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    Your Elvenar Team

Useless Magic Dust Boost

DeletedUser5285

Guest
Can anyone tell me what is the purpose of the "Magic Dust" boost?? I can't even give the stuff away!! I think I've actually used about 400-500 to open stuff on the research tree in the 6 months I've been playing, but that's about it. I put 100 dust for 200 planks in the trader...it's still there, 24 hours later...that's like a 6 star trade...no one wants it! Please tell me that at some point it will have value?? Because having to put up 100 scrolls just to get 25 gems is getting old real fast!!
 

DeletedUser2963

Guest
First, please keep your audience in mind. It is not possible to post 100 dust for 200 planks. Two, most players will not even think about picking up a cross-tier trade when the trader is asking for a lower tier good. If you want gems post 100 dust for 100 gems.
 

DeletedUser2870

Guest
First, please keep your audience in mind. It is not possible to post 100 dust for 200 planks. Two, most players will not even think about picking up a cross-tier trade when the trader is asking for a lower tier good. If you want gems post 100 dust for 100 gems.

No 100 dust for 400 wood is the lowest you can get. But the OP has a point though. Magic Dust seems by far the least required of the tier 3 goods.

Even when trading dust for gems I often need to offer a deal at 1.1 or better or I it won't be picked up. Elixer on the other hand seems to be the most valuable by far and I often need to offer 1.25-1.4 dust to be able to get it.

As for people not picking up crosstier trades. Yes, a lot of players do, but not across 2 tiers. That's because the 1:16 ratio is not in accordance to the real value. If one looks at the yield/square 1:10 is much closer to the truth.
So nobody will be able to supply enough tier 1 goods for trade against tier 3.
 

DeletedUser3297

Guest
I guess that is a reason not to have a level 19 dust manufactory, the golden towers look better than whatever that thing is supposed to be.

As far as an abundance of dust, yes. People always need my elixir and I help everyone as much as I can, but now I have a half million dust that is useless to me now.
 

DeletedUser5285

Guest
I couldn't remember the exact numbers when I was writing my question and had already closed the Elvenar window, so I was guessing at what I had put up in the Trader, just knew it was some ridiculous number. The point is, I seriously have found little use for my magic dust. I have 3 buildings and only have them at a level 3, like kayleegirl says, there seems to be no reason to waste my resources upgrading them, or taking up space, when they aren't really serving me any purpose. People would much rather have my steel and scrolls. I was just asking, at some point...I was hoping, that would change. Maybe at the Faerie level? And the reason I was asking was, do I or don't I, bother to upgrade them? I'm not a mathematician and don't really understand the whole "Ratio" thing (which explains why I don't understand a single, solitary thread in the Battle forums) just was hoping someone could tell me if I can come up with a better strategy to dispose of the dust and get the things I need.
 

Mykan

Oh Wise One
It is situational more than anything. I run an excessive number of towns :p and had the bad luck of drawing dust on almost all of those towns. Not bad that it was dust but bad it was the same boost I already had, I wanted something else. I have never had any trouble trading dust out 1:1 in the same tier. In fact on occasion I have had far more demand for it then I can handle. I have a gem and an elixir town that I can barely give the stuff away.

Neighbours and fellowships play a big part in this not the actual good.
 

DeletedUser2870

Guest
I couldn't remember the exact numbers when I was writing my question and had already closed the Elvenar window, so I was guessing at what I had put up in the Trader, just knew it was some ridiculous number. The point is, I seriously have found little use for my magic dust. I have 3 buildings and only have them at a level 3, like kayleegirl says, there seems to be no reason to waste my resources upgrading them, or taking up space, when they aren't really serving me any purpose. People would much rather have my steel and scrolls. I was just asking, at some point...I was hoping, that would change. Maybe at the Faerie level? And the reason I was asking was, do I or don't I, bother to upgrade them? I'm not a mathematician and don't really understand the whole "Ratio" thing (which explains why I don't understand a single, solitary thread in the Battle forums) just was hoping someone could tell me if I can come up with a better strategy to dispose of the dust and get the things I need.

The ratio is this : 100 Dust=400 scrolls=1600 steel. Or at least, that's the 'fair' rate as far as the trading goes.
The problem is that if one maxes out all the factories and you look at the yield/square, the tier 1 factories don't even come close to producing an amount / square that is the same as the tier 3 factories, even when my tier 1 are higher level than the tier 3 factories, the tier 3 factories still outproduce them.
In my opinion this is a grossly unbalancing factor in the game. If one sets the fair value at 1-4-16 then the factories should, when maxed out, produce about the same value and they do not.
This leads to many people setting up only, or almost only, tier 3 factories.

