[Archived 02/2020] News from Beta

[The Unbeliever]

I seriously doubt that last bit. Most players here were complaining about how things in that event were too hard, and in some cases impossible. Players like me were a rarity, I even knew right off the bat the reasons that let me get so much in that event were non-repeatable; a 2nd event just like mermaids I wouldn't have been able to do nearly as much again.

And even in my case I spent a lot more diamonds than normal for an event like that; I just had those diamonds from in-game things to spend. Other players would've been more motivated than normal in that event to spend $$. Someone in my FS put down money to finish his 6th paradise when scouting started requiring orcs which he can't produce yet.

Usually though, at least up until the Mermaids, people would spend money to just finish off one evolving building.
In Mermaids though, only the unluckiest and/or most frustrated poor souls needed to do just that.

Spending to complete a 5th or 6th is just being that kid who *must* empty to ice cream machine while hording the last 3 cakes at the dessert buffet all to themselves.
Spending to complete a single grand prize, (as used to be the case before things got 'too easy'), was just the normal tip you pay for the good service your server gave you that night.

My dad for example plays in 5 cities.
In both the Phoenix + Stonehenge events, he always used only the most efficient 'grand prize currency' chest options, and either *just* completed the 10th level or wound up just short of doing so.
But in Mermaids, ALL his cities easily managed to complete Lv10 while also earning a 2nd Lv1 building in 4/5 cities + an extra evolution or two... and that was without using just the most grand prize efficient chests to boot!

And this was without going overboard on the questing either...
Overall, he maybe ended up completing around 180+ total quests vs. the 'normal' 90-110 + 25'ish dailies of previous quest lines.
What killed Inno was that instead of 25 or so daily quests giving just 35 currency each, he effectively got the 25'ish dailies + 30-35 or so extra 'dailies' that were each worth nearly double the 'old' value.

 

[kctanzen]

Thanks very much for this VERY helpful thread and numbers break out -- eases some of my anxiety

 

[Alistaire]

Usually though, at least up until the Mermaids, people would spend money to just finish off one evolving building.
In Mermaids though, only the unluckiest and/or most frustrated poor souls needed to do just that.

Yeah, you could definitely get more; I think it just also made people reach for more, combined with it being a better building in general.

There's also the loss to consider based on how many people just gave up on the event because of its difficulty at certain chapters...and they've made this one harder in some ways. Just doesn't sound like a brilliant idea to me.

 

[Ashrem]

I see. In my case before the change my reset times were 7 am, 3 pm and 11 pm. After the change it is now 5 am, 11 am, 5 pm and 11 pm. I'm not sure how the new reset time was chosen, but I assume it was based on one of the 3 reset times (11 pm) that I had previously. It seems like in your case you were unlucky that the 10 am time was "chosen"?

Thst seems likely. They usually deploy updates in the morning my time, and the rollover a little before 10:00am would have been the next one up. So there it stands. I look now and then, but I no longer obsess about missing them. I'll make catalysts to satisfy quests and craft whatever is lying around to turn into fragments for quests. The rest of the time, I'm just back where I was before crafting started, only 450 diamonds poorer.

 

[Enevhar Aldarion]

Thst seems likely. They usually deploy updates in the morning my time, and the rollover a little before 10:00am would have been the next one up. So there it stands. I look now and then, but I no longer obsess about missing them. I'll make catalysts to satisfy quests and craft whatever is lying around to turn into fragments for quests. The rest of the time, I'm just back where I was before crafting started, only 450 diamonds poorer.

I never wasted diamonds on adjusting my crafting times, even though I only have one city, so mine are still odd. With the update, the crafting refreshes at 1:35 and 7:35 AM and 1:35 and 7:35 PM. I have no problem logging in for three of the four, but 7:35 AM is the one I generally never see, unless I get lucky and can check it right before the refresh at 1:35 PM.

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

@MinMax Gamer Have you checked the latest list on elvengems? Starting at quest 60 it is possible to get 5 Baskets or 4 T1 9 hr.

I have no desire to panic the late chapter players, but if they want to get a bear leveled up this time, they might want to prepare 6 workshops and 5 T1s. They will already be slowed by the scout/research/15VV quests. Since the workshops take more time to build than we actually have before the event starts, it seems better to get started than to realize too late that more workshops/T1s are helpful. The players who have finished Constructs will have extra room since there is no guest race right now.

I did check, though I clearly missed 5 baskets - everything else still seems accurate. Even for these 5 baskets in 60-89 bracket in all likelihood you're only going to get this quest 1-2 times, so dedicating a whole WS just for that doesn't sound efficient. For 90+ quests I would recommend 5 WS regardless (because of 5x toolboxes). On T1s, as I mentioned, it seems to me that frequency of these quests is quite a bit lower, so 5x T1 sounds like an overkill.

