How to get through chapters 16 to 19

[satchmo33]

My undying admiration for all of you who successfully are wending your way through the upper four Chapters. I. Have. No. Clue. How. You. Do. It.
I must be missing some crucial piece of info, because I just cannot see how to succeed. They are IMpossible. I have been stuck in 16 for, oh, probably 9 months to a year and am only half-way through.

Do y'all just shun the Spire, Tournaments, Events, etc. and focus ONLY on the Research Tree? (...and, for me personally, making prettinesses in my city...) These things are fun for me and I really like doing them all. BUT, they gobble up carefully saved sentient goods.

I truly need help. Is there some secret or piece of logic that I'm missing.

(like, I'm v. good at doing Sudoku puzzles, but I just cannot solve the "Sunday ones". There's some bit of logic that I've not been taught yet that would allow me to solve them.......)

Thank you in advance.

 

[samidodamage]

I feel for you, @satchmo33! I stopped even trying after finishing Ch15 and parked both cities. Then, I took one city through Ch17 and then parked it. Here's a post I made in the Ch17 thread last spring that described my feelings about that chapter. In my view, the same post could apply to Ch16, lol. So, no good news and I really don't thing there's any logic you're missing.
Some players enjoy making it through the chapters, no matter what. Me, I enjoy the auxiliary activities, or I'd have found another game by now...

 

[SoulsSilhouette]

I'm stuck in 15 in my Khel city and when I finish the chapter I'm gonna park for a bit and save up some resources and get my city to a place where I can mosey my way through the rest. I'm in no big hurry to take any of my other cities through the chapters fast (except for the Orcs cuz I truly dislike the way that looks). Every other chapter is okay for me to slow poke through. I just really hate the Orcs. did I mention that?

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

I don't remember how I did all of it, but I played everything fully. Tournaments, Spire, events, FAs. I also was not afraid to use tons of time boosters, plus portal profits when they helped. But with that and whatever else I did, chapters 16-18 took about 4 months each and chapter 19 took 5 months. Oh, and since that was my first time through each chapter, I also fully completed all the story quests. No waiting til the end and then skipping.

 

[StarLoad]

All this just makes me happy to have opened the door to chapter 16 but not to have stepped through.

Ed

 

[satchmo33]

Thank you all for your replies. I appreciate your time/trouble.

 

[iamthouth]

Hi @satchmo33
I'd tried to paint a picture in the chapter threads for each chapter:
Chapter 16 & Ch16 follow up
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19

I notice you don't have any Beer Festival or Tea Houses, which will help the settlement production. You are possibly suffering from only having 1 armory fully upgraded too, as the Orc requirements are high. I played around alot in ElvenArchitect for this chapter to find my ideal layout, which also changed throughout the chapter from memory.

 

[Farinx]

I believe the "secret" to these chapters is to have enough city space build more than the minimum required number of chapter buildings, as the easiest way to go through a chapter 50% faster is to have 50% more buildings. Also take notice of which buildings are producing your limiting chapter resources and focus them. Don't be afraid to demolish something you aren't going to be needing as much of.

If you are still using 8-10 max level WS's, ditch half or more of them and start using PoP's to save space and population.

Also, Blooming Trade Guild Wonder essentially becomes mandatory starting chapter 16, as it boosts production for ALL chapter goods you make, not just the ones you can use PP for.

And yes do use PP for the goods you can, otherwise PP is worthless. Use Timers in tight spots for goods PP doesn't work on.

 

[ajqtrz]

I don't remember how I did all of it, but I played everything fully. Tournaments, Spire, events, FAs. I also was not afraid to use tons of time boosters, plus portal profits when they helped. But with that and whatever else I did, chapters 16-18 took about 4 months each and chapter 19 took 5 months. Oh, and since that was my first time through each chapter, I also fully completed all the story quests. No waiting til the end and then skipping.

I think Enevhar Aldarion has hit one of the nails on the head. It's about "playing everything fully." Which means it's about time, knowledge and application.

If you are a casual player who comes around once or twice a day, plays the tournament to a thousand or two points, doesn't worry too much about finishing events, does the Spire to the top the second level and so on, it's naturally going to take you a lot longer than somebody "playing everything fully," and being here several times a day.

And there is just sheer game knowledge. If a player doesn't know she he/she is doing, that too, will slow them down...probably a lot.

Having said that, there is also the idea of a balanced city. I suspect, as was suggested, a city without enough orc production will naturally be slower to get through everything. The same goes for any particular resource. The more "unbalanced" things are between what you need and what you produce, the more difficult it will be to advance.

The "solution" then? 1) Play the game fully; 2) Know the game fully; and 3) Keep a balance between your production and your needs, which depends on knowing the game fully.

The first is a matter of time, the second a matter of knowledge and the third, a matter of applying that knowledge.

I'm on Chapter 18. After a full year of parking to get all things up to date and to prepare, I've been in this chapter for 6 months. I expect it to take me another 6 months as I have chosen that as my goal. Why?, because I like playing the whole game and that means tearing my city apart for FA's, having less room for guest races and so on. My choice. I suppose if I wanted to get through it in 4 months I could, though I would then have to skip the FA's, for certain.

There is no "too fast" or "too slow" unless you make it "too fast" or "too slow." There is no penalty in taking 2 years to advance a chapter or 40 days (as I did one chapter).