Apart from that, the goods aren't in equal demand. Of the tier 1 goods marble seems to be in much higher demand than both other goods.
Tier 2 seems a bit more balanced, with sometimes crystal and sometimes scrolls in higher demand as you progress through the chapters, yet silk seems to be in less demand.
Tier 3 elixer is by far the most wanted, then gems, and dust least of all.
Once again, I think this is a very unbalancing factor.

All of the goods of a single tier should be in about the same demand to keep the game balanced. And the proper ratio, based on the production is more like 1-4-10. That way, people would be more inclined to place some of all their boosted factories instead of only tier 3.
But even if one would decide to focus on only one boosted good, there wouldn't be a problem if the yield per factory was in accordance with the value of the goods.

@Mykan
Sorry, but that just is not true. In all the worlds I have played and all 3 I now am active, it is exactly the same. Dust just is not in high demand. Elixer is.
Marble is in all those worlds the tier one good that's getting the best price.
When it happens in all worlds it's not happenstance but structural. So I'd put up the thesis that your situation of getting good prices for dust are the exception
 

DeletedUser2963

Guest
I don't have dust, but I will say that at the moment I have 3 tier 3 manufactories, only one fully upgraded, and I have way more tier 3 goods than I need. I am actually planning on selling one soon...will sell the second if my tier three keep building up the way they are. I don't negotiate provinces often, I fight and I stay inside the goldilocks zone, so for me 3 manufactories is one or maybe two too many:D

@Mykan is right, your neighbors and your fellowship have a massive impact on ability to unload goods. I left my previous fellowship after the first move because I could not get rid of my elixer to save my life. I lost the neighbors who wanted it and my FS was top heavy with it.


Since your neighbors are of no use to you, your best bet is to join a FS that is specifically seeking your boost. Before you join check the top players and make sure they don't all have your boosts.
 
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DeletedUser3640

Guest
bahhh i got dust as 3-th boost, still working to reserch it and you have me worryed now

Ignore everything that was said here. There are no "good" or "bad" types of goods. Your success of trading your dust will depend on your neighbors and your fellowship.

If AM is dumb, he won't track balance of boosted goods in his/her fellowship, and your trading will indeed suffer. I strongly advise you to avoid getting in such fellowship.

There's nothing you can do about your neihgbors, so if all of your active neighbors have the same boosted goods, then you just got really unlucky.
 

DeletedUser2963

Guest
@ Reiq, wow rude much? Keeping a balanced Fellowship is really difficult. It takes allot of work, and a couple of super active players can just wreck your house in under a month. Its really hard to plan for every single persons individual activity level. Also, allot of FS are started as springboards, they are not balanced because the AM never planed on people living there forever. There are also allot of FS more about fellowship(haha) than about trading.
 

DeletedUser2870

Guest
It's not so much a matter of trading. I can -and do- trade very much, I even will buy more of my own boosted goods from my FS members to give them stuff they need as I tend to get what I need and want anyway because I trade so much, both inside and outside the FS.
The question is which goods are actually much more in demand because of being needed for quests or special goods.
Marble is the one tier 1 good that NEVER stays on the market long. And if I wouldn't take some of the offers for the other tier 1 goods at times, even though I don't need them those offers will stay on the market for days or even weeks.
Same goes for elixer. I've yet to find a world where elixer-offers aren't gone within half a day at the utmost, mostly within a few hours. My dust offers can stay up for weeks on end though. Even when offering 1.5 : 1
 

DeletedUser5285

Guest
OK...so here's the kicker...I'm the Mage.....don't laugh..alright...go ahead and laugh!!! My AM promoted me to mage after only 1 month of me playing, simply based on the fact that I'm on disability, so therefore am home all day with nothing better to do. I take it seriously though and there is a LOT of people I'd like to boot from the FS, but she doesn't want too. There's literally one player we haven't seen in a month!! But, everyone has an excuse as to why and it's all acceptable to her. It doesn't help that she's always in Personal crisis mode and I've actually passed her in rank. Everyone is coming to me for answers and I barely have them for myself...hence why I'm coming to you guys for answers. I actually have a notebook with who plays, who has what boosts, etc., I have recruited several members, who all actively participate, but we can't get ahead because of her loyalty to these inactive players. I would move on, but I feel guilty about leaving my recruits in the mess she's created. When I wnt looking for members, I did compare who had what boosts and what would benefit the FS, but that's moot when the top players aren't participating in the trades or making them out of reach for the new members. Does this make sense? I currently have (8) Dust, (9) elixir and (7) gems members. I thought that was pretty fairly balanced. Can you explain where I went wrong (besides everything!)
 

