Main Hall

[BrinDarby]

After looking at hundreds of cities, I keep seeing 1 main flaw.
Well, to me it seems that. I keep see'n people with a MH at too
high of a level, and wonder why. Is it because people just follow
the personal tasks too much, or is there another reason ???

The MH eats up valuable population/culture in the early CHs.
Unless you are red-line'n it wayyy too much why even upgrade ?
Yes I know, scouting costs will increase.... I agree, and recently I
Finally !!! went to lvl-7, and I have been CH3 for 2 months now.

I see many people with lvl 9-12 MHs, yet thier output is less than mine,
for those cities of equal size/CH. I'm mainly talking CH1-3 players, because
that is when that xtra pop/cul is the most critically need'd.... and the prompts
from the game, if not ignored, push players to upgrade thier MH too soon.

Whats up with that ????

 

[Iyapo1]

I cant speak for anyone else but my rapid MH upgrade has more to do with the spire and the coin and supply rains. They provide a % of MH capacity. My main hall is always upgraded before I get the quests, they pop up green.

Edit to add: I just slid into ch 4 my main hall is at 13.

 

[AtaguS]

Having a fully upgraded MH is a worthwhile investment all around. It boosts productions throughout your city

 

[Deleted User - 4646370]

Upgrading Main Hall improves coins and supplies production from instants, neighbourly help and wonders, so I think it's a good investment.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Also, in later chapters, buying a research expansion will require so much coin, only a fully upgraded Main Hall will hold enough. I think there are other mega-costly things in later chapters that a lower level Hall will just not hold enough coins for you to continue the game properly.

 

[InvincibleRailroad]

I agree. The further along you get the more coins you need, so you need to upgrade the MH to hold them.

 

[Aritra]

There are many benefits to a strong MH as other players have already commented. One aspect I've definitely appreciated is the NH bonus. In the beginning (first started, early chapters), I quickly figured out that the world map was a good source of quick cash (albeit once a day, and fewer neighbors initially) and that upgrading the MH increased my per-city yield significantly. This income was useful for buildings, upgrades in general, and trips to the wholesaler. As both my world map and MH increased, my income went up significantly. I expect in later chapters NH won't go quite as far due to costs rising faster than those upgrades and supplemental coin sources will be necessary (and I have since acquired additional coin sources). Though the NH might not go as far, I am/will be glad to have that increased capacity since rising costs mean higher coin accumulation before application.
[ch.6,MH-14, don't recall what level it was in ch.3]

 

[AtaguS]

I'm in chapter 15 with a level 33 MH...and every day I visit every NH for a total yield of around 13.5 million coins. I then take that to the wholesaler and it's good for roughly 30k in goods, which I consider free since it cost me nothing but the 5 minutes to visit my neighbors. That 30k is a low estimate and will only get better if I upgrade my blooming trader.

 

[Henroo]

As many people have already commented a Main Hall increases output of stuff such as Ancient Wonders, supply instants, coin rains, and neighbor help. And I agree with all of you on this, for a leveled player upgrading the MH is a solid investment. But I think you might be missing the point @BrinDarby was making. He specifically mentioned early chapter players in his post. Such players do not yet have AWs, have very small explored map areas so they are not giving help to many neighbors, and are unlikely to have many coin/supply spells. So while I think that upgrading MH for advanced players is good, I think he has a valid point that for newer cities it is best to keep the MH as small as possible. This lets the new, small city put as much population as possible into workshops and manufactories in the early stages of the game.

 

[AtaguS]

Such players do not yet have AWs, have very small explored map areas so they are not giving help to many neighbors, and are unlikely to have many coin/supply spells.

I would argue that a fully upgraded MH helps the small city achieve these things faster...which is what makes it a solid investment. Nothing comes easy in early chapters so of course players have to pick and choose and prioritize where to put their efforts. Like an AW, which takes time and patience to upgrade to the point where it starts to really work well for your city...the MH is a basic source for generating a higher yield.

 

[StarLoad]

I have to agree with AtaguS, that the fully upgraded MH is more of a benefit to a smaller city than the loss of 5-8 squares of space, it is the engine that fuels growth.

