Recovering from odd ... bug.

[Emory62]

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away... when I started playing, I was on Harandar - for about two minutes because all my friends were on another server.

So I left Harandar with my MH at level 1, one lvl 1 residence, 1 lvl 1 workshop.

For the heck of it... I logged on to Harandar tonight. City map hasn't changed a bit... world map hasn't changed at all...

But my tech tree has magically advanced to Chapter V (Spire's unlocked), and the story quest is approximately that level.

I'm sitting here trying to figure out the best way to recover from this. I have 14 research expansions available, but a lvl 1 starting city doesn't have nearly enough gold to deploy them all. No province expansions because like I said, I never played the city.

I did open up a tkt with Inno - and have no clue what they'll tell me.

 

[MaidenFair]

It will probably be very hard to recover from that (although hopefully not impossible!). Unfortunately, when Inno made changes to the research tree a few years ago, they magically advanced everyone in those earliest chapters into chapter 5. These announcements from the time might give you a little more info: https://us.forum.elvenar.com/index.php?threads/chapter-migration-for-some-accounts.37476/ and https://us.forum.elvenar.com/index.php?threads/a-reflection-on-the-chapter-migration.37915/ It made quite a snarl even for players who *had* been playing their cities, because suddenly everything was more expensive than their cities could handle, and they lost out on all the quest rewards, as you experienced.

There's unfortunately no outside help for the supplies and gold you need, but if you find a generous neighbour or a good fellowship, they can gift you some goods while you work to get your feet under you again. I know many players (myself included) never wanted to take advantage of unfair trades in their favour, but since you were put in a bad situation not of your own making, it seems quite reasonable to get some extra help getting out again. I unfortunately don't have a city on Harandar or I'd be happy to help with that.

My best suggestion is to just start slowly building and exploring as you would have done originally, and ignore the tech tree and quests until the city is in decent shape again and built up much more. It will go slower without the quest rewards you were meant to have, but it should be doable if you don't overdevelop things relative to each other (like don't try to upgrade your Main Hall as much as possible right off the bat while you still have level 2 or 3 residences, lol!).

Good luck!

 

[Emory62]

I am expecting that the provinces will stay blue for the first two rings around my city at least - perhaps three.

I have no need of the KP from exploring at this point - it's going to be a while before I can afford to progress the tech tree. But I need to explore to unlock neighbors for trading.

And finding a Fellowship may prove a challenge. I may have spire and tourney unlocked, but no way I can DO them currently.

 

[Emory62]

Some thoughts about recovering.

1. It's going to be a marathon, not a sprint. My gold and supplies are limited to what I can produce or collect from neighbors currently.
2. I won't be upgrading my MH until I have to.
3. I'm contributing the runes that I get from province exploration to neighbors for the wonders that I don't intend to build. I'm hoping this results in a chest or two.
4. I've built the barracks and a single factory. Have not upgraded either and don't plan to for a bit. I'm slowing training troops.
5. Keeping culture maxed is going to be critical for recovery, I think.

 

[Lelanya]

Hi Emory
I am on Harandar, and my Arendyll city experienced this as well. The good news is you will have several chapters of research expansions to place. The bad news is they all cost Gold.
I will check with our Archmage regarding room for a player.
Lel.

 

[Emory62]

Hi Emory
I am on Harandar, and my Arendyll city experienced this as well. The good news is you will have several chapters of research expansions to place. The bad news is they all cost Gold.
I will check with our Archmage regarding room for a player.
Lel.

Yes, I've got 13 more expansions to place - I used 1 already. And yes, they're .... expensive.

I would be honored to become part of your Fellowship if you have room. I expect it will be a while before I will be able to contribute more than visits - but those I will happily do.

 

[Lelanya]

I sent you a DM in game

 

[Emory62]

For those interested -

As much as I dislike ads, watching the videos has provided me with some goods (270 at a time) - which will accelerate the process of catching up. Twice I've gotten diamonds (5 each time).

Neighborly help has given me a few enchantments. This allowed me to complete the 4 daily quests - which netted me 2000 steel - which at my current level is HUGE. NH has also given me gold and supplies - which are my current roadblocks.

I have not spent any diamonds on this city, though I plan to when I get a little more stabilized (to upgrade the MA).

I did upgrade my MH to level 2. As someone pointed out, I have to be careful not to over-upgrade.

Edit: lack of troops is another issue. I have the starting troops that a new city is given - which are a shade over one squadron. It's going to take a while to build a full five squadrons for each type of troop.

 

[TimeMachine]

Twice I've gotten diamonds (5 each time).

Hello @Emory62. So you are in Chapter 5 atm. The amount of diamonds delivered by adwatching depends on your chapter.

I did upgrade my MH to level 2. As someone pointed out, I have to be careful not to over-upgrade.