DeletedUser2963

Guest
@Syrinx , It is really difficult to plan a FS around activity level. Also you have to look at play style. Check out the cities of your members, how many of them have non boosted manufactories? Trade is not the end all be all for every player. Some people build and maintain at least one of every manufactory because they like the look, or because they want to be self contained as much as possible. You did not do anything "wrong" you are just trying to balance and juggle 25 other people in a FS that doesn't seem to be trade focused. Its hard, boarding on impossible if your AM is happy with the activity level and play style of current members.

@Dhurrin , I left my FS because my crystal and elixer trades were sitting in the market for days on end.
 
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DeletedUser1901

Guest
I currently have (8) Dust, (9) elixir and (7) gems members. I thought that was pretty fairly balanced. Can you explain where I went wrong (besides everything!)

You also have to look at their levels... if a majority of your players don't have T3 goods built or are not at a high enough level to actively participate in trading it can hurt the fs overall... on the flip side of that, if you have most of say your gem boosted players all at high level maxed out then that can also pose an issue because it's harder for them to get the amount of goods in trade... it helps if you graph this out by member ranking.

Also, your lower level players HAVE to post their needs, someone should scoop them up but if they don't post the fs can't help them. This can be difficult for newer players to grasp. We have a limited number of trades we can post so when you need to trade for 20k goods it can be difficult to include lower numbers. My fs ran into this... when the higher level players posted lower level trades, our neighbors snatched them all up before our members could get to them BUT if they posted what they needed, we could grab them and help them out. We also use chat to help the lower levels by helping them with out of balance trades, say 100 T1 for 400 T1 or whatever will help them but they have to post them or someone will take advantage of the trade before they can get to it!

Also, are your members only producing their boosted goods and trading for the rest? Some players just will not do this not fully understanding the benefits. So you may have a few members not even trading!

When I took over as AM, I found that improving trading was the hardest part of managing the fellowship and is a constant juggling act.

OK...so here's the kicker...I'm the Mage.....don't laugh..alright...go ahead and laugh!!! My AM promoted me to mage after only 1 month of me playing, simply based on the fact that I'm on disability, so therefore am home all day with nothing better to do. I take it seriously though ...

I have found that it doesn't matter what level some players are, some people just have the disposition for leadership :D

...there is a LOT of people I'd like to boot from the FS, but she doesn't want too. There's literally one player we haven't seen in a month!! But, everyone has an excuse as to why and it's all acceptable to her.

I know this can be very frustrating and I personally left one fs due to a lackadaisical attitude from the AM concerning activity. Keep in mind though that there are RL issues out there that can be overlooked for a good player. We had a period of time that it felt like everyone in my fellowship was having a personal crisis... one was out for over a month due to surgery... BUT I knew that these players were GOOD players and that they were a fundamental part of the original members of the fs... I kept everyone in the loop on communications and asked the players that were having issues to keep me informed... some didn't want anyone to know what was going on though so I had to tiptoe around those. All my players are back and we are gaining ranks steadily and are stronger than ever... :D

So I suppose the best I can say is feel this out for yourself but don't jump too fast on expelling someone that may be a great asset once they are 100%. If you can't live with what is going on find a place that you will be happy at... in the end, this is a game that is suppose to make you happy! :p

Hope this helps!
 