 

[Henroo]

When I was doing the early chapters (1-3), I was constantly building, upgrading, placing research expansions, and unlocking techs. This was burning off my gold and supplies as fast as I could make them. Therefore the larger storage capacity of an upgraded MH was not a big deal. As long as it I could hold enough gold to put down the next expansion, I was good on that account. I did not yet have any AWs, so that aspect of upgrading the MH did not apply. In the very early chapters of the game, the only real benefit I got from upgrading MH was the increased amount of neighbor help. And it would take days for that to pay off the amount of gold I would have spent doing the MH upgrade. So in the very early stages of the game I always put off doing the MH upgrade as long as possible. Somewhere around ch 4 or 5 things balance out and it becomes a lot more beneficial to upgrade MH. But before then I was growing so fast that I had better uses of resources

 

[Iamaita]

I had this whole post written about apples to oranges and my two chapter 2 cities and how different decisions and variables could change how effective it is to level a main hall, etc. Because I really wanted to side with Brin and Henroo... Then I did some math. Here's the difference in spending the same amount of gold to upgrade the main hall vs. residences in my chapter 2 city that has a gold shortage:

Building Upgrade	Upgrade Cost	Number of buildings	Increase in Gold per Collection	Number of Collections per Day	Total Extra Gold	Days to Recoup Investment
Main hall 4 to 5	63400	1	360	18	6480	10
Residence 5 to 6	9800	6	74	3	1332	44

You feel like you are getting more faster by upgrading the residences because you are making more clicks. But you are actually slowing yourself down by not saving the gold and putting it into upgrading the main hall. Is it more complicated than this with more variables? Sure. But this is convincing enough for me. I'm going to go upgrade that main hall. Should you max level your mainhall as soon as possible? Well, I don't think so. I think it depends on whether you need gold or people. If you need population more, wait. If you need gold more, level up the main hall.

 

[Darielle]

When I was doing the early chapters (1-3), I was constantly building, upgrading, placing research expansions, and unlocking techs. This was burning off my gold and supplies as fast as I could make them. Therefore the larger storage capacity of an upgraded MH was not a big deal.

But if you were burning off gold and supplies that quickly, didn't the bonuses come in handy? They certainly did for me. When 20 of my fellowship members gave me neighborly help, and I returned the help, I received both coins and supplies in amounts that depended upon my Main Hall upgrades. It made a huge difference to me whether I was getting 1500 coins and 150 supplies from each, or whether I was getting 2700 coins and 270 supplies each even in chapter one. I'm not sure of the exact numbers so this may be off, but you get the idea.

I've kept my MH maxed as much as possible ever since the very first chapter, and I've never been sorry. Even if you had only 30 neighbors to visit in chapter one, the difference between getting 45000 coins a day or getting 81,000 coins can be a game changer in how fast you can do things. And if the neighbors build a relationship with you and visit back and forth, the supplies are critical as well.

And don't forget to add into the equation the amount of gold and supplies you get by accepting the quests to upgrade your main hall. The more you accept those quests, the more you can get.

 

[ajqtrz]

I agree with AtaguS's comments about NH. I visit 179 people a day. It takes me, and I've timed it several times, 12-14 minutes. It adds up to 13.2 million coins. My MH is lvl 34 and I too, am in chapter 15. But the question you might ask is WHY I visit all those people? The 13.2 million means I don't have to have about 2 of my residences (in storage) (they each produce about 9 mill a day so it's a bit less than 2). The space I use for having the MH up to it's highest level "given" by the removal of 2 residences. Of course, as others have noted, if you are taking in 13.2 million coins you have to have some place to store them. My MH stores up to 44 million, but even with that, given the visits and my production I have to go to the wholesaler 8 times a day to empty enough space to store the coins I'm collecting.

Now does this work at the lower levels? I started my daily visits to my neighbors in CH 3. I visited about 1/2 of my neighbors and that was before the mobile version made it so much easier and faster. It then took me about 20-25 minutes and still I found I was collecting so many coins, if my MH wasn't up to it's highest level I would be forced to do even more wholesaler purchases -- not a bad thing until you get to the third level of purchasing (12+ times having to make room for coins). Because each round goes up the third round is 2 times the first, so I was spending coins a lot faster. Still, from that point on I've never once run out of coin. I have TONS of coin instants and wish there was another way to spend coins!

