Most people cater...

[samidodamage]

I contribute plenty but as the FS as a whole claims more, I'm reassessing my personal goal quota.

When there were fewer 10-chest FS's in the game, the usual minimum required by those that were 10chest was 1600pts with fewer required for players not yet in guest race chapters. That figure reflected the amount of points each player in a full FS of 25 needed to put in to reach the 40K required points. Since there were always players who did more than that for the individual rewards, that made up for the smaller cities as well as helping when there were vacancies or FS members were on vacation. I used that same logic to measure my contribution to the higher chests when they first introduced chests 11-19. 2500pts is what it would take for 12 chests and 3000pts is what it would take for 13chests, so in SamiWorld, you're good for awhile yet, lol!

 

[Darielle]

Seeds and Mana in the Spire have been manageable, and sentients haven't been required yet. We'll see how that goes....

Funny, but it's not the sentient goods that cause me to hybrid. I have 3 sentient goods factories for each tier, and they keep me supplied quite nicely for catering. I usually hybrid cater/fight when I run out of orcs (despite having tons of orc nests). I'm using too many orcs at the moment to feed my beer gardens.

I'm in chapter 16, and I do believe that, given the fact that I have 6 maxed planks, 4 maxed dust, 6 maxed silk, and the sentients, I could conceivably cater everything and still get to silver in spire every week and 4K or more every week in tourney. It is possible without spending diamonds.

I did about half/half catering and fighting this week, got to gold in the spire and made 8th place overall in tourney in Sinya. If I had catered only, I would have probably stopped at silver and gotten only 4K in tourney. But for a lot of people, that's good enough and they're happy with it. If so, then there's no reason they couldn't exclusively cater through chapter 16 at least.

 

[Iamaita]

For those of you that cater more, does it slow down how fast you progress in the research tree? I have always tried to fight more than cater so I can put other resources into research and building upgrades. I’ve always been hybrid, but the balance has definitely shifted further towards exclusively fighting as I’ve moved up through chapters.

@Darielle think I need to go snoop in your city. How do you have the room?

 

[Darielle]

For those of you that cater more, does it slow down how fast you progress in the research tree? I have always tried to fight more than cater so I can put other resources into research and building upgrades. I’ve always been hybrid, but the balance has definitely shifted further towards exclusively fighting as I’ve moved up through chapters.

@Darielle think I need to go snoop in your city. How do you have the room?

One of the sentient factories, moonstone, I just put into storage in order to build my guest race. The rest is all there. I'm in Sinya, and believe me, it ain't easy, lol. Space is always the issue. Be my guest.

 

[Iyapo1]

@Iamaita The thing that slows me down the most is collecting enough blueprints and RRs to advance. I can not advance until I have enough blueprints and RRs to upgrade everything to the new chapter on day one(it is a self imposed rule). My tech tree costs are negligible compared to spire and tournament costs. Right now I am sitting at the end of chapter 9 gathering blue prints and RRs. My tournament score is at 7k(sustainably) because I filled my guest race space with manufactories while I linger. Once I move into chapter 10 my sustainable tournament average will drop back to 5k because I will have to reclaim my guest race space in order to advance through the tree.

 

[crackie]

I can not advance until I have enough blueprints and RRs to upgrade everything to the new chapter on day one(it is a self imposed rule).

On day 1!!! Goodness. I won’t chapter until I am done upgrading my buildings too, but if I have a day 1 rule, I will prob have to spend half a year in each chapter. I have recently unlocked ETC wonder and the big boys and girls in my FS are telling me to get it, but right now I have skipped it anyway despite their advice bc I don’t really need to sparkle my factories given how long it takes me to acquire enough RR/diamonds/BPs to slug through a chapter.

 

[MaidenFair]

For those of you that cater more, does it slow down how fast you progress in the research tree?

Well, I don't know how fast is considered fast, but I haven't felt hampered. I did voluntarily slow myself down in chapter 5 by dumping all of my tournament and province kp into wonders instead of the research tree because I actually felt like I was moving through the tree too quickly. Is that because I wasn't producing enough goods to keep up with the research requirements and my self-imposed Spire and tourney goals? Maybe (can't remember exactly). Could I have adjusted for that by placing more expansions and manufactories? Definitely. I chose not to because I'm enjoying the challenge of trying to keep my city as small and efficient as I can.
Dwarves took me just over 8 weeks to get through, but I spent most of that time waiting (and waiting!) for Copper because I was too stingy to use many PPs, not because I didn't have the regular manufactured goods available. On the other hand, I entered Fairies 4 days ago, and I'll complete my 3rd research in it tonight because I haven't needed the guest race goods yet.

 

[Aritra]

For those of you that cater more, does it slow down how fast you progress in the research tree?

Fast is relative, judgement subjective. I know I take a long time and it is a choice. Similar to @Iyapo1 I stay long enough to get everything upgraded. I don't leave the chapter until everything there I want upgraded has been done so. Of course, the farther I get, the more there is to upgrade---but chapters take longer too so it's not a big deal. Because I'm not in a hurry for the guest race, I don't build nearly as many recommended (by places such as ElvenGems, for example, which are designed for efficient faster production). Side effect of this has been keeping my space comfortable: I'm an aesthetics person, not efficiency-focused; seeing things sprinkled and crammed in nooks and crannies make me cringe (I have designated districts and that's that, rare exception to be placed outside its zone). Because I take all this time to get upgraded and not rush the guests out of town, there is no problem progressing in the research tree. KP that is no longer needed in research goes to AWs.

