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edeba
Well-Known Member
I have reached maximum map size and all indications from the development team suggest increasing the map size is not in the plans any time soon in the future, so it seems a good idea to explore continued map expansion when the benefits are declining.
For myself, I feel like the developers deliberately did something to slow down map visits. One day I could do my map in about 20 minutes with hot keys and then quite suddenly load times changed drastically and I genuinely believe that was covertly programmed. The helping hands used to come up ahead of all of the graphics loading and one day that changed, slaughtering access to the map and really limiting access to large maps to those with massive disposable time. Everyone eventually reaches limits on ability to visit their map and mine is so slow I'd be challenged at doing half of it daily. So there is no benefit here.
Changes to the crystal lighthouse mean that you now collect less goods that before developers mislead players by saying they were making wonders better than the original designs. The increase in goods collected is such a pittance now from expanding the map, it is too negligible to consider of any value. My goods collected with an extra province completed increases by about 30 goods per day now, be still my heart...
Ok so the biggest pro for expanding the map was getting city expansions and increased goods from the crystal lighthouse. If your city isn't maximum size, this is still a pro, but it isn't anymore for many of the higher level players that have all of the expansions open now, and the crystal lighthouse is an incredibly marginal benefit to goods now, less than the original design.
The Crystal Light house is not a pro, and it really is useless in terms of what you get from expanding the map now. It does still have the benefit of increased polish time, but that is not linked to map size.
Daily visits to cities on the map has time limitations and loading problems are such that even visiting once per week is grossly burdensome.
A pro is that you get ranking points for each encounter completed, so say around 112 to 120 ranking points per province completed, and 8 relics plus any wonder bonus relics. If you play tournaments, relic bonuses are much less valuable. I have over 2000 of some relics now... There are only two kinds that I come close to not having enough. So, over a month there's about 1800 ranking points to collect. There is a grossly increasing cost for each province opened and time is increasing so the actual amount of points you can collect is decreasing fairly rapidly. A person with 72 hours to open a province could only collect around 1200 ranking points in a month. You also get 8 kp with each province, but waiting for the next chapter drastically reduces scouting costs, both time and goods. The now benefits here are extremely marginal and do have a future cost.
Wonders tied to map size: Crystal Lighthouse, Hero's forge, Enar's Embassy, Maze of the Dark Matter, and Dragon Abby.
Ok, so no chapter to work on, no mana needed... Increasing time needed to scout provinces mean decreasing need for orcs. There is a need for orcs in the tourney. Currently my orc supply exceeds my orc needs, and I do not employ all increase orc supply strategies available to me, so no extra orcs needed.
Potential future expansions is the biggest "pro" and developers have been messaging for about a year now not to expect increased expansions forever, so there's probably more at some point but that point is probably not with the next chapter.
Ok, so having some scouted provinces that are not completed has some benefit for quest events...
It seems to me that I should have about 3-4 incomplete provinces scouted and other than that leave the map alone until there is a new chapter, and only scout as it benefits getting through the next chapter...
I am not even sure what all of the cons are, increased encounter difficulty and increased negotiating costs is one. I have no idea of the degree to which it is tied to tournaments, but something besides the tech tree is increasing tournament costs so I would think it is map size.
Anyway, I invite others thoughts on these pros and cons...
For myself, I feel like the developers deliberately did something to slow down map visits. One day I could do my map in about 20 minutes with hot keys and then quite suddenly load times changed drastically and I genuinely believe that was covertly programmed. The helping hands used to come up ahead of all of the graphics loading and one day that changed, slaughtering access to the map and really limiting access to large maps to those with massive disposable time. Everyone eventually reaches limits on ability to visit their map and mine is so slow I'd be challenged at doing half of it daily. So there is no benefit here.
Changes to the crystal lighthouse mean that you now collect less goods that before developers mislead players by saying they were making wonders better than the original designs. The increase in goods collected is such a pittance now from expanding the map, it is too negligible to consider of any value. My goods collected with an extra province completed increases by about 30 goods per day now, be still my heart...
Ok so the biggest pro for expanding the map was getting city expansions and increased goods from the crystal lighthouse. If your city isn't maximum size, this is still a pro, but it isn't anymore for many of the higher level players that have all of the expansions open now, and the crystal lighthouse is an incredibly marginal benefit to goods now, less than the original design.
The Crystal Light house is not a pro, and it really is useless in terms of what you get from expanding the map now. It does still have the benefit of increased polish time, but that is not linked to map size.
Daily visits to cities on the map has time limitations and loading problems are such that even visiting once per week is grossly burdensome.
A pro is that you get ranking points for each encounter completed, so say around 112 to 120 ranking points per province completed, and 8 relics plus any wonder bonus relics. If you play tournaments, relic bonuses are much less valuable. I have over 2000 of some relics now... There are only two kinds that I come close to not having enough. So, over a month there's about 1800 ranking points to collect. There is a grossly increasing cost for each province opened and time is increasing so the actual amount of points you can collect is decreasing fairly rapidly. A person with 72 hours to open a province could only collect around 1200 ranking points in a month. You also get 8 kp with each province, but waiting for the next chapter drastically reduces scouting costs, both time and goods. The now benefits here are extremely marginal and do have a future cost.
Wonders tied to map size: Crystal Lighthouse, Hero's forge, Enar's Embassy, Maze of the Dark Matter, and Dragon Abby.
Ok, so no chapter to work on, no mana needed... Increasing time needed to scout provinces mean decreasing need for orcs. There is a need for orcs in the tourney. Currently my orc supply exceeds my orc needs, and I do not employ all increase orc supply strategies available to me, so no extra orcs needed.
Potential future expansions is the biggest "pro" and developers have been messaging for about a year now not to expect increased expansions forever, so there's probably more at some point but that point is probably not with the next chapter.
Ok, so having some scouted provinces that are not completed has some benefit for quest events...
It seems to me that I should have about 3-4 incomplete provinces scouted and other than that leave the map alone until there is a new chapter, and only scout as it benefits getting through the next chapter...
I am not even sure what all of the cons are, increased encounter difficulty and increased negotiating costs is one. I have no idea of the degree to which it is tied to tournaments, but something besides the tech tree is increasing tournament costs so I would think it is map size.
Anyway, I invite others thoughts on these pros and cons...
