Lack of Needed Goods

[DeletedUser535]

I have been playing Elvenar both on the Beta and USA server, and I have been enjoying it enormously! However, I do think there are problems with the distribution of goods boosts among the players in the same neighborhood. In my neighborhood the trade market is large and active, but most people seem to have the same goods as I do. For example: I need pink jewels and magic elixir in large amounts for upgrades and negotiating provinces. But the only thing that I have to trade for it is magic dust, which is the good that I have a boost for. But everyone else on the market is also asking for jewels and elixir, and most of them are offering magic dust! So virtually no one wants the boosted good that I produce. That leaves me with the only alternative to get the goods that I need is to buy them from the Wholesaler, which is very, very expensive. I have to buy the goods in tiny amounts every day, and it take a long time to save up 600 jewels or 500 elixir. I know that there are players that get frustrated and give up the game because it is too hard to get the goods they need. So how is it that it seems that almost the entire neighborhood of players have the same goods boost? It just isn't possible to have a good trading market that way. I feel that the goods boosts in neighborhoods need to be far more evenly distributed. It only works if I have magic dust, and my neighbor has magic elixir and the next neighbor has jewels. But if we all have magic dust, and we all need elixir and jewels, it makes it very frustrating. I will continue to play Elvenar regardless, but it would be better if it were easier to trade.

 

[DeletedUser23]

I believe the uneven distribution of goods is by design, you can always buy goods with diamonds on the tech tree.

 

[DeletedUser460]

I think you missed her point. In order for the trade markets to keep working and drawing people to use them, there needs to a variety of goods available. If everyone needs the same good, then no one uses the market/trader. Maybe you can afford to spend real money for goods. many can't. Since the market isn't universal or map wide, it is important that the goods be somewhat evenly distributed within each trade area. This way every player has a fairly equal and fun game experience.

 

[DeletedUser378]

I am encountering the same problem - very discouraging. I will continue to play, but it's not as fun when you don't have people trading what you need. I played Forge of Empires for a long time, and trading was very active there. I wonder if maybe there are a lot of new players who just haven't gotten around to trading yet? I will keep putting up my trades and hoping that other players will catch up.

 

[DeletedUser]

This seems to be pretty coincidental. Looking at the world map, resources are evenly distributed in a regular pattern. If even a quarter of players were truly active, there would be no shortage of trading partners for any given resource. I think this is more a problem of active/inactive ratios than distribution/availability of resources.

For the record, I'm lucky enough to have half a dozen active players within half a dozen tiles from my city, and still Lumber is in short supply.

You also have to realize that some people want to play this as a single-player game, without depending on anyone else for trade. They simply won't post trade requests on their own, because they produce everything for themselves.

 

[DeletedUser]

My neighbors seem to have a variety of goods to post trades for, except for silk; nobody is trading silk, which is my biggest need at the moment. I'm guessing, especially after reading what has been posted already, that no one in my area has a boost for silk. That is too bad cause I have to buy silk, and it's quite expensive. I haven't gotten beyond my third boosted good yet, but I'm sure I will encounter further issues with other goods. Truly though, I can't complain. I am surrounded mostly by inactive players, but there are 6 or 7 who are actively playing. That makes for a good game, even with the inactives.

 

[DeletedUser535]

My neighbors seem to have a variety of goods to post trades for, except for silk; nobody is trading silk, which is my biggest need at the moment. I'm guessing, especially after reading what has been posted already, that no one in my area has a boost for silk. That is too bad cause I have to buy silk, and it's quite expensive. I haven't gotten beyond my third boosted good yet, but I'm sure I will encounter further issues with other goods. Truly though, I can't complain. I am surrounded mostly by inactive players, but there are 6 or 7 who are actively playing. That makes for a good game, even with the inactives.

This is exactly the problem that I was discussing in my original post. I have a boost for silk, but in my neighborhood, no one wants silk. Nor planks, which was my first tier boost. In all the many weeks that I have been playing, I have yet to see a single trade asking for planks, and only a tiny handful asking for silk. The same thing happens with my third tier boosted good, magic dust. Many players in my neighborhood market are offering magic dust, which leads me to believe that they also have a boost for magic dust. Which does not help any of us, since no one is offering pink jewels or magic elixir in return for dust. I am very frustrated with the trading market, because all of the goods I have a boost for are useless---no one is asking for them. Which leaves me with the only option being the wholesaler for obtaining all of the goods that I need. That is fine, at least it is an option, but it is very, very expensive, and makes the accumulation of the goods that I need for upgrades and negotiating provinces extremely slow. Frankly, not everyone has the patience to spend days obtaining enough goods to upgrade one building. Part of the game is supposed to be trading on the market, and this is not happening for most players. I started out building several of the goods buildings that I have boosts for, thinking to stockpile goods in order to trade them on the market. But that never happened. None of the goods I have a boost for are requested on the local market, so I have deleted most of the multiple buildings. In their place I have built goods buildings for goods I do not have a boost for, in order to be able to produce at least a small amount of those goods.

