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    Your Elvenar Team

I need help organizing an unorganized city halfway through the game.

  • Thread starter Deleted User - 841850
  • Start date

Deleted User - 841850

Guest
Hi. I wrote this whole thing to give you an idea of my thought process in building the city. However if the paragraph below is too tiresome to read, I’d really appreciate it if you would be able to look ahead to the last one. that asks for the advice, thanks.

The following is why you should really do some research before playing this type of game:

I began this game by accident, I was watching some anime and saw the ad for the game. As I had just finished reading a multi book series about an elf and human world and as I love Minecraft (the ad did say “world-building” after all), I thought that this was the game for me.
I spent a good amount of time setting up the city to be defensive, hence the very small space on the valley side (I closely packed busy manufactories there as a deterrent to unwanted visitors.) I placed the training grounds and the flying boat with anchor (so that it wouldn’t float away) by the main hall so that there would be fighters to quickly respond to trouble and to guard against attack from the mountain and transportation so that the citizens could evacuate.
I made sure to click on all of the tool and manufactories choices, so that the citizens would have enough to eat and to be able to support themselves.
I also kept wondering when an attack would come, and what was I doing wrong that left me without any fighting capabilities.
I was in constant fear of getting a message that my citizens had died from starvation, been slaughtered, or given in to moral decay (not enough culture).
I joined a fellowship but did not ask questions (bad idea, ask and they will answer). My first question was out of panic as quite a few folks were advancing along while I was still stuck in Chapter V, desperately trying to get to Dwarves but with nowhere near enough resources and not sure how to make up the shortfall
Well my fellowship the, Loyal Leo Lionesses came to the rescue and gave me some good pointers, including selling off some culture.
With trepidation I sold 1 of 2 mysterious cyclones, my culture dropped (it went from 150 to 125 and I thought that I was done for).
It was in Dwarves that I finally came to terms with the fact that the game was not at all what I expected (that was when I realized that I'd have to dismantle my “horse” corral, read: unicorns, to make room for other things)
Two good things happened at that time, the first was finding the website, gamers gems of knowledge and the second was the March of Herds event. . The website helped me plan out my Dwarf space (which has been used for Fairies and now Orcs and Goblins).
The event was great because I was so focused on strategizing to complete quests that I was not bored with the chapter. In addition all of those quests ended up helping me build up goods and supplies as well as population.

now the request for advice:
Because of the way I began, my city looks all mixed up. Also due to my defensive building, it moves out in diamond formation as opposed to the recommended rows. at the end of dwarves I was able to move my main hall but while the advice says to put it in a corner, due to the way the city was begun, I decided for the center of the grid, so that I could access all four sides.
I have gotten used to the idea of deleting culture and am learning how to make good choices (however…unicorns forever…they stay, just hidden around the city.)
I have read ahead to other chapters and realize that I need to make room for things, however most of my remaining culture has pop attached and I only have pop total of 1380 right now, so can’t safely delete any of it.
I also went to Elven Stats and uploaded my city to Elven Architect.
I would really like some advice on preparing my city for upcoming chapters. Thank you.
 

Deleted User - 841850

Guest
I forgot to add my game name to the above post. It's Momestar and my fellowship is the Loyal Leo lionesses. Thanks
 

Ashrem

Oh Wise One
Flippant me says "You're beyond help." having got that out of my system, you have a lot of work to do, and will want to do it in stages to avoid frustrating yourself and anyone helping you.

For a start, to make yourself some room, decide what culture you can live without, and get rid of a few. Could you get by for a few days with 100% cutlure bonus instead of 150?

Part of that you could do by upgrading your roads. If you have enough leftover fairy or dwarf goods, start by turning all level 1 and 2 roads into those. That will add a bunch of culture, which will let you get rid of some smaller culture buildings to free up space. If you don't have leftover goods, then at least upgrade the level 1 stuff to ornate streets, which goes from zero culture to 30 per square.

Figure out the cheapest small culture item in your current spot that doesn't need difficult goods to make, calculate what that gives you per square. Anything that is giving you less than that, you should probably tear-down and replace with the higher item.

Hopefully that will give you a little breathing room to move on to some more redesign.

I'll call in the big guns by tagging @SoggyShorts.
 

Ashrem

Oh Wise One
I don't see a Dwarven Bulwark in your city. Try to make room for that, and tear down an armory. It is way more efficient at increasing your training queue, and doesn't use up culture and population. It doesn't produce orcs, but keeping one or two should be all the orcs you need. You can always rebuild an armory later if you find you miss it.
 

kctanzen

Well-Known Member
I second that Dwarven Bulwark option -- it is a very tasty addition.

