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    Your Elvenar Team

The Fellowship Handbook

DeletedUser2824

Guest
Hello and welcome to Tagg’s extremely long-winded Fellowship Handbook.

First off I will mention that for anyone who wants more information about the game in general, they should check out Mykan’s Guide. If there’s something that I might not have explained in full detail, chances are more information can be found in his guide.

Another good place to check out is Bobbykitty’s Beginner Guide. She has many useful tips and information for newer player to help them learn the ropes and have a better gaming experience.

This thread was meant to be geared more specifically toward fellowships and the questions and concerns I’ve seen stated and discussed on the forums. A lot of people have been asking for advise about finding a good fellowship, running a fellowship ect. and I’ve seen a lot of good advice and information, but since not everything is all in one place it can be hard to find for newcomers and even for reference. That is what I’m hoping to do here; gather everything together in one place for easy reference.

Throughout the handbook I’ve tried to cover some of the most discussed topics concerning fellowships as found in the many threads here on the forums, as well as how some of these topics concern the greater Elvanar community. My hope is that by doing so it will be much easier for people to reference these topics, as well as provide tips and information that will help everyone have a chance to make their fellowships some of the greatest places to be.

If you have any questions, just PM me here on the forums and I'll be happy to get back to you. :)

Warning! This is an extremely rough draft. It’s still a major work in progress, and probably will be for a long time as I talk with the more experienced players and learn more things by my own experiences, (as well as battle bloody headaches), but I hope that players can still find the content useful.

Over time I’m hoping to find out how to add pictures and clean up the links (major graphic dummy, that’s me:eek:), add more links, and make this easier to read and navigate instead of a wall of text. There are some real good tools and spreadsheets people have been using that I hope to add soon. I’ve done my best to simplify some of the language in order for everyone to get a quick sense of the topic at hand, but for those interested in the original discussions I’ve tried to include a few links to the threads in question.



Contents:

Fellowship rights
Joining a fellowship
Things to look for in a fellowship
Applying to a fellowship
Being a good fellow
Leaving a fellowship
Starting a fellowship
The overview
How much neighborly help should you require?
Recruiting
Electing officers
Creating camaraderie
Building moral and earning trust
The responsibilities of an Archmage
Stepping down
Boosted goods
Boosted factories
Building boosted only factories
The three tiers of goods
Boosted goods and fellowships
Trades
Trading goods
Fair trades
Cross tier trades
When your fellowship is running low on a good
Trading tier one goods safely
Terms index



Fellowship rights:

A quick run down of each title and their rights and abilities.

Fellow:

Every Fellowship member can use the Fellowship Chat, trade with other Fellows without a fee, give and receive Neighborly Help and send circular messages to all Fellows.

Ambassador:

On top of normal Fellow rights, an Ambassador can invite players and accept applications.

Mage:

On top of all Ambassador rights, a Mage can expel or change the title of other members (apart from the Archmage) change the Fellowship profile and open or close the Fellowship for invites and applications.

Archmage:

On top of all Mage rights, the Archmage can disband the Fellowship. The Archmage can't leave the Fellowship, but can appoint a new Archmage - and become a Mage.


Joining a fellowship:

When looking for a fellowship to join there are few things you should take into consideration. First, what kind of play style do you have? Are you more relaxed and just want to enjoy the game? Are you a competitive player that wants to rise to the top? Are you a social person and place emphasis on being surrounded by friendly people? Maybe you’re a little of all these things?

Second is what you want out of a fellowship. Do you want a carefree place with few or no rules? Do you want more structure and order?

The good news is there are many different kinds of fellowships, with different goals, rules, and attitudes. There are even fellowships for specific needs, such as players with multiple worlds who need trades but don’t have time for visits, and many other things. If you take the time to look you’ll find one that fits your needs-and their’s too!

A good place to start is the “fellowships seeking members” section of the forums. Find this sub-section for the appropriate world you play and start looking over some of the different fellowships looking for more members.