AJ

 

[satchmo33]

@iamthouth : I have 5 each of the beer/tea bldgs. in storage. Maxed out on their output - so I just made the precious space available 'til I need 'em. My dear AM came to my rescue in massive trades yesterday in one of my cities....so I was actually able to upgrade the faerie and dwarven bldgs. to level 3. A MAJOR breakthrough!

 

[Mykan]

Your making progress and those chapters will take ages, easily expect 6-12months closer to 12 if a more casual player. The chapters can be progressed even slowly while still doing the spire and tournament and things you like. What I am wondering is what it is specifically that you are struggling with? Is it only time? Is it sentient goods that you mention?

Looking at your town (if it is the US2 one) there are a couple things that you could look at to help depending on your goals/struggles:

• Orc production as mentioned
• Workshops - Workshops get a huge production boost somewhere around where you are. I would think with your factory and armory numbers you could get away with less when they boost kicks in. You may want to look into your use of PoP spells and culture bonus (EE spells)
• Do you have a culture bonus? It is often underestimate but can help supplies production a lot
• non-boosted factories - I thought I spotted your 3 unboosted factories, these gobble up a lot of space and resources for very little and arent needed for a couple more chapters. Consider teleporting them out and only bringing back when needed
• Review your resource needs and balance. This is unique for each person so its impossible to know what is right for you. This also needs to factor in your spend
• Consider MM usage for sentient goods, look into wonders that will help sentient production (there are a number of them) or boosts MM spells
• Seeds production, the main production comes from wonder levels and I feel yours is on the low side, granted the tourny changes make this a difficult balance. In chapter 17 you have to balance seeds with unurium and that will grind you to a halt if you haven't got a good production of seeds

Also look at your production in comparison to your spend. Are you catering in everything? Is the level of catering sustainable? If not you either need to increase production or reduce your spend or consider a balanced combat/cater approach. This area is unique to each person and has so many factors that come into play. Spire and tourny have areas where combat is fairly cheap and fights are designed for you to win, troops are just another source of supplies you spend.

 

[Gkyr]

All this just makes me happy to have opened the door to chapter 16 but not to have stepped through.

Ed

That is my goal, too.

 

[satchmo33]

Wow. A personalized assessment from @Mykan ! I am so very honored. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The catch is sentient goods amassment. I could make greater chapter advancement if I shunned the Spire....but....I like it, dammit.

I will take every bit of advice and try to implement them. Some, I already am...to the max. Others I will take immediate steps to act (like, paying much more attention to my AWs....have been always somewhat neglectful of them....)

 

[Darielle]

I am not a casual player. I'm on Elvenar at least 6x daily or more, if only for a few minutes. I want to check on my people and answer questions, plus provide incentives and motivate the base. But I confess, I'm not motivated to finish the chapter. I still have 8 techs left in Chapter 17 and I DETEST THIS CHAPTER. This crawling, slow-motion chapter makes 16 look like an airplane ride. I've been in it since February. It's not that I don't play.

Could I go faster? Sure, if I wanted to destroy or teleport nearly everything I've built over the past 3 years. My city has a life of its own. I like the way it's set up, and no thank you, I WILL NOT destroy it just because a new chapter wants me to put an unholy amount of guest race buildings on it just to crawl at a sloth's pace rather than a snail's. They're both PAINFULLY SLOW in any case, so why bother?

So for me, I get to research when I get to it. The heck with it. If I don't get to the end before Christmas, we'll too bad. I've got things to do, tournaments to do, spire climbs, events, etc. Part of me hates this game for the research chapters and part of me loves it so much I'll never stop. Maybe someday I will, if the future chapters frustrate me even more than this god-awful-chapter-from-hell does. I don't know yet.

Can you tell I am not amused?

 

[Darielle]

Wow. A personalized assessment from @Mykan ! I am so very honored. Thank you, thank you, thank you.

The catch is sentient goods amassment. I could make greater chapter advancement if I shunned the Spire....but....I like it, dammit.

I will take every bit of advice and try to implement them. Some, I already am...to the max. Others I will take immediate steps to act (like, paying much more attention to my AWs....have been always somewhat neglectful of them....)

In 17, the problem is not sentient goods, orcs, or anything except guest race goods. That's the only hold up. You need some of one guest race good to make the second and third, but then you need the second race good to make the third and first, and then you need the third race good to make the first and second one ... (depending upon whether it's the mother ship, large ship, or small ship you're working in) .... on and on and on, so that even though you need all three goods, you're always cannibalizing guest race goods to make others. Two steps forward and then one step back, always. That is the WORST PART OF THIS *&^^%&*$#@!!!!!!! CHAPTER FROM HELL!!!

Sorry ... didn't mean to shout. But like I said, 16 was a cake walk in comparison. At least you didn't have to destroy your stash of goods just to make a stash of other goods when you need all of those stashes desperately to get anywhere. All you had to do was keep making orcs and stuff and while it was slow, it was doable. This is total ... I want to say it, but I don't cuss so I won't.

 

[satchmo33]

@Darielle - you're so ethereal and beautiful and haunting......so surprised to "hear" you yelling bad words ( ;-) )

I'm not touching that sucker with a 10-foot pole!

 

[Darielle]

@Darielle - you're so ethereal and beautiful and haunting......so surprised to "hear" you yelling bad words ( ;-) )

I'm not touching that sucker with a 10-foot pole!

Awww ... thank you. I try hard to stay mellow and peaceful, but every so often, something rattles me ... this chapter is one of those things. If my mother could hear what I think about it, she'd come down from the stars and wash out my brain with soap.