I'm not terribly efficient with layout planning myself, but at first look, you seem to have spent a fair bit for premium buildings.
Unless you are in a fellowship that has a reasonable chance of getting 10 chests opened during tourneys, all those premium buildings can't be upgraded without spending more diamonds == and looking a bit further ahead, pretty much every culture building you have now will be obsolete after orcs, since they do not produce mana. The massive pop / culture footprints may still have some legs left however.

It looks like there are a large number of pretty old culture buildings too -- like Ashrem mentioned, upgrading roads doesn't take any more space (need to have the roads to function) but the extra culture from the new roads means you may be able to remove some of the older culture buildings and stay the same bonus level -- giving you more space to move things around / upgrade. Full disclosure -- I still have several old culture buildings in place .. opted to leave them in place for either population help or because of my plan below regarding wonders.

Last thing I'll mention for now ... with 3 rally points and only 18 mushroom farms, that could extend your time in the orcs chapter immensely. I'm purposely shooting for a smaller than recommended orc settlement, for now at least, and using the slower chapter progress to really work up my wonders levels. Dropping one of the rally points and filling in the space with mushroom farms may work out better for you -- can always tear them out later and rebuild the 3rd rally point in the previous footprint
 

SoggyShorts

Mathematician par Excellence
I'll call in the big guns by tagging @SoggyShorts.

Hmmmm I'm not sure @momestar will like my particular brand of help.....I'll try anyways though.

Momestar:
You have unlocked culture buildings that give 100 culture per square, so any pure culture building that gives less than that should go.
Your orc level houses give 75 pop per square, so anything under that also should go.
Most importantly you have non-boosted factories like silk,scrolls,dust,elixir,planks and steel--All of those must go.

Here is a link with all of the stuff that is holding you back moved off the map
http://www.elvenarchitect.com/city/planner/888075f5182d4b5ba8f8d9997960dafd/

If you are willing to turf all of those, I can take the next step and give you a recommended layout that will have more culture, pop, goods production, military, supplies, coins, and most importantly more space for orc buildings.
 

Deleted User - 841850

Guest
Cool, I'll have room. I was wondering what to keep and what to throw away but didn't want to die in the process.

I actually started, i'd delete something, including some premium...so gullible, but would freak out when my culture dropped to 150 and add a Classy Lantern or 2 to get it back up. see, the thing is, my fist few months of playing were spent in a hinterland with a bunch of empty cities (lots of coins to click) so I migrated with a 200 culture (when your bored, what else is there to do?) so now I've got a phobia of losing culture and always break out into a sweat when it drops.

I will be away from a computer until tomorrow night but can't wait to start. I'm about to go all out minecraft on my city (I've torn down and built so many times in that game that I've lost count!).

this advice is just what I was looking for, thanks.

ps-there's no plan to ditch horses (unicorns) right (please say no). They are actually the reason that you see so many garden fairies, runes and trees, I'd built a kind of corral for them
 

Ashrem

Oh Wise One
Don't listen to anyone who says you must do anything. Your goals are what matter. If it become important to delete them, you can delete them, but lots of us have some inefficient stuff that we just like.

And don't panic. Even if you culture goes negative, the city won't stop running, you just won't be able to build anything that needs culture until you get it back up again.

When you have some room, the most efficient goal is to get large buildings to the outside of the city, with all buildings having their shortest dimension touching the road. That reduces the total number of roads you need, increasing your overall productivity per square. Efficiency wide, the simplest result comes from having your largest buildings in the corners (keeping in mind that non-road buildings on the outside takes precedence over that)

Where possible, sort out culture that needs to touch a road for some reason from those which do not. Those non-road buildings can all be stuffed in a corner as much as possible, or along one side, with buildings in front of them that have road requirements.
 
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SoggyShorts

Mathematician par Excellence
ps-there's no plan to ditch horses (unicorns) right (please say no).
Nope. Of the dozens of cities I've designed for myself and others there has never been one that didn't have room for some unicorns.
Certainly not everyone can easily slash and burn buildings that they have outgrown, and you never really have to. The link I posted above is what I would remove, but even if you keep some/most of the culture buildings for any reason, as long as you remove the non-boosted and use the pop/culture that those are eating to upgrade your boosted factories, your city will produce more than it currently does.
 