Looking in game at the list of fellowships. Open up the fellowship list and type "recruiting" into the search box and take a look at the fellowship who have recruiting in their title and see what they are looking for.

You can also post in the “members seeking fellowship” section of the forums. There you can post what kind of player you are and see what kind of invites you get. If you’re an active player you’ll get a response pretty quick, either in the forums or in game. Check each fellowship out and pick the one you think would be the best fit.

Things to look for in a fellowship-

As you look, you not only want to find a fellowship that’s looking for a player like you, you also want to find one you think you’ll be happy in. Whether browsing the fellowships advertising in the forums, or checking out a fellowship overview, you should look for ones that give you a good idea of what kind of fellowship it is as well as letting you know what kind of players they’re looking for.

Some of the things a fellowship will post are :
  • Score requirements for joining, if any
  • Rules, including NH expectations
  • If they are seeking certain boosted goods
  • Trading atmosphere
  • Social atmosphere

Don’t be intimidated by their expectations, some may seem strict, but the more you play you’ll find that most of the things that seemed harsh at the beginning aren’t. Some structure is necessary for a healthy and thriving fellowship. Even some of the most laid back fellowships should be clear about their desires for a carefree zone, you shouldn’t have to guess.

A lot of the higher ranked fellowships look for players that have high scores to match their level more due to the large amount of goods they need to trade each day. And the more competitive ones want other high ranking players so they can keep their rank # up at the top.

But no matter the rank of the fellowship, there are plenty who place more emphasis on finding active players, usually with certain boosts. There are plenty of mixed fellowships, with players of higher and lower scores. A good thing to look for is a fellowship with at least several players close to your score. There are also plenty of fellowships that are newbie friendly, and have a lot of lower score players. It can be real fun growing with a fellowship and not just growing up to a fellowship.

Just pay respect to the fellowship’s expectations and take your time and find one that you think you might be happy in. If you really want to get a sense of the fellowship in practice, try talking to some of the different members and see what they say about it.

Applying to a fellowship-

When applying to a fellowship, it’s best to send a letter of introduction. If you fit the kind of player they’re looking for, let them know. Let them know you have the right boosted goods, a high enough score, and that you are an active player. Give them a reason to consider you as a possible member. Remember, the more personality you put in a letter the more it’ll stand out among many. For many of the higher ranked fellowships, they see dozens of letters on a regular basis. It can be a lot of work trying to sift through all those every day, so make yours worth reading.

If they turn you down, don’t despair, there are plenty of other worthy fellowships to consider.
 
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DeletedUser2824

Guest
Being a good fellow-

No matter your level or score, being a good fellow should always be your priority. Always be respectful, don’t abuse the trader, visit your fellows as often as you can, ask questions if you don’t understand something, and respect everyone’s city header.

Visits: A common practice in Elvanar is to place one’s visit preferences in their city header (name banner). C = culture, B =builder, and MH = main hall. The order that these letters are in is the preference that the player wants you to click on when you visit. Do your best to click on the first thing listed before clicking on anything else if there’s nothing left of their first preference. And if you have a listed preference, don’t freak out if someone clicks on the wrong thing once in awhile. Some days are rough and we hit the wrong thing every so often. If it’s a common problem, just send them a simple letter explaining your preference. Some people have no idea what those strange coded letters are in everyone’s city title and just do visits the best they can.

Trading: Trade often and check the trader regularly for trades from your fellowship that you can help out with. More on this in the trades sections.

Social: For most fellowships, a good social atmosphere is important. While some folks are more chatty than others, it’s best if everyone makes use of the chat every now and then.

And even if you are the quiet type, if you say enough to let everyone know you read the fellowship chat and check out the letters sent out to the fellowship, you’ll become more than just a name to them. Unless you join a fellowship specifically geared for trading partners with no chat, a fellowship is a place for people to join together to have fun and enjoy playing the game. Build up some camaraderie for goodness sake!