You should definetely continue to upgrade your Main Hall.
Upgrading it up to level 15 doesn't bring any disadvantages but you will be able to increase your coins and tools stock.
Therefore having a Main Hall on a higher level for example gives you way more tools and coins when doing Neighbourly Help or using instants.
Instants do refer on a percentage of your Main Hall stockage.

Edit: lack of troops is another issue. I have the starting troops that a new city is given - which are a shade over one squadron. It's going to take a while to build a full five squadrons for each type of troop.

That's true! Building additional armories or for example the Dwarven Bulwark, which you will research in next chapter, will increase your training size. Have fun Gaming!

 

[Emory62]

Hello @Emory62. So you are in Chapter 5 atm. The amount of diamonds delivered by adwatching depends on your chapter.


You should definetely continue to upgrade your Main Hall.
Upgrading it up to level 15 doesn't bring any disadvantages but you will be able to increase your coins and tools stock.
Therefore having a Main Hall on a higher level for example gives you way more tools and coins when doing Neighbourly Help or using instants.
Instants do refer on a percentage of your Main Hall stockage.


That's true! Building additional armories or for example the Dwarven Bulwark, which you will research in next chapter, will increase your training size. Have fun Gaming!

Hi TimeMachine -

Upgrading stuff is DIFFICULT since I have no story quest rewards and am currently depending on what my residences and workshops can generate. Right now, I have about 20K gold and about 2K supplies.

My MH is currently upgrading to level 3. Then I need to upgrade residences to get population before I can upgrade anything else.

I have no summonings, sorceries, or instants. The only enchantments I have are those I've got through NH.

I have about 1.2 squads of light melee, light ranged, and heavy melee. I have to balance my supplies between buildings and troops.

I cannot do the tournament without a lot more troops. I don't have the good to cater it. Likewise for the spire. This means I can't get those instants and spell fragments .... and no spell fragments makes it expletive difficult to do any crafting.

 

[TimeMachine]

My MH is currently upgrading to level 3. Then I need to upgrade residences to get population before I can upgrade anything else.

Yeah that is of course normal, just continue this way with your Main Hall and, you can trust me, you will experience it as very useful!

 

[Emory62]

I'm going round and round with Inno in my ticket on this. They are now asking how I got to chapter V without upgrading any of my buildings. *HEADDESK*

If I hadn't decided to take this as a challenge, I'd be livid.

 

[MaidenFair]

You should definetely continue to upgrade your Main Hall.
Upgrading it up to level 15 doesn't bring any disadvantages but you will be able to increase your coins and tools stock.

I'm afraid I have to disagree. There definitely can be a disadvantage: Main Halls demand a ton of population and culture relative to what a small city can supply, and that can be quite a strain on a new city, forcing them to expand farther than is good for them in the quest to have enough room for all the necessary residences and culture buildings. And those residences need coins and supplies to build, as does the MH each level; in the end, you don't gain nearly as much as it might seem.
For example, to upgrade the MH from level 5 to 6 costs 102K coins, but you only get an increase in neighbourly help rewards of 440 coins, which means you would have to visit 231 neighbours to make up for that loss in coins! Small cities don't have anywhere near that number of neighbours to visit yet, so comparing solely the increase in production to the costs of the MH, it would be potentially a couple of weeks before you make back the coins it took you to upgrade.

In my experience*, until chapter 12 or so the Main Hall should not be upgraded farther than is necessary for progression (that is, until you hit a technology that requires more gold than you can supply: if the next tech needs 10M coins and your MH only holds 8M, or something similar).

*I have not started a new city since the chapter changes, so it's certainly possible the ideal strategy in regards to coin and tools specifically has needed to change. I have heard those are much harder for new cities to acquire now. The math I quoted still holds true, however.

I'm going round and round with Inno in my ticket on this. They are now asking how I got to chapter V without upgrading any of my buildings. *HEADDESK*

If I hadn't decided to take this as a challenge, I'd be livid.

Oh, boy. Sometimes my inner conspiracy theorist suspects that Inno doesn't actually have a support staff of their own, they just randomly connect us to some other company's support desk and we're trying to explain our problem to a Dell or State Farm employee. XD I'm laughing, but I'm sorry, and I hope you get that cleared up soon!!

 

[Emory62]

I'm afraid I have to disagree. There definitely can be a disadvantage: Main Halls demand a ton of population and culture relative to what a small city can supply, and that can be quite a strain on a new city, forcing them to expand farther than is good for them in the quest to have enough room for all the necessary residences and culture buildings. And those residences need coins and supplies to build, as does the MH each level; in the end, you don't gain nearly as much as it might seem.
For example, to upgrade the MH from level 5 to 6 costs 102K coins, but you only get an increase in neighbourly help rewards of 440 coins, which means you would have to visit 231 neighbours to make up for that loss in coins! Small cities don't have anywhere near that number of neighbours to visit yet, so comparing solely the increase in production to the costs of the MH, it would be potentially a couple of weeks before you make back the coins it took you to upgrade.