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DeletedUser5285

Guest
Yes...I have several top echelon members (INCLUDING the AM and all the Ambassadors) that have all of the manufactures. Sometimes I feel like I'm not in a FS at all, except for the new people I brought in. When they asked for my advice, I told them I would sell my non boosted and upgrade boosted and trade for what I need. Now I feel like a jerk, cause it's not panning out that way and I find myself taking their trades, even if I don't have it to give, because I led them down that road. This is the FS email she sent out on day 1 of the Snowflake challenge:
Good day to Everyone! I hope that everyone is in good spirits and enjoying the game (maybe even winning something)
We have a few players that are having gaming issues and are working with support to have their game fixed. One is having surgery on the 13th, please keep her in your prayers. A couple of our players are dealing with personal issues and unable to play as much as they'd like. I am still in recovery mode from hurricane Matthew.
In the spirit of the Holidays, I am asking for a couple of things:
1) Please forgive FS members if they help in an are that you didn't ask. Hitting the wrong thing is easy when you want to make visits but are rushed.
2)Remeber to shop local (LOL!)
3)keep everyone in your thoughts and prayers as we all have stressful things going on this time of year.
I will not be looking for inactive players until the first of the year! It is the holiday season and I would much rather you spend time with your family, friends, loved ones, instead of playing on the game. We have become family too but, I would much rather you spend quality time with those listed above and in January, you will have all sorts of stories to share with us!
Enjoy the Holidays and remember, WE WILL BE HERE WHEN YOU GET BACK!!
So.......I sent this to go along with it:
Good morning! I'd also like to add something. PLEASE, when you log into your game, remember to check the Trader. We are all trying to finish this Snowflake challenge and several steps require you to collect, ie., 100 planks, etc. If that isn't your boost, the best way to get it is through the trader and your FS members. It would behoove you to check and trade what you can everytime you log in or at least once a day, because there are several "Collest 24 Relics" and you are going to need surplus goods to negotiate for the relics, considering ever since they changed the battles, most of us can not fight and win and have no choice but to negotiate. The reason for the Fellowship is to help each other, if you are ONLY going to the Trader when YOU need something, it defeats the purpose of the FS and being part of a team. So, in the spirit of the Holidays, think of your team members and see what you can do to help them out.
(P.S. I'm the one going for surgery on the 13th)
 
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DeletedUser

Guest
OK...so here's the kicker...I'm the Mage.....don't laugh..alright...go ahead and laugh!!! My AM promoted me to mage after only 1 month of me playing, simply based on the fact that I'm on disability, so therefore am home all day with nothing better to do. I take it seriously though and there is a LOT of people I'd like to boot from the FS, but she doesn't want too. There's literally one player we haven't seen in a month!! But, everyone has an excuse as to why and it's all acceptable to her. It doesn't help that she's always in Personal crisis mode and I've actually passed her in rank. Everyone is coming to me for answers and I barely have them for myself...hence why I'm coming to you guys for answers. I actually have a notebook with who plays, who has what boosts, etc., I have recruited several members, who all actively participate, but we can't get ahead because of her loyalty to these inactive players. I would move on, but I feel guilty about leaving my recruits in the mess she's created. When I wnt looking for members, I did compare who had what boosts and what would benefit the FS, but that's moot when the top players aren't participating in the trades or making them out of reach for the new members. Does this make sense? I currently have (8) Dust, (9) elixir and (7) gems members. I thought that was pretty fairly balanced. Can you explain where I went wrong (besides everything!)

Ouch, it seems some one puted all responsibility on you with out giving you the power to carry on, funny thing, i was made mage like 3-th day i started on server but that was because it was me and the AM only in FS haha, my AM is an old hardcore grandma who keeps the recruit/activity tables ....she is nice enough to msg people before kicking out but she has no qualms about doing it lol.
I am more in to "lets mass recruit randomly...YESTERDAY" she is more like "ok, but lets chose first" kind of person, we manage to do a pretty balance newby FS with decent active people, but newby means not yet tier 3 production yet, so cant relate to that part, we do trade and visit.

For now between FS and neighbors any trade i put up is gone in less then 2 h (by any trade i mean tier 1 and 2 in small amounts like from 100 to a 1000 even tier up or down), will see how it goes with tier 3 later, got a nice high lvl neighborhood.
 

DeletedUser1901

Guest
...I would sell my non boosted and upgrade boosted and trade for what I need. Now I feel like a jerk, cause it's not panning out that way and I find myself taking their trades...

Welcome to being a leader, I will give my last supply in trade to help a fs member out :) I think this happens to the best of us!

We have a few players that are having gaming issues and are working with support to have their game fixed. ...

I had 3 members that couldn't log in for almost a week and one that still can't log it... I have noticed that this happens a lot when major updates happen. Be patient, these players aren't happy either!

One is having surgery on the 13th, please keep her in your prayers. A couple of our players are dealing with personal issues and unable to play as much as they'd like. I am still in recovery mode from hurricane Matthew.

RL takes precedent over a game... surgery and hurricane recover are forgivable IMO...

1) Please forgive FS members if they help in an are that you didn't ask. Hitting the wrong thing is easy when you want to make visits but are rushed.
2)Remeber to shop local (LOL!)
3)keep everyone in your thoughts and prayers as we all have stressful things going on this time of year.