And be communicative. Even if you aren’t a chatty kind of person it’s best to keep up a good communication with your fellowship. It’s especially important to keep them informed if you are going to be gone for a period of time or have things going on that are keeping your activity level down. If you have things going on in your life that are limiting your game time, be honest and let your fellowship, or at least your Archmage, know. Most fellowships are understanding of real life events.


Leaving a fellowship-

Sometimes you’ll find yourself in a fellowship that doesn’t fit your needs as well as you’d hoped. Maybe there’s not enough balance to the trading circle, you find it hard to get the help you need, or maybe the fellowship isn’t as active as you are. There are many things that might make you unhappy being in your current fellowship. If so it might be that you need to move on.

If you can, it’s nice to let them know you’re leaving so they don’t worry. If your reasons for leaving are too personal to share you don’t have to tell them why.

Sometimes your leadership might go inactive. In which case you have several choices. One being quitting and finding a new fellowship. Two, if you have at least an active mage you can try and keep the fellowship together and carry on without your archmage. If it's been long enough, support can help you replace an inactive archmage. Three is to have everybody who’s active leave as a group to start a new fellowship.

Sometimes you may be happy with your fellowship, but real life is demanding too much out of you. In many cases a fellowship can be understanding of your situation, but if your circumstances make are making it so it’s hard to make it to the game at all, you’ll have to decide if your situation is temporary, or if it’ll be better to quit the game to better devote time to your real life.

Whatever the reasons for leaving, it’s a personal choice that you have to make based on your circumstances.


Starting a fellowship:

Just like joining a fellowship, when creating a fellowship there are many things to take into consideration.

Some things to decide on are these:
What kind of fellowship you want to create. Choose now what kind of principles and goals your fellowship will be founded on. This will help you decide on how to go about setting everything else up.
Rules. A few goods rules can help keep your fellowship thriving. Choose rules that reflect the kind of fellowship environment you want to create as well as what you think will help keep your fellowship active and healthy. This includes how much NH you’ll require a week.

Another thing to seriously consider is whether or not you really want to be an archmage in charge of a fellowship. No matter what kind of fellowship you’re creating, the responsibly for maintaining it will be yours, whether it’s laid back or competitive, you’ll be in charge of making sure your fellowship stays on track and keeps to the spirit you founded it in.


The overview-

The fellowship overview is the front page that everyone who takes a look at your fellowship will see. This is where players who are looking for a fellowship will see what kind of fellowship you have and what you’re looking for. It’s a good idea to have your requirements near the top so players can see them without having to scroll down to find them. Some of the first things players look for is your NH requirements, trade rules/atmosphere, social personality, as well as some kind of description on what kind of fellowship it is and any other rules.

If you are recruiting, some other things that should be in your overview is if you’re looking for certain boosted goods or have any score requirements for joining. Player score is usually used by more advanced fellowships looking for people closer to their level.


How much neighborly help a week should you require?-

As someone put it so eloquently;

Daily- good for competitive fellowships seeking top ten type of rank
5-goldilocks. this draws active players in while not being too onerous
4- just enough for forward momentum it's a tough line to walk
3- active players leave for more support, constant turnover
2 or less- semi active 3rd city dust balls and cobwebs

Keep in mind, it's not so much about the visits as much as the activity. In all but the most competitive fellowships you'll have at least a few people who can't make the NH requirements on a regular basis, no matter how low. While your requirements should be a good indicator of how active your fellowship is, it's often a good idea to also state in your overview that if real life events are limiting someone's game time, to let the archmage know so you don't drop a good player due to a silent spell. Also, you can state your "period of grace" that you'll give a player who hasn't contacted you before going inactive before dropping them, such as a week.

Also, many fellowships will have a lower visit requirement even though they'll state most people do more. This is for those who have a lot going in in their lives and don't want to have to worry about explaining themselves every time they have an absence. So although you usually want to encourage activity and visits, in the end it's about the people and the kind of atmosphere you want your fellowship to have. Most people just want to enjoy the game and each other. So no matter what you feel you should require for weekly visits should be, place the emphasis on creating the kind of environment you want your fellowship to have.