In my experience*, until chapter 12 or so the Main Hall should not be upgraded farther than is necessary for progression (that is, until you hit a technology that requires more gold than you can supply: if the next tech needs 10M coins and your MH only holds 8M, or something similar).

*I have not started a new city since the chapter changes, so it's certainly possible the ideal strategy in regards to coin and tools specifically has needed to change. I have heard those are much harder for new cities to acquire now. The math I quoted still holds true, however.

Oh, boy. Sometimes my inner conspiracy theorist suspects that Inno doesn't actually have a support staff of their own, they just randomly connect us to some other company's support desk and we're trying to explain our problem to a Dell or State Farm employee. XD I'm laughing, but I'm sorry, and I hope you get that cleared up soon!!

I am truly trying not to rag on Inno too much, but this .... level of misunderstanding ... well, I shan't be crass.

In addition to what MaidenFair said, there's also the amount of time required to upgrade the MH to 15... plus upgrade sufficient residences to support it. And that's an awful lot of dead time where my ability to do anything else will be sharply curtailed.

I think I am better served with a more balanced approach. Getting my army up to scratch will allow me at least some participation in the spire and tourney. Spire and tourney give enchantments and instants that are hugely useful (among other things). Having factories allows me to produce goods, albeit slowly. Not spending all my gold on MH upgrades will allow me to occasionally deploy a research province (I have 11 undeployed currently).

 

[Lelanya]

I am truly trying not to rag on Inno too much, but this .... level of misunderstanding ... well, I shan't be crass.

In addition to what MaidenFair said, there's also the amount of time required to upgrade the MH to 15... plus upgrade sufficient residences to support it. And that's an awful lot of dead time where my ability to do anything else will be sharply curtailed.

I think I am better served with a more balanced approach. Getting my army up to scratch will allow me at least some participation in the spire and tourney. Spire and tourney give enchantments and instants that are hugely useful (among other things). Having factories allows me to produce goods, albeit slowly. Not spending all my gold on MH upgrades will allow me to occasionally deploy a research province (I have 11 undeployed currently).

Take your time. The thing is, you haven't opened the Provinces, to gain the relics, to increase your boosts, nor have the production to support these upgrades.

Tell Support you are trying to play a city that had the enforced tech tree advancement due to merging the tech trees.

 

[Fayeanne]

I personally would play the city as if you are still in chapter 1. Ignore the story quests and look at the tech tree for chapter 1 and only build those things that were available at the time. So build some residences and workshops, your first tier manufactory (whatever your boost is), and your barracks and an armory. As others said, only upgrade your Main Hall to whatever level is available in chapter 1. (Otherwise it eats up all of your population.) Then when you have finished with the level 1 stuff, move on to the chapter 2 tech tree and see what is available there. Admittedly, many of the technologies do not specify which levels they unlock (e.g. it might just say "Advanced Residences" but doesn't tell you what levels those are), but you can look at the wiki (which still exists! even if it's not being updated anymore) to see what building levels are unlocked in which chapters. If you don't get ahead of your skiis, so to speak, it should go more smoothly.

 

[TimeMachine]

I'm going round and round with Inno in my ticket on this. They are now asking how I got to chapter V without upgrading any of my buildings. *HEADDESK*

They should know how, not you! Because it was them who migrated your city to where it is now!
Must have been already too long ago for them to remember!

Just by the way, there is one advantage of all this. As soon as you will be able to solve at least some seasons quests you might get some brand new summonable Chapter V buildings! Those might be very useful for your baby city.

 

[ajqtrz]

Don't forget to visit your neighbors. You probably have only a few, but a daily visit takes 1-2 minutes at your level and you get a fair amount of coins/supplies for the effort. AND, as you raise your MH and expand your explored territory, you get even more. So, there's that too.

As for NOT spending coins on the MH upgrade I'm betting doing the visits as described will pay for the MH upgrades with a bit to spare. Even if each day you collect 5% of the cost of the MH upgrade from your neighbor visits, that's a "free" upgrade every 3 weeks. And, as you go up, your coins and supplies collected goes up too. So, in short, I think I'd rethink not upgrading your MH/

AJ

 

[Lelanya]

Well I have had this happen to a city or two of mine. And as Fayenne states, it's best to advance a bit, place buildings available in chapter 1, solve the Provinces needed to unlock 2 so as to place expansions that don't cost gold. Then move onto to chapter 2, and so on.

Yes Emory will get buildings at chapter 5 but will also get quests like 'Produce x goods' scaled to Chapter 5!

 

[Emory62]

Take the second task.

332,000 gold. Easy peasy for a Chapter V city.

Two to three days for a Chapter II-ish city which is where I am. And as I said to Inno. "Can it be done? Yes. Is it fun? Absolutely not."

Even with coin rains - a 10% coin rain gives me 22000 gold - so I'd need 15 of them.

Three days on a limited time event is a lot to lose. And gold (and supplies) cannot be gifted by Fellowship members.