Neighborly help - why can't I leave it?

[MagicPagan]

One of my neighbors has a very small city. I usually click on his main hall or the Valentine Float right next to it. Sometimes I can't leave NH for the culture building, but I always can for the Main Hall.

Until today. What's up with that?

 

[DeletedUser20539]

If I'm understanding what you are saying MagicPagan, it could be that someone else has them as a neighbor too. Or someone in their Fellowship is using the Valentine Float ahead of you. The Main Hall can be used more than once, but not a Valentine Float.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

If the Main Hall is being upgraded, you cannot help it until the construction is finished and the player goes into their city afterward, for the game to finalize it. It is only like this on the browser. If you play on the app, you can still help a Main Hall under construction.

 

[MagicPagan]

If I'm understanding what you are saying MagicPagan, it could be that someone wlse has them as a neighbor too. Or someone in their Fellowship is using the Valentine Float ahead of you. The Main Hall can be used more than once, but not a Valentine Float.

That's good to know about culture items. I've just never not been able to leave NH for a Main Hall, but I tried and couldn't do it, so I went out to someone else and came back again, and still couldn't leave NH for the Main Hall.

 

[MagicPagan]

If the Main Hall is being upgraded, you cannot help it until the construction is finished and the player goes into their city afterward, for the game to finalize it. It is only like this on the browser. If you play on the app, you can still help a Main Hall under construction.

Ohhhh, okay. Did not realize that. Newbie learning every day.

And yes, I'm on the browser. Do not see how you young 'uns play this on a phone...

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Ohhhh, okay. Did not realize that. Newbie learning every day.

And yes, I'm on the browser. Do not see how you young 'uns play this on a phone...

By the way, if something like the Main Hall seems to always be under construction, then that person has almost definitely quit the game and that main hall will never be available to help on the browser.

 

[MagicPagan]

Well, I know s/he's not helping me, but I don't always get back what I give out.

omigosh, a mirror of real life, huh?

 

[DeletedUser20539]

Well, I know s/he's not helping me, but I don't always get back what I give out.

MagicPagan, If I learned one thing in my 18 mos playing Elvenar, it was that if you don't see a Fellowship flag next to the city on the Map, odds are they are not active. I wasted a lot of time in the early months expecting every city to 'kick down some moolah'!!

 

[Ariel Greensleeves]

You get a bonus for every city you help, whether it is "dead" or not. You just won't get the additional tool bonus. I've been helping everyone on my map for a week now every day bc I'm so strapped for cash. I can get 1.3 million coins in 15 minutes. Who cares if they reciprocate?
What's really annoying is not having people close enough to trade freely be active. That's when its time to join a fellowship

 

[MagicPagan]

If they reciprocate, then you benefit again. You get the additional supply bonus if it's been 23 hours or less since you helped them. I'm thinking the bonus relics are from people in your fellowship. Relics pay you again by being able to craft stuff you need in the Magic Academy.

 

[defiantoneks]

I dont recall ever getting blocked from adding help while using the App. Not even for construction. Kindof one of the myriad reasons I do my rounds on iPad instead of the web game. Soooo much faster.

 

[Illyrea Estariel]

You get a bonus for every city you help, whether it is "dead" or not. You just won't get the additional tool bonus. I've been helping everyone on my map for a week now every day bc I'm so strapped for cash. I can get 1.3 million coins in 15 minutes. Who cares if they reciprocate?

I feel the same way. It benefits me to give the help, and then if someone's not completely inactive but just intermittent, at least they're guaranteed to have one buffer every time they come on. So it kinda makes me feel good too...like watering someone's plants while they're on vacation lol.

 

[Ariel Greensleeves]

When I said bonus, I meant the coins you get when you help someone. When I said tools I meant supplies. (I should standardize my private vocabulary, sorry) And I think you can get the bonus "chests" for helping anyone. They are random but I always end up with three/day max usually within the first 10 helps I give.
I like to think of the help as going "on progress" like the kings and queens of old did. No money to pay the bills? Royal woods out of game? Just go visit your lords and "bless" them with your presence. Some families would go bankrupt preparing for the queen's arrival and supporting all her troops and servants with food while they visited. In this game, the bigger you (or your main hall) are, the more benefit you get from visiting. Unlike real life, everybody wins and no one goes bankrupt. Its one of the nicest aspects of this game.

 

[crackie]

And yes, I'm on the browser. Do not see how you young 'uns play this on a phone...