Recruiting-

There are several ways to go about recruiting members for your fellowship. You can advertise in the “fellowships seeking members” section of the forums. You can check the “members seeking fellowships” section as well. You can add such things as “now seeking”, “apply now”, or “recruiting” to your fellowship name. You can also watch your neighborhood for active players and track scores in the player list.

Encourage your members to keep an eye out for actives as well. Encourage them to recruit members either by letter, invitation, or both. If you’re looking for certain boosts, let your members know. Your mages and ambassadors will have the authority to use the fellowship invite feature to invite members directly into the fellowship. More on the different titles and their abilities in fellowship rights.

If really want to peak a potential recruit's interest, try sending a letter with your invite. Let them know what kind of fellowship you have and ask them to check it out if they're interested. A good letter will personalize the invite and help them feel more like a person. It also gives you the benefit of getting a reply most of the time, so if they decline you at least know if they don't think your fellowship will fit their needs, they don't want a fellowship, ect. instead of wondering why no one has excepted your invitations. Just as it's good manners for an applicant to send a letter to the archmage, it's best to return the favor when recruiting. You're not just doing them a favor by offering them a place in your fellowship, they're doing you a favor by joining. Give them the respect you would want for yourself.

If your fellowship is new, you just need members and should seek any active player that has the same kind of play style and wants the kind of things out of a fellowship that you are offering. As you start filling your ranks it’s a good idea to track who has what boosted goods. More on this in boosted goods and fellowships.
 
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DeletedUser2824

Guest
Electing officers-

As your fellowship garners a few members, you should start thinking about promoting a few people. Ambassadors will have the ability to directly invite people into the fellowship and can help fill your ranks faster, and a good mage will help you manage affairs. As your fellowship grows, so will its needs and so might your officers.

A few good mages will ease your burden and make sure things are running smoothly if you ever go on vacation for awhile. Keep them informed of fellowship affairs and take their advice under consideration. No man’s an island, and having a few trustworthy people to help you come to wise decisions is a wonderful thing.

It’s good to be clear on what you may want or not want your officers to do. Communicate with them often, especially needs as a fellowship and what they can do to help. Let them know what boosted goods you’re looking for and what kind of players.


Creating camaraderie-

From your first recruit to a full fellowship, be a good leader and encourage a good social atmosphere. You are creating a place where people of like mind can gather and enjoy the game and each other. Don’t be just a name to them, be involved with the players more than the numbers. Even a terrible conversationalist such as myself has managed to stay involved with the people of my fellowships.


Building moral and earning trust-

One thing I would stress every Archmage to keep in mind is how your attitude effects your members. Stay optimistic without being careless. If a change to the game has everyone growling in frustration, don't make it worse by complaining too much about it yourself. While you don't want to belittle their feelings by sucking up to the game, likewise you don't want to encourage their disgruntlement by mouthing off. We're all individuals here, and want to be treated as such. Care about how they feel about any problem and address those issues as needed, whether it be disgruntlement about changes to the game or a misunderstanding between players. It's hard to be a team player for someone who doesn't enjoy where they are at.

Always be fair in your dealings with your fellowship. If a new player slips up on a rule, be sure to explain (in a tactful, non-condescending way) what the rules are and why they are there. If you have a careless, repeated offender, you'll have to be more firm, but never loose your temper or be rude. Nobody wants to be micromanaged, but you can't be a pushover either. You have to learn balance and respect. Do that and you'll earn the trust of your fellows. Remember, respect should given freely, but trust must be earned.


The responsibilities of an Archmage-

No matter the kind of fellowship you create, your first and foremost responsibility as an Archmage is making sure that your fellowship keeps to the vision you promised your members. If you want a highly competitive fellowship, you’re going to have to make sure you find and keep players who are highly active and grow at a suitable rate. If you want a carefree fellowship where rules are few and drama stays out, you’re the one who has to make sure it stays that way.

