet

Features:

1. Research Table
   1. Displays all researches and costs.
   2. Type "Y" if you've researched it already, "N" if you haven't to keep it up to date with your progress.
2. Settlement Building Cost Table
   1. Shows you the actual cost of each building/level.
   2. Shows sum total of costs for each building type based on your layout goal (see: Settlement Building Progress Table)
3. Settlement Building Progress Table
   1. Allows you to set your end goal (how many fully leveled buildings of each type you want) in the Goal column.
   2. Allows you to track your progress toward that goal, tracking how many/what level portal and workshops you have.
      1. Example: You have just started the chapter and have built no Vallorian Workshops . Your end goal is to build 12 Vallorian Workshops and level them all to Lvl 4. To track this, you would enter "12" the Goal column for Vallorian Workshops. When you build 1 Vallorian Workshop, you would then update the Lvl 1 column by entering "1". When you build a second, update the column with "2". If you upgrade one of those workshops, you would update Lvl 1 to "1" and Lvl 2 to "2".
   3. Portal Level/Portal Production Tracker. Auto-calculates what level your portal is based on what you enter, and also auto-calculates your Portal Production buff based on what your progress is with portal/workshop building. Portal Production Buff is Required Prosperity/600, so every time you upgrade your portal or build/upgrade a workshop, your production buff goes up.
4. Production Material Requirements Table
   1. Shows all materials needed for the chapter. "Current" is how many you currently have; "Req'd" is how many you require to complete the chapter based on where you are right now; "Left" is just the difference between "Current" and "Req'd".
   2. Everything calculated inclusive of the feeder goods required to produce them.
      1. Example: Let's say you finish a research that required 100 Noble Oblations. Your "Req'd" Noble Oblations will drop by 100. Additionally, your Req'd Orcish Art will decrease (because Orcish Art is used to make Noble Oblations). Your Sea Serpent Scales/Dragon Glass/Lizard Shells will also decrease, because they are used to make Orcish Art, and your Broken Bones/Destroyed Furniture/Splintered Glass will decrease because they make the Scales/Dragon Glass/Shells. Basically, it's all intertwined and gives a good picture of what you really need in the moment.
   3. You can set your Sentient/Ascended Goods production bonuses. This is used to calculate how much seeds/unurium you need. This is a VERY rough calculation assuming only 3hr productions, because anything else gets overly complicated without adding much value.
5. Settlement Goods Requirements Tables
   1. These 3 tables show what you need to make each different settlement good.
   2. Includes the "Base" value and "Actual" value for each level of the building. The "Actual" value is calculated based on your Portal Production buff (which is calculated based on the settlement buildings you've entered onto the spreadsheet at the top).
   3. Includes both productions and costs to produce for all levels of all buildings.
6. "How Much Longer" Table
   1. Shows your average production of each settlement good. This is calculated by determining how many of each building you have at each level, what the building produces at those levels, and averaging production across all buildings. It uses the "Actual" values from Settlement Goods Requirements tables, which includes your Portal Production Buff.
   2. Shows Total # of Productions Needed. So, if you have 10,000 Broken Bones left to make, and your Avg Production Qty of Broken Bones is 100, then you will have 100 Productions Needed.
   3. Shows Time Per Production for each item (the actual amount of time it takes to create them).
   4. Shows Total Production Time (Time per Production * Total # Productions Needed).
   5. Allows you to enter the number of productions per day you make per building. You can play with this as you see fit, based on your play style. I chose 8 productions per day per building for the 2hr Prods, but realistically I'm probably only running them 6 times a day based on my playstyle. If you don't sleep ever, you could do 12.
   6. Shows you Total Days remaining to produce. This is calculated based on how many Prods/Day/Bldg you've entered, and how many buildings you actually have. This number assumes that you will devote *all* productions to that one settlement good (i.e., if it says 16 days for Broken Bones, and you set Prods/Day/Bldg at 8, and you have 12 Diabhals Workshops, it's assuming that you're running all 12 workshops 8 times per day producing nothing but Broken Bones). You can just add up total days in your head to get a general idea of how much longer you have in the chapter. Or maybe I'll do something for that later.