Explaining the "goldilocks zone"

[DeletedUser2963]

The Battle Update brought major changes to the game. None of these changes are being explained to players in the game. New players don't know the advantages of scouting evenly. They don't know what the rings are. They dont know that if they scout a province after researching advanced scouting tech the enemy squadsize will go down. They don't know that if they stay withing the required provinces for the next chapter the fights are winnable and if they go past the number the fights become impossible.

I suggest implementing a new quest line to specifically address these issues. Something that explains the goldilocks zone to players. Right now the line is not visible and new players are tripping over it.

 

[DeletedUser3507]

Yes I agree lack of information is bad and needs a solution, and since less than 2% ever come to the forums this needs fixed.

But for us that are past chapter 5, this should be optionable.

 

[DeletedUser2870]

I agree, in fact the game encourages new players to go on and scout as much as possible,

Actually, if Inno is so determined to have players stay within a certain amount of rings, they should adapt the scouting times so that those newer players will have to wait much longer to be able to scout that far ahead.

But I still have not heard a single argument that makes it clear why it would be a problem to do so? What is the technical problem about this? What is the in-game problem that makes it so bad that players go out and scout as far as they can?
The answer is 'balance' but it does not state anything that is being balanced, nor why, it is an empty argument.

 

[DeletedUser4778]

In the tips page on the main screen, I recently saw that scouting research reduces encounter difficulty as well as costs but only that once and never again since. I wish they would utilize the main screen more. In-game info would be even better since I know some players actually stop reading the tips because they keep repeating the same advice.

 

[DeletedUser4622]

Okay, wait. What is this goldilocks zone? I'm chapter 2

No, wait I'm just now chapter three.

 

[SoggyShorts]

Okay, wait. What is this goldilocks zone? I'm chapter 2

Basically fights get harder the more you expand, and easier every time you get an "advanced scouts" tech.

The goldilocks zone is somewhere between the minimum number of provinces needed to unlock the next advanced scouts ahead, and 10-20 provinces past that.
So for you 30 is the minimum to unlock chapter 3, so trying to clear 50 provinces will be extremely hard if not impossible.

EDIT: if you are Chapter 3 now, the next chest is 70, so the goldilocks zone is 70-90ish

 

[DeletedUser3507]

A set of ring numbers where you can scout and win in in fighting
Rings is the distance.from your city going outward in a circle

 

[SoggyShorts]

What is the in-game problem that makes it so bad that players go out and scout as far as they can?

As I understand it they want the KP tree to have a certain level of difficulty, and if you have "too many" expansions it makes the research costs negligible since you have room for so many factories. That seems to be where their idea of "balance" comes from.

 

[DeletedUser3507]

SoggyShorts I am so far out that I hit the Orc barrier completed all of ring 10, now I have to wait can't go any farther to I produce Orcs.

Glad that I am working on Orc portal
223 provinces completed.

 

[Thistleknot]

After reading this, I thought I would send a message to my fellowship. Here's what I wrote:

After reading something on the forum that suggested the Goldilocks Zone should be explained to new players, I thought it would be a good idea to try to explain it to you guys in hopes that it will make your exploring easier to deal with.

The Goldilocks Zone refers to the area around your city that is just right for scouting costs, scouting time, and combat winnability. This means that your scouting costs are not exorbitant, the scouting time is less than a day, and you should have combats with enemy troop sizes that are similar to yours. That zone is equal to the number of provinces that you need to get to the next age minus the number of provinces that you needed to get into your current age. For example, if you are in Age 3, you needed 30 provinces to unlock the chest. For Age 4, you will need 50 provinces to unlock the chest. Your Goldilocks zone is the next 20 provinces.

There are several things the need to be understood to make this work. One, researching Advanced Scouting will lower the cost of scouting provinces. It also makes the combats a bit easier and the negotiating costs lower. This is only true for new provinces being scouted. Any previously scouted provinces will not change. As always, the more you scout, the more expensive it will be as the costs slowly start to increase.

Two, this only works if you scout evenly in a ring around your city. If you go in a straight line, the costs will go up significantly and the fights will quickly become unwinnable.

Three, if you are beyond the current province requirements, the only way to get back into the Goldilocks zone is to do nothing as far as scouting. I needed 190 provinces to get into Age 8. I currently have 301 provinces conquered. I will not be in the Goldilocks zone ever again unless I do no exploration for the next year or two while I wait for new guest races to be created.

As always, if you have any questions, just let me know.

Hope this all helps.
Thistleknot.

If you think this is useful, copy it and pass it on. By the way, Lyapo, this is a great idea that should be incorporated into the game somehow. Especially since this doesn't seem to be going away.

 

[SoggyShorts]

If you think this is useful, copy it and pass it on.

Will do, and thank you

 

[DeletedUser2963]

There are several amazing suggestions in the forum for implementing changes that would help new players, I will go through and bump some of them now.

 

[DeletedUser3507]

One question, for as many times we have made suggestions, have you ever seen one implemented ?
I don't remember even 1.