Leadership is full of tough choices as well as times when you have to look at a bigger picture. When someone goes inactive for a long period of time, even a laid back fellowship needs to consider replacing them with a more active player or else your fellowship won’t last long. If a player is having things going on in their life that makes it hard for them to devote as much time to the game as before, you have to take that into consideration. Most fellowships will have some players who may not meet the required activity level, but are doing their best under the circumstances.

You need to communicate with your members and keep them informed. Make sure they’re updated on fellowship wide decisions and keep them informed on what’s going on. Answer their questions as best you can and look for answers to the things your not sure of. The forums can be great for finding information and asking questions, and the wiki has a lot of information as well. There are even Facebook pages, such as Platinum Leaf, that players can go to for tips and such. I’d encourage you to take advantage of these tools regularly.

In the end, it's you as an Archmage that must make the final decisions for the good of the fellowship. You're not running a democracy. Even if it's you and a couple of friends founding a fellowship, you must decide among you who would make the best leader and work together to establish a good team with a clear line of authority. While any wise leader takes everyone's input seriously, it's up to you to decide the final course. Even if you make mistakes, you must do your best to correct and learn from them. Do your best, respect your members, and earn their trust. It's that simple and that complicated. ;)


Stepping down-

Many things happen, and there might come a time when you wish to retire as an Archmage. Sometimes your life gets too demanding and you can’t devote as much time to the game, or maybe you decide this game isn’t your thing, or maybe being an Archmage just isn’t for you. Whatever the reason, if you decide you need to step down you can promote someone to the title of Archmage, which will drop your title down to mage. You can then leave as needed.

If your fellowship is active and running, please don’t just disappear on them. While things happen in life, if you can make it at all to the internet it’s good protocol to inform your fellowship of your decision and find someone who’s willing to take up the torch. They can either decide to carry on under a new Archmage or find a new home, but it’s your duty as their Archmage to inform them of important decisions and give them the power to choose.

If your fellowship hasn’t even got up off the ground yet, or has gone under for whatever reason, you can disband it. Be sure to inform any active members of your decision so they can find new homes.


Boosted goods:

Every city has three boosted goods, one on each tier. The three tiers are called basic, crafted and magical goods. Planks, marble and steel are basic goods. Crystal, scrolls and silk are crafted goods. Magic dust, gems and elixir are magic goods.

If you click on your main hall and go under the relics tabs, the three goods on the bottom are your city’s boosted goods. These are the goods you’ll be able to learn to produce lots of as you unlock factory upgrades in the tech tree and gain relics of each of these goods. The more relics you gain, the more your production will increase by a certain percent.


Boosted factories-


Factories vary in size from the different goods, and even by races, and as such, vary in the amount of goods they produce at each level. So while a lot of people have done a good job at some of the numbers, in the end it’s really hard to compare them and give a clean-cut answer as to how many factories you should make.

While trying to find out how many factories you need you should keep these things in mind;
In the beginning, elves tend to have a higher production rate for magic goods whereas humans have better basic goods.
Marble produces less per factory than any other good. If calculated by square foot they produce at the same rate, but since the buildings (for both elves and humans) are much smaller, it takes more marble factories to match the bigger factories.
Steel is the heavy producer. The opposite of marble, steel factories are the some of the biggest (for both races) and therefore produce the most per factory
For elves, plank factories are pretty low producers as well, while human plank factories are almost as big as the steel factories.
Crystal is marble’s tier 2 counterpart. By factory, it’s the lowest tier 2 producer.
Scrolls are up there with steel and produce a lot per factory.

With all these differences along with whether or not you’ve unlocked more upgrades , the general agreement is to go by the square feet of factory space, instead of the number of factories themselves. If you’re interested in more information, check out this discussion.

The bottom line is, as you find yourself coming up short of goods in any tier, either work on upgrading your factories, or if you haven’t unlocked the next upgrade in your tech tree, build another factory or two. As you advance through the chapters and unlock more upgrades, you may find you don’t need as many factories anymore, in which case don’t be afraid to delete some and use the population and space somewhere else.

