....but the question is NOT whether Goods are useful, but rather if EXCESS manufacturing buildings, more than 2 or 3 of each boosted type, provide a significant benefit.
So, in this statement you are suggesting that more than 2 or 3 manufactories of each kind is excessive, because you suggest that any more than this means that a player is playing at "Full Power", which you then say is playing "too hard" aka "wrong". Am I misreading this in any way?
Back on the thread for Feedback on Release Notes 1.10, page 5-6ish, we've debated what a "balanced" game is, and I explained how many factories I had, why I had them, and listed some thoughts on why players might choose to have higher numbers of manufactories beyond just for scoring points. And you, Katwijk, said in response to me - on page 6 -
"That's a very useful definition of a balanced game. If you MUST play one way or the other, in order to remain competitive, then we really only have half of a game. If you're still using both Negotiating and Fighting, depending on the circumstances, then you're already playing a balanced game."
No one commented to me that my game was unbalanced, and as I myself feel that I have balanced my numbers, buildings, goods & supplies as well as I can, the ONLY area I feel unbalanced in my game is that I can no longer negotiate provinces due to the Orc requirement (which, again, I am still in Dwarves and cannot meet since I have no ability to produce Orcs). So, this forces me to fight only - NO NEGOTIATION. I lose most of my troops since I don't even have upgraded Golems yet. As I cannot negotiate, my game IS NOT balanced, due to this Orc roadblock.
Regardless, that is rehashing an old point, but I just add it for background because it speaks to the fact that previously my city has been judged as "balanced", and I have 6 Steel, 5 Scrolls & 3 Elixer (I want 1 more Elixer but don't have the space).
Currently, out of 200 completed provinces, I have THREE neighbors who play at least 3x a week - rarely 6x a week. These are the only 3 neighbors I have that I can trade with without extra costs, and the only 3 neighbors I can count on to visit me at least 3x a week. No visits from any other neighbors - I'm in a sea of goldmines. I play often, and I need non-boosted goods in decent-sized quantities to get through Tourneys & to upgrade the buildings I have, so the solution is to join a FS, right? In my opinion, a "good" FS means that you have regular players - it might be nice to have high ranking players, but what we all NEED is players who will consistently visit you & trade with you, yes?
So, if a player only has 2 or 3 manufactories of each type, I find it quite incredible to think of what kind of game pace that is, and I can't imagine that they are helping their FS in any way either. And if they are NOT in a FS and have to pay 'extra' goods in order to trade with those they have not discovered yet, they are at a disadvantage there. I have not seen ANY player other than brand new ones who have that few manufactories. Let's disregard rank for a moment, even though lots of people do like to move up through the rankings to feel like they are making progress in this game (yes, this includes me).
I am quite interested in hearing from any other players - of any rank - who also think that more than 3 manufactories of any one kind are excessive. Are you in a FS? Do you place a lot of multi-tier trades (ie, you will offer Elixer for Steel, or Planks for Crystal, etc)? Does your FS have mostly members who are farther along than you or behind you? Are you the most frequent player in your area of the map or FS, the least frequent, or somewhere in the middle?
And, if other players are more inclined to agree with MY perspective - that a player needs MORE than 3 manufactories of each boost - then are we ALL playing this game WRONG? <---- I ask this with some level of facetiousness, because I have already said in previous posts that no one is playing this game WRONG, just differently. Personally, I much prefer choice in how we play this game, yet many of us see us all being funneled towards the exact same pacing, exact same game, exact same everything, and that's one reason why many are frustrated.
As I stated back on that previous thread, page 6 -
"In my ownFS, I actually have more points than a couple of people who are farther in the Tech Tree than I am. I have more points than others who have multiple AWs (I currently have none). I think this is due to 2 things - I play more frequently & I complete more provinces (by both fighting & negotiating) than they do. Is either way "wrong"? Is either way "better"? Nope, I don't think so, just different. Have we each not somehow earned our points though? Should a more active player be penalized because they are having fun playing the game frequently? And should a less active player somehow get advantages in order to make their point level more in line with that frequent player?
I also think this goes back to my question of why should we all be forced to play the exact same game? Everything we do earns us points, so if someone in Fairies (quite ahead of me in the Tech Tree) has a lower point score than I do (and I'm in Dwarves), do we look at that & say "how unfair, that Dwarves person must have an unfair advantage?" or do we look at that & say "probably that Dwarves person plays a lot more than the Fairies person"?
We've made different choices to get to where we are - one of which is that one player plays more often, maybe one player got in a better FS (which is just a chance/luck thing), maybe one player landed on a better map spot (with active neighbors & less gold mines, etc), and a hundred other choices."
This AW ridiculousness just adds penalty after penalty to those of us who've been loyal, regular players (and spenders, I might add!). And it does take away choice - it's one thing to have to fill in the KPs for each AW (just like we have to do with non-boosted manufactories), yet another thing completely to make it so hard to get runes for what you DO want to build. Less choices, yet again.