I do agree that some of this problem is caused by inactive players and players, who, for whatever the reason, are not trading their boosted goods. But I cannot see what can be done regarding that. What I do think the designers should do is to greatly increase the size of the trading market, so that you can trade with players on several sectors of the map, rather than just those that are immediately adjacent. Yes, I did read about the possibility of their starting guilds, or fellowships, here in Elvenar. Hopefully that will alleviate some of this problem. But guilds bring their own dynamics to a game. I have been playing in several worlds of Forge of Empires for about three years now, and I have seen as many problems as benefits resulting from guilds. Hopefully the Fellowships here in Elvenar will prove to be more beneficial.

 

[DeletedUser]

My fingers are crossed that the Fellowships feature will really help the uneven trading situation so many of us find ourselves in. Until then, we're dealing with essentially a predictable result of statistics and chaos theory: with an even distribution of resources and an even distribution of players among those resources (or vice versa, if you prefer), a random distribution of activity among players results in some having access to all resources in their local market and more finding themselves in a market starved for at least once resource. It's just math, and it needs to be compensated for, one way or another.

I recently started playing on the beta server, just to compare, and the first thing I noticed is the very low number of non-starter ghost towns. I haven't built my trader there yet, but I'm hoping that translates to more healthy markets. Guess I'll find out soon.

 

[DeletedUser61]

Opening the new regional servers was pretty hard on the Beta population.
Beta has it's own mystique, and you need to have a pretty decent tolerance for unfulfilled expectations.

 

[DeletedUser198]

Trade is a disaster on this US server.... and I really do not see how the devs can repair this. Putting (more inactive or starting ) players in a hood is clearly not an answer. The time needed for a new player to reach an acceptible trading position is near to nothing. In the meanwhile active players are placed looking into nothingness... most will leave the game imho, as will I. For the moment I will maintain my account, however there is no fun playing it. I need most of my resources on the wholesaler for completing quests :S no active trade anywhere in MY surroundings... Only thing I'm still around is that I am curious how things will be solved...
Do I have fun playing here: NO
Would I recommend this game on the US server to others : NO x3....

 

[DeletedUser511]

You have to many people ripping you off for stuff. I can see making something I guess but if the trade says very expensive then you suck.

 

[DeletedUser425]

I noticed 2 things: neighbors produce the same thing as you & Boosts are based on relics of your boosted manufactory, I get that. but non boosted manufactory relics do not effect production?
example: I have the most marble relics but never produce equivalent of less steel relics using same number & level of manufactories?

 

[DeletedUser511]

I would think the others helped. I mean why have you getting them. If they dont have a effect that really does suck.

 

[DeletedUser61]

You get the knowledge points from conquering the province, but the non-boosted relics currently serve no purpose other than the occasional quest. We've made a carload of suggestions, however, of which the most interesting is contributing to a neighborhood shrine on that plateau that's just behind your city.

 

[DeletedUser]

On who produces what: everyone on the same downward diagonal row (10-o'clock/4-o'clock) has the same boosts. If you're seeking trade variety, look further away from the 10/4 diagonal you're on. And it never hurts to send messages to nearby active players to try and improve market participation and cooperation.

 

[DeletedUser511]

Thats bull the person just next to me boosts the same. Next to me not diagonal.

 

[DeletedUser61]

There's a 9-bar tessellation.

9Bar.jpg
For each city, the initial boosts are determined by the sector to the North, Southwest, and Southeast of the city. There are therefore exactly 9 unique city+relic configurations, and nearby cities will always have different boosts.

 

[DeletedUser]

Look at the map. Really stop and look at it, and you will see this:

The star in the middle is you. The resources that are boosted for you are A, B and C. The colors (other than light blue) are your neighbors, corresponding to their relative trade value. RED = all the same boosts as you (100% competition vs. you); YELLOW = one different boost; LIME = two different resources; GREEN = all different (no competition vs. you).

 

[DeletedUser511]

Well I have Planks, scrolls and dust as booster and the person right next to me not even a stone away has two of my three. Planks, silk and dust. How do we have almost the same with us almost touching? I dont believe the graph.

 

[DeletedUser]

From what I'm understanding, the people 'right next' to you are the ones on the yellow dots to the right and left of the dark blue dot in the center (your city). So, following the graph instructions, that would be right: Yellow Dots will have two of the three resources the same as yours. So only one would be the one you two needed to trade. So yeah, going by that, the graph is correct. There is a space between you and the person 'next' to you, which is the pair of blue dots, and are the providences you go to to collect relics from.