For an archmage, the boosts that their members have is definitely something to consider as they look for more members. More on this in boosted goods and fellowships.
 
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DeletedUser2824

Guest
Building boosted only factories-

A wise Archmage encourages boosted goods only. When a player has non-boosted factories, not only are they using population and space to support something that doesn’t make them enough to justify the cost, but they’re also loosing out on the opportunity to produce more boosted goods. From a business viewpoint, that’s hundreds, up to thousands if they’re a higher level, of goods wasted every day. If it’s a fellowship wide problem, that could potentially mean from thousands to ten thousands of goods, depending on everyone’s level.

Even if you have enough boosted factories to produce the amount of goods you need, if you have non-boosted factories, you’re still wasting resources as you could be using that space and population to keep workshops upgraded, space for more residencies (and thus even more population), upgrading your main hall once in awhile, and even building up your culture.

Space is one of the core challenges in this game, and in the end you need every square you got to maximize efficiency in your city.


The three tiers of goods-


It’s important to balance all three tiers of factories in your city and not neglect any. It’s hard to give you a magic number to have of each due to all the variables mentioned in boosted factories.

As time goes on and you advance further, some of you may be tempted to sell off all your tier 1 and 2 factories and just build and upgrade your tier three factories, either for the higher score or the space, and then trade for the other two tiers of goods. Please don’t do this!! Cross tier trading is an economy wrecking act. The difference in the time it takes to make the different tiers of goods aren’t the same, and if you only traded tier 3 goods for tier 2 or 1 goods you’ll only be punishing those whom you’re trading with. More on this in the section cross tier trades.

Boosted goods and fellowships-

When finding players to join your fellowship, it’s in everyone’s best interests to do your best to balance out the boosted goods that make up your fellowship trading circle. If the fellowship is new, you’re going to be taking in any active person. But as you start getting a decent amount of people together, start paying more attention to how many of each boosts your fellowship has as a whole. Start looking for active players with the boosts you need. The more people you get to join your fellowship, the more you’ll whittle down what boosts are still needed.

Varron suggests his ideal mix would be:
10 marble, 6 steel, 9 planks
10 crystal 6 scroll 9 silk
any mix on tier 3 (get it as even as you can, but not as much stress)

This is due to the different production rates of the different factories. See boosted factories.

Of course, numbers alone doesn't cut it. You have to keep in mind the different levels and growth rates of your fellows as well.

If your trading circle is unbalanced, don’t despair. Sad as it may be, people come and people go. As players leave or move on, use the opportunity to work on finding the boosts your fellowship needs. Even then, it may be hard to find to find good players with the right boosts. Sometimes you have to weigh a good player with the wrong boosts vs. a poor player with the right boosts. In the end, you do your best and make decisions based on the situation.


Trades:

Trading goods-

Trading for the goods you need is definitely a life breathing action for your city. You only have three boosted goods that you will produce large amounts of, and so you must trade for the other goods you need. Regularly post trades of your boosted goods for other goods of the same tier to keep your stock balanced. This way you’ll have goods to upgrade buildings and unlock technologies.

When first starting out, it may be a bit discouraging looking through the trader as you haven’t discovered a lot of people yet, and therefore many of the trades are 1 stars due to the trader fees. It‘s nothing to fret about. Chances are very high that there are people around you a lot further along and hence have discovered a lot more cities, which means although you haven’t discovered them, they’ve discovered you. So if you post trades they can take them without paying trader fees. So if you can’t take trades yet, don’t worry. Just post a fair trade so those that have discovered you can take them instead.

Being in a good fellowship will definitely help you, as you’ll have plenty of people you can trade with without having to pay a trader fee. Again, don’t worry if you can’t always take a trade. Just take what you can as needed and post up trades for anything else you might need. And don’t feel bad if they’re small. Small trades are easy for other players to pick up.