Deleted User - 841850

Guest
Ok, I got started on my construction project, now I've got citizens with picket signs complaining about the mess and congestion, and here I am trying to improve their quality of life! Ya just can't win! Most of the things that I wanted to delete were on Soggy Short's list,so I feel like, "I'm all that and a can of paint" (don't know how that came to mean, "I feel smart", but there it is). Anyway, I am a little bit of freaking out though because I feel like I'm about to lose my 5th place spot in my fellowship. I've held that spot for long time, as a matter of fact, I now remember that keeping it, was what possessed me to add the 2nd brewery amongst other deadweight.I had upgraded all of my residences and manufactories like a fiend, so broke the bank and needed a boost. Anway I want to improve not get worse, so I better get busy and figure this out. I did not realize that upgrading roads was so helpful, I kept looking at what I had to spend to build them, but in thinking about it a little more I can see that the culture does add up painlessly, and don't you know dummy that I am, I actually sold back a ton of flower lanes and tracks, Yikes, I just lost what smarts I thought I had, oh well. However no flippancy allowed, I'm pretty stubborn so hopeless usually doesn't get attention.:)
This just in: After more wanton destruction, I'm down to 169 pop from around 1700! Ahhh, I'm hyperventilating get me a paper bag, I'm dyin' here.
 

Deleted User - 841850

Guest
I went to look at the cities of you guys who replied. While I couldn't find kctanzen's or Ashrem's I saw Soggy Shorts'. I know that the optimum build should have the culture on the outside so as not to waste space but I don't want to look like I just tossed it there, so I like how he made it come together. I tried for a neat look but kind of missed the mark, hopefully I can turn it around.
My question is this, I was looking ahead to the upcoming chapters and noticed what resources will be needed in each, now with my sets and trading it looks like I'll be okay until Elementals where I'll need non-boosted manufactories, so why is getting rid of them recommended?
 

Ashrem

Oh Wise One
When you get to elementals, you will only need one of your second boost, and in the meantime the amount of extra production you can get out of those squares is a significant differene. Possibly even "huge" or "massive" (which won't actually make sense to anyone who isn't following beta)

I only play by this name on Felyndral, so there isn't much to see on your server. Here is my layout in Elven Architect
 
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Deleted User - 841850

Guest
In hindsight, I bet I can only see those who are on my server,right? D'oh!
 

Ashrem

Oh Wise One
In hindsight, I bet I can only see those who are on my server,right? D'oh!
Yes. The only way to see other server cities is to create a city on that server. Many people do it, though one of two things happens. Either you live a dead city lying around that your new neighbors will hate, or you get sucked into trying to play multiple cities until you break yourself or your brain (and shorts) turn soggy.
 

Deleted User - 841850

Guest
Just tried to look at Shimmerfly's city, as well also a no go.
 

Deleted User - 841850

Guest
Yeah, I clicked on another city on my server, thinking it would be a different scenario, nope (my erroneous suppositions are becoming legendary!). I tried to do something with it, using my new found knowledge. However I gave it up, I'd rather do my best with one city than limp along (which is what I was doing) with two! Is there some kind of notification system to let them know that I'm no longer participating in that world?
 

Deleted User - 841850

Guest
In case there is something of worth there, here is what I have in Summonings (number of items awarded and chapter earned):
Mage Multiplier- 1 (Chapter 1) 5 (Fairies).
Unleashed Unit Upgrade- 3 (Fairies) 4 (Orcs)
Orc Nest- 1 (Fairies)
Branchwood of Nuts- 1 (Fairies)
A Sleighful of Ice Cubes- 1 ( Fairies)
Herds Gathering- 1 (Dwarves)
Great Auction- 1 (Dwarves)
Traveling Merchant !!- (planks/silk)-1 (Dwarves)
Blue Tree Enclosure-1 (Dwarves)
Green Tree Enclosure- 2 (Dwarves)
Please let me know if any of this is worth dragging out.
Thanks
 

kctanzen

Well-Known Member
I would keep all of that stashed away until you finish your layout in game .. then, you will still have it around to put down if you wanna use it.
The temp military buildings really zoom up the power of your units -- best to save them for a specific tourney push week if you can.
Each of the bonuses stack up .. so it can get pretty amazing if you have the space == then when the bonus expires, sell them off because they aren't worth the culture alone.

Like Ashrem mentioned, I am only on the Felyndral server but this is a link to my most recent layout in the game.
http://www.elvenarchitect.com/city/planner/4ebccb3ade904bd78ac637ad9aa0cce8/

I am not a greatly efficient designer however!!
 
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