And as I said, if you have space/pop/culture - absolutely, it will be useful. But how many people even in end game run with massive underutilized space/pop capacity? Several leveled up T1s are a lot of pop, IIRC a single L24 planks is 4.2K of pop or so. A lot of people run either Wishing Wells farms and/or troop farms, and deleting those would be painful. And as far as I can see, 3 T1s should be more than enough - I mean, you're only delayed 9 hours per #90+ T1 quest max, and those are not that frequent.

I run 2x L24 planks ATM, and probably going to build another one for the event, but I have no plans to build more even though I will have space. But people who already run 4+ leveled T1s will obviously have easier time with these specific quests.

 

[The Unbeliever]

Honestly I feel like another major aspect that's just killing interest in events is that the 'mini game' is no so beyond mind numbingly boring, I'd rather just go and slam my head repeatedly into a wall...

Give us something fresh like the Archaeology/Halloween tomb/haunted house, or the Fall 'bake-off', but Elvenar themed.
(ie: instead of digging up a tomb, why not exploring through a ruined castle/dungeon?)

The selling point of these are that it both breaks up the monotony of always doing the same boring old thing, (click chest -> get reward -> click again -> click chest -> get reward -> click again -> throw up!)
AND, it can introduce some player choice too; do you go for more daily prizes? Or, do you instead choose the option/s that prioritize gaining just grand prizes?
It can also introduce more of a puzzle solving aspect too, since instead of just looking up a chart someone has mathed out and following it, to be highly successful would instead require more planning and tactical thought.
(ie: in the Archy event, it was critical to only use a shovel when you could clear out 4-5 sand tiles vs. just 2 or 3.)

Since Inno seems intent on keeping this infinite quest system going for the foreseeable future, new types of event mini games would be a good way to bring some of the thinking/planning challenge back into events?!

 

[Arayla]

Elvenar will soon be seeing new types of quests in the events. In order for this post to not be moved to the Beta spoilers section, I will not refer to anything specific to Beta. It is important that players who do not read the Beta thread still see this information. If you wish to comment about the changes themselves, please use this thread: https://us.forum.elvenar.com/index.php?threads/news-from-beta-may-contain-spoilers.16075/. The focus here is on how to prepare.

In future events, some of the quests will now require using workshops or manufactories that are on level (well, kinda) with what is available for you to build in your city’s current chapter. You will no longer need to have any level 1 workshops or level 1 boosted T1 (T1 is the abbreviation for Tier 1 which is marble, steel and planks) (Fellowship Adventures and the Challenges will still use level 1 buildings though).

The wording on these new quests is a little difficult to understand. Technically, workshops will need to be at a minimum the lowest level of what was available to build 3 chapters ago and boosted T1 manufactories will need to be at a minimum the lowest level of what was available to build 1 chapter ago. How many will you “need”? For the foreseeable future, it appears that 6 workshops and 5 boosted T1s will be sufficient.

What if you don’t have “enough” workshops or T1s? As long as you do have some workshops and boosted T1s at your chapter level, you can play the event. You will just not be able to make it as far since you will end up waiting to complete quests. If you have time boosters in inventory, you could use those to speed up production on your workshops/T1s.

What if you don't have "enough" workshops or T1s and want to get them built in time? Workshops take many hours to upgrade, so it is advisable to get started today. You may need to build additional residences for the new buildings as well. The boosted T1s are more manageable with the time needed to upgrade, but may also need additional population.

Preparing your city to do well with the new event quests in possible without spending any diamonds for most players. (There may be some "edge cases" where a city currently has no workshops or no T1 buildings and therefore struggles to prepare in time.) Feel free to ask for help with changing your city layout if you wish. There are many helpful long-timers here who are great with ElvenArchitect.

Here is a link to a spreadsheet version of the tables below: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1-DkKonI4-2iqGftDmlEw1Ke_6xZac9dWBPD-7QAoWN0/edit?usp=sharing

@Ælfwine
@Fairy Dust @Xelenia I found this post has been merged by a moderator and buried here in the Beta spoiler thread.

I am concerned that there has been no announcement by Inno to let players know that they will need workshops and T1 that are close to their current level in order to complete quests in the upcoming events. Players who are in chapter 12 or higher will need between 213 and 299 hours to upgrade 1 workshop. That is at least 9 days of non-stop upgrading. The event is scheduled to start on Sept 23rd which is 9.5 days away.

Without an announcement of this significant change in the quest mechanics, how will the majority of the players be able to find the event fun or enjoyable?