If you’re a more advanced player, you may want to consider putting out a few small trades on a regular basis. Even if you don’t have smaller players in your fellowship, you probably have a few new players around your city that would love to take a small trade.

Wise archmages will do their best to balance out the boosts in their fellowship in order to create a better trading environment. More on this in boosted goods and fellowships.


Fair trades-

When posting in the trader it’s good manners to keep the trades fair or better. If you post trades for the same tier of goods at 1.1 ratio, example: 100 for 100, 400 for 400, ect. that’s a fair trade. If you post a trade that asks for less goods than you are offering, such as 200 goods in exchange for 150 goods, that’s a three star trade and is better than a fair trade.

Wise archmages keep it a rule to keep the trades fair or better. The exception though, is unless by prearrangement. This is for the players who’ve fallen short of the goods they need for such things as upgrading, unlocking tech, or completing a quest. When you need something, a good fellowship is willing to help you get back on your feet as they are able to. Be polite and ask nicely if someone is able to help you out. Never demand a trade!

Other exceptions usually involve new players. Mixed fellowships with more advanced players are usually eager to help new players advance quickly by encouraging lopsided trades in the new player’s advantage. Again, mind your manners and be sure that’s what they want you to do. There can be a great sense of personal satisfaction by doing your best to progress on your own power first, and only asking for help when you really need it. A good fellowship is only made up of great individuals who seek to advance their cities to better help their other fellows out. They are a team. Don't take advantage of a player's kindness.


Cross tier trades-

If you were wondering why a lot of people hate taking cross tier trades, it has to do with the amount of time it takes to make the different goods. At one time I took my factories in Arendyll as an example to show my fellowship the numbers. At that point my level 9 plank factories, with a relic boost percentage of 359, produced 239 goods every three hours. My level 9 silk factories, at a 391% boost, produced 339 goods every three hours. My level 7 dust factories produced 253 goods at 359%.

According to the trader, a fair trade would be 16.4.1, meaning if you asked for 1,600 planks in exchange for 100 magic goods (tier three) it would be fair. Well, at my then current factory level it would have taken me 7 three hour cycles to produce that many planks for an amount of magic goods I could have gotten in only 1 three hour cycle, half as much as I could get in fact, and trade at a 1.1 ratio. Even 400 silk would have only taken me 2 three hour cycles. If I regularly traded my planks for other tiered goods I wouldn’t be able to keep up.

While it’s still not something a lot of us will encourage on a regular basis, a much better ratio of trading would be 5.2.1. Giving 500 planks for 100 of a tier three good is a much better deal and matches the time to produce goods much better. When you’re in a pinch, it’ll be much easier for your fellows to pick up trades at this ratio than what the crooked guy at the trader says is fair. The game prices goods based only on the supplies used in production. That price does not count either the time needed for production, or the space used by the factories. Both time and space are also limited resources. So cross-tier trades under-price lower tier goods.

In general, it’s best to avoid cross tier trades altogether unless you’re stuck on something. (Upgrades and research can get expensive. We know.) When that happens, just let your fellowship know what you need so they can help you out. Many of us would rather do a three star trade at the highest ratio the trader will allow on the same tier (1.4), rather than do cross tier trades.

If you find you’re relying on cross tier trades to survive, it’s time to reevaluate your production and build up the boosted factories that produce the tier of goods you’re always running short on.

There is another exception to our aversion though, and that's a newer player cross trading up. It's very difficult to get your next tier of factories unlocked without trading for the higher goods you don't yet have, and cross trading up is not damaging to the other player like cross trading down. Although as my examples earlier should demonstrate, if you cross trade up on a continual basis you'll just be shortchanging yourself. So save it for those time you just need the goods to unlock the research you need to build your next tier of factories, or try and trade at the 5.2.1 ratio.
 
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DeletedUser2824

Guest
When your fellowship is running low on a good-

It happens. Try as hard as you might to build up your factories and balance your fellowship's trading circle, there will still come a time when your whole fellowship will experience trouble getting enough of one good or another. Life's full of variables, and your shortage could come from many different factors in many different combinations.