 

[Iamaita]

@Darielle I snooped. I like it. I only counted four workshops… do you have to supplement those to run all your factories and make troops?

@Iyapo1 and @crackie you are more disciplined than I am. I unlock the new chapter as soon as I can. I don’t have the patience to park and upgrade everything.

@MaidenFair I try to stay as small as I can, too. Not as a personal challenge but because I was advised to in order to keep spire and tournament costs down. Now I’m wondering if I have been too stingy with my space. It currently feels like more of a handicap than an advantage. (Ch 15, 106 expansions according to elvenstats)

@Aritra I love looking at the pretty cities. I keep telling myself mine will look good once I finish all the research.

Always lots to think about in terms of how use space and resources to balance everything. I love hearing all the different strategies.

 

[Tehya1]

It is difficult to fight well early game because the barracks and armories can't produce anything fast enough compared to the rate your army gets slaughtered, which would lead to more catering. But...I thought there was some general consensus it becomes more difficult to cater in late chapter from having to juggle all the various upper tier goods like mana, seeds, sentients, etc

I think there are a lot more new and early players than late chapter players. People quit when the game becomes too time consuming or frustrating. One of my fs has seen 2-3 big players leave in the past few weeks.

 

[crackie]

Dwarves took me just over 8 weeks to get through, but I spent most of that time waiting (and waiting!) for Copper because I was too stingy to use many PPs, not because I didn't have the regular manufactured goods available.

My second city did Dwarf on 1 copper and 1 granite because that's how slow it was getting all my Moonstone pieces to upgrade.

@Iyapo1 and @crackie you are more disciplined than I am. I unlock the new chapter as soon as I can. I don’t have the patience to park and upgrade everything.

Well considering the settlement stuff gets longer and more recursive as you continue to chapter up, I am also in no hurry for the glacial experience of late chapters. Or perhaps I'm getting accustomed to watching paint dry early?

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

How fast is fast? Back when minmax was still around, he did a speed run, doing the first 12 or 13 chapters in something like 10 months.

And with my Beta city, I did the first 13 chapters in 13 months, and overall, the first 15 chapters in 18 months.

 

[Iamaita]

It has been variable speeds for different chapters. I’m halfway through 15 in my main city and have been playing since June 2020. Later chapters might take a little longer to finish, but it doesn’t feel as slow because there is more to do. Orcs and halflings felt the most tedious to get through for me.

 

[Myne]

Well considering the settlement stuff gets longer and more recursive as you continue to chapter up, I am also in no hurry for the glacial experience of late chapters. Or perhaps I'm getting accustomed to watching paint dry early?

I prefer watching grass grow. I do agree with you though on the pace of chapters.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Well considering the settlement stuff gets longer and more recursive as you continue to chapter up, I am also in no hurry for the glacial experience of late chapters. Or perhaps I'm getting accustomed to watching paint dry early?

With a good supply of the various enchantments, and the space to place buildings, no chapter should take more than 4 or 5 months. And definitely not more than the 6 months in between new chapters being added.

 

[Myne]

That "negotiating" comment is absurd. And here's why:
Let's take a small sample of what can happen during one tournament week. Let's reduce the whole world to only 3 players. One is a seasoned player. The other 2 just got to the level where they can do 1 map in tournament.
Player 1 fights 40 maps to round 6, negotiates 0 of his encounters, scores about 10,000 points
Player 2 negotiates 1 round of map1, scores 30 points
Player 3 negotaites 1 round of map1, scores 30 points

Conclusion: 66% of the players prefer negotiating..... Hahahahahaha..... preposterous!

The real conclusion in this scenario is this: 2 encounters out of 242 in tournament are being negotiated... that's not even 1%

And this how you can manipulate numbers to say just about anything

Which negotiating comment? Regardless I refer you to this post on this thread:

IF as we say "mostly fighting" means fighting until you can't anymore and then catering, and other players cater exclusively (Iyapo1 for example), then statistically it would be correct. It can be correct and not give the whole picture.

 

[Darielle]

@Darielle I snooped. I like it. I only counted four workshops… do you have to supplement those to run all your factories and make troops?

Four workshops work so well that I have to spend excess supplies for goods in the wholesaler every day. But those are magic workshops and every morning I put a new Power of Provision spell on them. In addition to those, I have my Prosperity Towers, which acts as another workshop and also extends the length of the PoP spells, so they last all day. I never have to collect goods without a spell on them, since they last till I go to bed and in the morning I just put a new one on before I collect. (I get all my PoPs from the tourney; I only make ccs in the MA.)

I have to admit, there was a time that four would not have been enough, but that was many chapters ago. I used to have 12 workshops, lol, but gosh I love my Prosperity Towers, not only as an extra workshop but because of those PoP spells. It's got a small footprint, too, so I'll probably keep it forever. Best investment I ever made. It really helped me to cut down on workshops.