I've sent messages out that cover the exact same things... visit mistakes, trading, etc... all good points. I do keep track of visits and contact anyone that seems to not understand how it works to help them out.

So.......I sent this to go along with it:
Good morning! I'd also like to add something. PLEASE, when you log into your game, remember to check the Trader. We are all trying to finish this Snowflake challenge and several steps require you to collect, ie., 100 planks, etc. If that isn't your boost, the best way to get it is through the trader and your FS members. It would behoove you to check and trade what you can everytime you log in or at least once a day, because there are several "Collest 24 Relics" and you are going to need surplus goods to negotiate for the relics, considering ever since they changed the battles, most of us can not fight and win and have no choice but to negotiate. The reason for the Fellowship is to help each other, if you are ONLY going to the Trader when YOU need something, it defeats the purpose of the FS and being part of a team. So, in the spirit of the Holidays, think of your team members and see what you can do to help them out.

GREAT followup communication, this is great support for your fellowship. I can see why she made you a Mage.

Look, we are not all perfect and it takes a team to manage a fellowship really well and most groups have their ups and downs. Again, if you are not happy then you need to find a place that you are.

Yes, we are in fellowships to help each other, however it does not mean to sacrifice your gaming experience to stay in one that you are not happy in.
 

DeletedUser1901

Guest
Can anyone tell me what is the purpose of the "Magic Dust" boost?? I can't even give the stuff away!! I think I've actually used about 400-500 to open stuff on the research tree in the 6 months I've been playing, but that's about it. I put 100 dust for 200 planks in the trader...it's still there, 24 hours later...that's like a 6 star trade...no one wants it! Please tell me that at some point it will have value?? Because having to put up 100 scrolls just to get 25 gems is getting old real fast!!

I strayed from the op... so let me speak on this for a moment - First off, what world are you in?

1) I am boosted in magic dust, and yes some days I feel like we have too much of the stuff laying around however as you advance, you will be sucking T3 goods down at an incredible rate! If you find that you need other resources and have an abundance of dust, use it in the trader to buy what you need... if that is how you want to manage your resources...

2) Personally, I think this happened due to a couple of reasons - one, the world map set up is conducive to only a few combination of resources. This is covered somewhere, I'll try to find it for you. So if you have a ton of players that started and quit quickly then I could see how an inversion of resources could happen. Oddly, this seems the case in all worlds. The player movement should help this by filling in your neighborhood with active players that can subsidize your fs needs.

3) I would never take the trade you posted. We do not allow cross tier trades in my fs unless they are set up between players ahead of time. I very much discourage cross tier trading, it hurts the players and the fellowship overall in the long run.

4) Where are your other T3 traders at? Are they all on hiatus? If so, it may just be a matter of patience... or joining a fs that is more balanced.

5) Have you mentioned this to your AM and other Mages, they may not be aware of this and may be able to help solve the problem, "It takes a village..."
 

DeletedUser5285

Guest
Welcome to being a leader, I will give my last supply in trade to help a fs member out :) I think this happens to the best of us!



I had 3 members that couldn't log in for almost a week and one that still can't log it... I have noticed that this happens a lot when major updates happen. Be patient, these players aren't happy either!



RL takes precedent over a game... surgery and hurricane recover are forgivable IMO...



I've sent messages out that cover the exact same things... visit mistakes, trading, etc... all good points. I do keep track of visits and contact anyone that seems to not understand how it works to help them out.



GREAT followup communication, this is great support for your fellowship. I can see why she made you a Mage.

Look, we are not all perfect and it takes a team to manage a fellowship really well and most groups have their ups and downs. Again, if you are not happy then you need to find a place that you are.

Yes, we are in fellowships to help each other, however it does not mean to sacrifice your gaming experience to stay in one that you are not happy in.
Thanks for the Kudos!! :) I prob should clarify...I started in Elcysandir and within a week, got an invite to this FS. A month after, she promoted me and asked me to start a city in Khelonaar, because she needed more members, so I did. I am now Mage in both. I just had 2 top ranked players in Elcy leave in as many days, because of the trader issue and the inactive players. Our AM has been holding a spot there for 3 MONTHS to a player who said she was having server issues and is still in training (?) and it won't allow her to join us till she's done. (The 2 that left were just as perplexed and frustrated by this as I am) I don't know if I'm happy or not because this FS is all I've ever known in the game. I like my people on a chatting level, but feel that something is def off kilter. Also, can you explain to me how trading tier 3 for tier 1's is harmful? These are things I should know, but have no way of finding out, except through you guys...;)
 
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