Everyone grows at different rates, so while some of your players will pumping out the goods, others may be still trying to upgrading. If most of your bigger fellows are heavy with one boost while the lower players are heavy with the others, you're gonna have an imbalance for awhile. Some player's neighborhoods are better for trades than others.

There are several things you can do to help this.

  • Keep trying to balance out your fellowship's boosted goods circle.
  • Encourage your members to produce boosted goods only and also encourage them to build up the tiers of factories they're always running low on.
  • Offer to help build up the players who's boosts are needed. Sometimes it a matter of helping with upgrades or even building up a lower player so they can unlock their factories. Do trades at a 1.4 ratio to quickly rush them through their tech tree.
  • Check your neighborhood for trades as well. While it's best to focus on your fellowship trades first, your neighborhood trades can help fortify your trading circle because if one of your neighbor's fellowships is low on something your fellowship is heavy with, you'll be doing everyone a favor by moving those excess goods over to where they would put to better use and in return getting the goods you need to put back into your fellowship's circulation.
  • Talk with the neighbors that are heavy in the goods you're low in. If you make contacts that you can help and get help from, everyone will benefit. Set up trades that will befit both parties.

Trading tier one goods safely-


This section quoted from varron.

Since this has come up several times recently I'm detailing how you can move Tier one goods with minimal risk of outside unintended traders closing your needed trades. In all examples I need planks and you need marble

1. If you want to leave goods out for a neighbor in a helpful but not critical trade just lower the star rating by asking for 5 more goods than offering:

Offer 995 Marble - demand 1000 planks
and notify your fellowship not to bother with those. This will sit un-taken by neighbors in most cases.

2. If it's a critical need of Tier One goods use Tier Three goods as a marker at max allowable ratio 1:64

My posted trade for you: 1000 Dust : 64000 Planks
Your posted trade for me: 1000 Dust : 64,000 Marble

No Tier one goods get posted so there's no risk of losing them.
If anyone else closes the trade it's a bonus for you and you can just re-post the same trade for your intended receiver. Both sides come out with their 1,000 dust while the 64,000 planks/marble get moved but never offered.

If trading through a particular member that will trade a neighbor or go out on a trading mission with another fellowship you can "load them up" through method 2.
  • The traveling member posts as many trades as needed at 1:64
  • 100 dust: 6400 marble posted x number of times to gather marble
  • Interested members close these trades (investors)
  • trader leaves fellowship to join the trading fellowship and trades accrued marble for planks
  • upon return to original fellowship, invested members post 100 dust :6400 planks which are closed by traveling member
In the end members wind up getting 1:1 on tier one goods and the dust evens out. Again no tier one goods get offered so no risk of loss. This method requires a trusted member obviously.
 
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DeletedUser2824

Guest
Terms index:

Tiers- used to describe the different levels of goods.
NH- short for neighborly help.
KP- short for knowledge points
AW- short for Ancient Wonders
 

DeletedUser26654

Guest
All this info, yet, nothing to lead you to where I can START a fellowship. Is there no more room for fellowships, is every fellowship spot taken and does no one think this is important enough to advise us?
 

samidodamage

Buddy Fan Club member
Well, this thread is 3-4 years old and things have changed a great deal during that time. Here's a link to the instruction in the Wiki for creating an FS:
Founding a Fellowship
Those directions look to me like they're for browser players and I have no idea how to create one on mobile. It was easy on browser a couple years ago when I started my 2nd city, but I only did that to access tourneys, etc while I developed my city enough to feel acceptable to an established FS. First, being an Archmage has never appealed to me, lol, and second there are loads of FS's with few members and lots of small city players.
I've found I get the most benefit from being in an FS with players at all different levels of the game and there is more stability and less turnover in members in those FS's. That little one I started had loads of little players joining, quitting playing, being removed from the game (and FS) just to be replaced by more of the same. If I had planned to have an FS of my own, it would have driven me crazy (short trip, I know;))
 
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