So, the "trick" is to spend the time visiting. I visit only 1/2 of my neighbors (those in fellowships as I assume they are more likely to be active, though that's pretty much hit and miss), and if I were to run short on coins the other 1/2 is about 12 million "reserve" coins just sitting there each day.

The reasons, therefore, for keeping the MH up to date are, for me, as a place to store all the coins I'm getting without having to go to the wholesaler even more often, a way to increase space available, and a foundation to a lot of other things mentioned by others. It's called the "Main Hall" because it's central. If it weren't they'd probably have named it "Secondary Hall" or "Meh Hall."

AJ

 

[LordVorKon]

I have TONS of coin instants and wish there was another way to spend coins!

I found that buying KP was a GREAT way to spend coins.

 

[BrinDarby]

for CH 1-3 players...a MH upgrade takes alot of population, and is the biggest contributing
factor to need'n more culture. Untill I did AirTraders, I was constantly fighting the culture war.
The only reasaon I upgraded from lvl-6 to lvl-7 ( 1 week ago ) was due to a scouting constraint
of 490k. 480k was 10k short and I need'd to connect to a local whale for no trade fee.... heh heh.
I'm just saying it was ALOT easier to progress quickly to get to CH3 and do well in events.

Still, I make more production it seems than most CH3-5 cities I see on the world map.
Sure every week for 36 hrs, I'm redlined waiting for the next Spire to start, but after that...
I'm never redlined, I make enuff tools/coins to recoup for Spire in time allotted each week.

I constantlly see cities in CH2/3 that have 1/2 my production yet 2x the residences. Where is
all that pop going ???? prolly to thier lvl-9-10 MH, or they have 4 huge armories, but then
don't do tournaments, isnt that what a strong troop strength is for ?

I'll put my little CH3 city up against any other CH3 city... pound/pound, I'll bet my city is
more effective/efficient... It got that way, that quickly, by resisting MH upgrades till I had to.

 

[ajqtrz]

I found that buying KP was a GREAT way to spend coins.

I don't like to purchase KP with coins because the increase in costs is permanent. It may only go up a tiny bit but if I were to purchase coins all the time it would eventually reach the 10 million per KP level. So I resist doing so until I get a quest that requires me to do so. Then I keep the various things you can use to purchase KP balanced and thus all at the lowest possible level. So yes, you can purchase KP with coins, but at a permanent cost.

AJ

 

[Iyapo1]

I'll put my little CH3 city up against any other CH3 city... pound/pound, I'll bet my city is
more effective/efficient... It got that way, that quickly, by resisting MH upgrades till I had to.

You cant really do a meaningful pound/pound comparison between cities. There are too many factors involved. Playstyle, playtime and daily activity level have a massive impact on such a thing. In the early chapters even race selection makes a difference.

 

[NightshadeCS]

I don't like to purchase KP with coins because the increase in costs is permanent. It may only go up a tiny bit but if I were to purchase coins all the time it would eventually reach the 10 million per KP level. So I resist doing so until I get a quest that requires me to do so.

This debate has been canvassed so many times before, but I don't want players to be afraid of buying KP with coins. while this, as with many other factors of this game, can vary greatly with play style, I don't think 10m is a realistic number to throw out there. I am in chapter 16, have been buying KP whenever my coin storage reaches its limit (and I used to quest cycle and visit all neighbors when in the lower chapters) and I am still only at 2.784 m coins per KP. And I am still buying some most days.

I am still able to buy KP using coins for event quests (There hasn't been an event I didn't complete 100% for years). It is eating into my coin rain supply a bit, and with the Spire, those are now more valuable. That would be my only consideration for a newer city, that if they go relatively high in the Spire and have to use Coin Rains often to do that, that they may want to purchase KP a bit more sparingly with coins. I still don't think it makes it prohibitive, though.