 

[The Unbeliever]

@Ælfwine
@Fairy Dust @Xelenia I found this post has been merged by a moderator and buried here in the Beta spoiler thread.

I am concerned that there has been no announcement by Inno to let players know that they will need workshops and T1 that are close to their current level in order to complete quests in the upcoming events. Players who are in chapter 12 or higher will need between 213 and 299 hours to upgrade 1 workshop. That is at least 9 days of non-stop upgrading. The event is scheduled to start on Sept 23rd which is 9.5 days away.

Without an announcement of this significant change in the quest mechanics, how will the majority of the players be able to find the event fun or enjoyable?

They won't, and Inno will probably continue to bury their heads in the sand and just blame the players for playing the game 'wrong', is my guess.

 

[RainbowSKYEPIXIE]

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Thank you @arayla for the helpful advance information. I can only imagine the excess0 fall out that will ensue if some of the players do not know about this in advance. Very much appreciated. Thanks

 

[mikeledo]

In the Autumn Zodiac thread, the INNO moderator was oh so concerned that building multiple level 1 buildings for an event somehow "cheat" the system. So they are going out of their way to stop level one building "cheats", but do nothing to stop the guy with 50 push accounts. Nice priorities.

 

[Pheryll]

@arayla, Could you double check your numbers for the human workshops?

I have the following:

Chapter 6 (Dwarves): 7 (humans do not get the 11-15 workshop technology till chapter 4)
Chapter 7 (Fairies): 11
Chapter 8 (Orcs): 11

 

[Arayla]

@arayla, Could you double check your numbers for the human workshops?

I have the following:

Chapter 6 (Dwarves): 7 (humans do not get the 11-15 workshop technology till chapter 4)
Chapter 7 (Fairies): 11
Chapter 8 (Orcs): 11

Thank you! Editing the original post now.

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

@arayla

Are the total upgrade times accurate? Seems that humans have significantly longer upgrade times to L24, and we're not talking about a few percents here...

 

[Pheryll]

@arayla

Are the total upgrade times accurate? Seems that humans have significantly longer upgrade times to L24, and we're not talking about a few percents here...

If you are talking about the manufactories, then these upgrade times are influenced by the building size; so humans with larger building sizes take longer for each upgrade. It hurts the humans for having to level up a manufactory to the point where elves catch up; but this factor is fairly balancing when you are in those early chapters, and elves end up needing more manufactories than humans because of their small size and production.

 

[Deleted User - 3932582]

If you are talking about the manufactories, then these upgrade times are influenced by the building size; so humans with larger building sizes take longer for each upgrade. It hurts the humans for having to level up a manufactory to the point where elves catch up; but this factor is fairly balancing when you are in those early chapters, and elves end up needing more manufactories than humans because of their small size and production.

Well, it's just that in this case the start point is the same - zero. The end point is also the same - I believe both L24s are the same size and the same output. In-between doesn't matter from this as event-purpose building.

But getting from same point to same point seems to take significantly longer for one of the races...

 

[Pheryll]

But getting from same point to same point seems to take significantly longer for one of the races...

Keep in mind that as elves progress they are deleting more of their manufactories than humans. That is upgrade time spent on buildings that never reach the later levels. Sure when you get to sentients (and for this upcoming event) the balance of goods in between does not matter, you are just upgrading through the stages as fast as possible.

 

[Risen Malchiah]

@Ælfwine
@Fairy Dust @Xelenia

I am concerned that there has been no announcement by Inno to let players know that they will need workshops and T1 that are close to their current level in order to complete quests in the upcoming events. Players who are in chapter 12 or higher will need between 213 and 299 hours to upgrade 1 workshop. That is at least 9 days of non-stop upgrading. The event is scheduled to start on Sept 23rd which is 9.5 days away.

Without an announcement of this significant change in the quest mechanics, how will the majority of the players be able to find the event fun or enjoyable?

This is a REALLY valid point. Anyone with access to the forums will likely share this info with their fellowships, but that would only serve to widen the gap between those who do well in the event and those who struggle. Without proper warning, I suspect there will be a flood of support tickets from players not understanding why they aren't getting credit for completing the quests.

 

[Alistaire]

This is a REALLY valid point. Anyone with access to the forums will likely share this info with their fellowships, but that would only serve to widen the gap between those who do well in the event and those who struggle. Without proper warning, I suspect there will be a flood of support tickets from players not understanding why they aren't getting credit for completing the quests.

Maybe they're considering delaying the event? which would be nice for giving people notice, but for me and maybe others it'll just mean sitting here longer:

 

[Risen Malchiah]

Perhaps, though I say if you get your factories and workshops to 24 before the event begins, go ahead and click that button.