Bless you for having the patience to do neighborly visits on the browser. I play mostly on browser too but outside the fellowship, returning the ones from my notification window, and one-click gold mines on the map, I get lazy and can’t be bothered to load everyone’s cities. Lately, I’ve installed a phone/tablet emulator so I can run the mobile app version on my desktop to collect coins from neighbors faster if I am short, but we really shouldn’t need to do this much work to handle a rudimentary part of the game

That's when its time to join a fellowship

I agree extending trade network is one of the most important roles of the fellowship, but without a fellowship, no access to tourney. Even if a player chooses to be a casual tourney player, at least it’s there. It’s the best place for relics. Non-tourney players can also tap it for completing event quests. Like getting 16 relics is a big ask for a beginning player. They will be over-scouted in no time if they rely on clearing provinces. With access to tourney also comes the opportunities for acquiring Royal Restorations and Blueprints, and to a lesser degree of importance, acquiring handshake enchantments. My Unicorn Glade and Moonstone Library still have 88 days of sparkling left from the last Fellowship Adventure. If I had to craft handshake enchantments from the MA alone or only get them from neighborly visits, there would not be such wanton disregard for making my unicorns snort glitter for months at a time in the quest for glorious Tiara badges. There are fellowships that run as if no one is steering the ship, which means players can play with a more individual, isolated playing style without pressure of meeting minimums while still have access to tourneys.

 

[getmomo]

If you don't want to be in a fellowship but still want to play tournament, just start your own 1 person fellowship.

 

[MagicPagan]

Bless you for having the patience to do neighborly visits on the browser. I play mostly on browser too but outside the fellowship, returning the ones from my notification window, and one-click gold mines on the map, I get lazy and can’t be bothered to load everyone’s cities. Lately, I’ve installed a phone/tablet emulator so I can run the mobile app version on my desktop to collect coins from neighbors faster if I am short, but we really shouldn’t need to do this much work to handle a rudimentary part of the game

I like looking at how other people have laid out their cities. I've gotten a few ideas from several of my neighbors.

 

[Player9999]

Visits to see examples of other cities used to be a lot easier before Inno cut back on server capacity, increased latency, and bloated game code to make cities loading take far longer. I think that remains a good idea to see examples of city options, and poor or well designed cities.

Another reason for no MH help could be the MH capacity is full. That's tiny for smaller cities, and easy to overfill (but not without noticing and spending on Wholesaler) with my current capacity of 46 million. It's pretty reckless coding to have the traditional game rules from the now deprecated browser Flash game, ignored on mobile as well as the newer speed menus for FS members and those who've traded or polished in recent days, but only active in some polishing modes on HTML5 code.

Hint: Smaller players should run their whole map of neighbors at least a few times a month. I'll polish back everyone in my speed menus, but with 524 Provinces claimed and around 340 neighbor cities on my map, I often miss seeing new neighbors, and cannot justify the time to go around polishing all of them to see who's active back.

 

[Player9999]

There are fellowships that run as if no one is steering the ship, which means players can play with a more individual, isolated playing style without pressure of meeting minimums while still have access to tourneys.

There are also Fellowships like mine, where we don't have proscriptive rules, but do have a wealth of game knowledge and resources to help players grow and perform well, plus step in with the nuisance of serious strategic guidance when FA's hit, and that's needed.

Covid and home schooling kids or industry upheavals caused a few of our Druid Junction FS members to go inactive, but some of the actives we've helped grow don't seem to realize they're outperforming many larger FS's and older cities by a lot. There aren't FS rules to mandate that; just game support from having ties to US and World and Beta servers, Gems staff and big FS groups where 3rd party game guides are written, and support for players to do better such that most want to when they can.

 

[MagicPagan]

Hint: Smaller players should run their whole map of neighbors at least a few times a month. I'll polish back everyone in my speed menus, but with 524 Provinces claimed and around 340 neighbor cities on my map, I often miss seeing new neighbors, and cannot justify the time to go around polishing all of them to see who's active back.

Wow. I have four cities in four worlds - at Chapter 3 in all of them, so I consider my cities small. I have to get up between 4 and 4:30a every day with an elderly dog...when you gotta go, you gotta go. That's when I visit all my neighbors in all four cities. I'm so Type A I have a routine for each of my cities - and visit all of them at first (in order of course) to get the troops training. It takes me not quite an hour to visit all the neighbors altogether. I cannot imagine visiting 340 cities by clicking on each one.

 

[Lelanya]

Wow. I have four cities in four worlds - at Chapter 3 in all of them, so I consider my cities small. I have to get up between 4 and 4:30a every day with an elderly dog...when you gotta go, you gotta go. That's when I visit all my neighbors in all four cities. I'm so Type A I have a routine for each of my cities - and visit all of them at first (in order of course) to get the troops training. It takes me not quite an hour to visit all the neighbors altogether. I cannot imagine visiting 340 cities by clicking on each one.

Right? So sorry if one of my cities is your neighbor. I return visits from the notices.