 

[DeletedUser5157]

The "Goldilocks zone" seems to me like the game is punishing me for having spent real money to advance my first character. I have a second character in another world where I occasionally log in and assign the 10 KP I have accumulated, maybe once a day I go on. I've committed to not negotiating unless utterly impossible. And yeah, I can win the fights that I've done so far with relative ease. I haven't spent any money on that account. I'm not going to, because this battle system is clearly saying "if you as a new character with some real money in your Paypal decide to buy diamonds to negotiate your way viciously through a bunch of fights, we're going to make the game IMPOSSIBLE for you to play any way besides that way." I don't see any reason why, if I want to spend my real life hard earned cash and hack my way through the game faster to get to cooler things, I should be punished. If anything, it should be giving me ways to spend even MORE money to make my gameplay easier. But can I buy a cool type of troop? Nope. Why was I even allowed to use diamonds to negotiate so far ahead if the developers are so set on us all being on the same railroad path. Look, I ACCEPT the consequences, I fought past the Goldilocks zone with real money, and now I'm ahead of myself on the questline... but... am I? Each encounter I complete gives me KP. So I should be getting KP equal enough to unlock technology that will let me hold my own in battle. I just unlocked a troop increase, and had a go at a battle and yeah, I was able to actually kill one or two of their dudes before getting annihilated, so it seems like I might be just "a little bit ahead".

It just doesn't seem like a smart business decision that I'm having more fun fighting with the character I haven't spent any money on because she's in the Golilocks zone and if you spend even 5 dollars negotiating up, you're suddenly in the middle of an impossible slaughterfest. I have never played a game before that punished me for being active or spending money on it. I mean, now that I understand that's what they want, I'm not going to put any more diamonds into negotiating and ease back on my activity since clearly the development team would rather I just idle to get my KP and come on occasionally. I'll probably be able to fix my lead character as long as I don't do anything except collect hourly KP and visit my Fellowship and surrounding neighbor for a while, get to the next chapter, and then pick up battling again. I just don't understand why I should have to stop playing to be able to play. xP

 

[DeletedUser2963]

One question, for as many times we have made suggestions, have you ever seen one implemented ?

If you go to the ideas and suggestions forum area, there is a section dedicated to posted ideas that were implemented.

 

[DeletedUser4778]

Upon reading the recent previous posts, I just realized something that I think is very important: The term RING is misleading. It makes us think of circles instead of hexes which is what province encounter difficulty and costs are based on. I remember this because of when I found out that I miscounted "rings" by a lot because two provinces that were almost completely equidistant from my city were actually considered to be in different rings. So the suggestion of scouting in a circle as a general rule can fail at times if a province happens to fall outside the edge of a hex. For instance, if you just round out the hexes in the areas shown in the Provinces section of Mykan's Guide to Elvenar, we would have more leeway if provinces were indeed in rings rather than in hexes.

 

[Mykan]

This is something that is desperately needed. While longer term players would not like to do the tutorial I am certain a good number of them would benefit from this knowledge too

Edit: no it shouldn't be mandatory, just available so those who don't come to forums, etc, etc will become aware of it.

 

[DeletedUser3507]

at least don't make it mandatory.

I have enough provinces for chapter 10. And 10's still a concept.

But then I knew I was pushing the limit and did so.

 

[DeletedUser5226]

After reading this, I thought I would send a message to my fellowship. Here's what I wrote:

After reading something on the forum that suggested the Goldilocks Zone should be explained to new players, I thought it would be a good idea to try to explain it to you guys in hopes that it will make your exploring easier to deal with.

The Goldilocks Zone refers to the area around your city that is just right for scouting costs, scouting time, and combat winnability. This means that your scouting costs are not exorbitant, the scouting time is less than a day, and you should have combats with enemy troop sizes that are similar to yours. That zone is equal to the number of provinces that you need to get to the next age minus the number of provinces that you needed to get into your current age. For example, if you are in Age 3, you needed 30 provinces to unlock the chest. For Age 4, you will need 50 provinces to unlock the chest. Your Goldilocks zone is the next 20 provinces.

There are several things the need to be understood to make this work. One, researching Advanced Scouting will lower the cost of scouting provinces. It also makes the combats a bit easier and the negotiating costs lower. This is only true for new provinces being scouted. Any previously scouted provinces will not change. As always, the more you scout, the more expensive it will be as the costs slowly start to increase.

Two, this only works if you scout evenly in a ring around your city. If you go in a straight line, the costs will go up significantly and the fights will quickly become unwinnable.

Three, if you are beyond the current province requirements, the only way to get back into the Goldilocks zone is to do nothing as far as scouting. I needed 190 provinces to get into Age 8. I currently have 301 provinces conquered. I will not be in the Goldilocks zone ever again unless I do no exploration for the next year or two while I wait for new guest races to be created.

As always, if you have any questions, just let me know.

Hope this all helps.
Thistleknot.

If you think this is useful, copy it and pass it on. By the way, Lyapo, this is a great idea that should be incorporated into the game somehow. Especially since this doesn't seem to be going away.

Found this very informative and have posted in my Fellowship along with a suggestion that the members check out the Forum for a better understanding of the game. Thanks for posting this!

 

[DeletedUser5226]

The Battle Update brought major changes to the game. None of these changes are being explained to players in the game. New players don't know the advantages of scouting evenly. They don't know what the rings are. They dont know that if they scout a province after researching advanced scouting tech the enemy squadsize will go down. They don't know that if they stay withing the required provinces for the next chapter the fights are winnable and if they go past the number the fights become impossible.

I suggest implementing a new quest line to specifically address these issues. Something that explains the goldilocks zone to players. Right now the line is not visible and new players are tripping over it.

Could this explain why I can't scout beyond certain points? The provinces have a lock on the picture. I'm a new player and have only gone about 6 or 7 provinces out and around my land.