Gkyr
Chef
One of my activities is to type out what 'everybody knows' but has remained unstated. Why? I don't know. Just me, I guess.
Warning: TLDR
With that preamble, I have noticed that there is not a smooth progression of difficulty in battles as one progresses through the Tourney provinces.
Sure, the ratios tilt steadily in favor of the opposition but that does not always translate into battle difficulty. To really discuss battle difficulty, I feel that is necessary to experience each battle, that is, by manual fighting. So this post relies on the details apparent during MF.
And, sure, the potential costs of encounters can be seen to reliably increase and that is best seen in negotiation quantities more than in battles because battles have so many variables (player experience, buffs, elf or human, topography). But negotiations affect players differently depending upon one's resource production and stockpile.
With that as a preamble, I get to my points: (minor point) in my experience (elf, manual fighting) the first 7 province encounters are trivial and I have turned to auto-fighting to save time, for the most part. From there, the fights get more involved. (major point) For me, Tourney difficulty peaks at province 24 (range: 21-31). Once I am past that point, the nature of the battle changes and they usually become less challenging. For instance, if I have not needed much Mage action up through that point I find that Blossoms (for instance) become supremely necessary. It is almost as if one developer is assigned to scripting the first 20 battles and another dev is assigned to script the next 20.
After province 40, things can be counted upon to become progressively tougher. And, of course, there comes a point where the cost of squads lost makes the point and reward gains unpalatable. Or one runs out of provinces.
Also, when there is a supremely difficult province that is either unwinnable or extremely challenging, either in the first 20 or the next 20 provinces, it is invariably followed by a less challenging province battle. In such a case, if I lose during a later round and earlier round provinces are open beyond it, I will skip it and go on the the next provinces and this has invariably carried me further. If the lost province is the only loss in a series of gains I will cater it to keep the continuity for the next round. If I only gain no more provinces (reconnoiter and not engage) or only 1 province beyond the lost one, I will not cater (unless greedy for something) and start the next round from province 1.
Finally, and this part specifically and only applies to accounts with upgraded Timewarp and Twilight Phoenixidae, there is some discussion about when to use the TP, which is limited to 12 hours per feeding. Some feel that it is most useful when losses are higher, ie, in later rounds. I disagree but supporting this opinion would take some math, which I am not good at. Still, there is a pattern that some would find more useful for the TP and I refer to that pattern as the Wedge.
The Wedge occurs when I fight in Tourney round one as far as my buffs and skills will take me. In manual fighting, this takes some time. The upgraded Timewarp then allows me to immediately promenade down the line in round 2 but, as you might expect, I am invariably interrupted by RL. By the time I return to keyboard it is time to start round three from scratch. I may make it to continue round 2 or I may not. Suffice it to say, I often find myself with , for example, 40 completions of round 1, 30 of round 2, 25 of round 3, 15 of round 4, and 7 of round 5. One might imagine that, with the increase of battle difficulty for each successive round, there has been created a Wedge-shaped run of "iso-difficulty" in moving from a latter run initial province to and earlier run later province. I do not know; I really do not care: this is a thought-experiment. BUT...if one is limiting the use of the TP in order to conserve pet food, this makes an attractive occasion to use the TP across a series of runs.
And this discussion holds for all nine varieties of Tourney, in one form or another.
Warning: TLDR
With that preamble, I have noticed that there is not a smooth progression of difficulty in battles as one progresses through the Tourney provinces.
Sure, the ratios tilt steadily in favor of the opposition but that does not always translate into battle difficulty. To really discuss battle difficulty, I feel that is necessary to experience each battle, that is, by manual fighting. So this post relies on the details apparent during MF.
And, sure, the potential costs of encounters can be seen to reliably increase and that is best seen in negotiation quantities more than in battles because battles have so many variables (player experience, buffs, elf or human, topography). But negotiations affect players differently depending upon one's resource production and stockpile.
With that as a preamble, I get to my points: (minor point) in my experience (elf, manual fighting) the first 7 province encounters are trivial and I have turned to auto-fighting to save time, for the most part. From there, the fights get more involved. (major point) For me, Tourney difficulty peaks at province 24 (range: 21-31). Once I am past that point, the nature of the battle changes and they usually become less challenging. For instance, if I have not needed much Mage action up through that point I find that Blossoms (for instance) become supremely necessary. It is almost as if one developer is assigned to scripting the first 20 battles and another dev is assigned to script the next 20.
After province 40, things can be counted upon to become progressively tougher. And, of course, there comes a point where the cost of squads lost makes the point and reward gains unpalatable. Or one runs out of provinces.
Also, when there is a supremely difficult province that is either unwinnable or extremely challenging, either in the first 20 or the next 20 provinces, it is invariably followed by a less challenging province battle. In such a case, if I lose during a later round and earlier round provinces are open beyond it, I will skip it and go on the the next provinces and this has invariably carried me further. If the lost province is the only loss in a series of gains I will cater it to keep the continuity for the next round. If I only gain no more provinces (reconnoiter and not engage) or only 1 province beyond the lost one, I will not cater (unless greedy for something) and start the next round from province 1.
Finally, and this part specifically and only applies to accounts with upgraded Timewarp and Twilight Phoenixidae, there is some discussion about when to use the TP, which is limited to 12 hours per feeding. Some feel that it is most useful when losses are higher, ie, in later rounds. I disagree but supporting this opinion would take some math, which I am not good at. Still, there is a pattern that some would find more useful for the TP and I refer to that pattern as the Wedge.
The Wedge occurs when I fight in Tourney round one as far as my buffs and skills will take me. In manual fighting, this takes some time. The upgraded Timewarp then allows me to immediately promenade down the line in round 2 but, as you might expect, I am invariably interrupted by RL. By the time I return to keyboard it is time to start round three from scratch. I may make it to continue round 2 or I may not. Suffice it to say, I often find myself with , for example, 40 completions of round 1, 30 of round 2, 25 of round 3, 15 of round 4, and 7 of round 5. One might imagine that, with the increase of battle difficulty for each successive round, there has been created a Wedge-shaped run of "iso-difficulty" in moving from a latter run initial province to and earlier run later province. I do not know; I really do not care: this is a thought-experiment. BUT...if one is limiting the use of the TP in order to conserve pet food, this makes an attractive occasion to use the TP across a series of runs.
And this discussion holds for all nine varieties of Tourney, in one form or another.