Using Portal Profits

[DeletedUser9601]

I am near the end of Dwarves chapter. Will NOT finish by later today (darn Granite). If I win the Trading post and start to produce instants I know I can use them on Dwarves. But, if the building is placed and starts to produce instants will they only be good for Dwarves or when I am able to move on to Fairies will they work for that as well. So, I guess, are the instants produced specific to chapter made or can they be used on any future Guest race?

Any future guest race is my understanding.

 

[SoggyShorts]

Any future guest race is my understanding.

I believe you are correct, the instant isn't chapter specific.

What would happen if you built old portals? Like all of them at once?

Might be a bug that gets fixed

I was trying not to mention this since I'm counting on it. Didn't want to be the kid who asks if there is any homework for the weekend.

 

[DeletedUser3507]

oooh I forgot about ranking player(as I mostly do).
Wouldn't it make sense for those who care about rank and are at the end game to go 100% for trading posts/portal profits?

I mean event buildings give no points, making basically everything else useless for them, and not keeping ~20 expansions open for guest races means they can fill their city with even more rank junk, right?

Really @SoggyShorts lmao...
I now fit in that category
And was not trying for it..

 

[DeletedUser9247]

I am near the end of Dwarves chapter. Will NOT finish by later today (darn Granite). If I win the Trading post and start to produce instants I know I can use them on Dwarves. But, if the building is placed and starts to produce instants will they only be good for Dwarves or when I am able to move on to Fairies will they work for that as well. So, I guess, are the instants produced specific to chapter made or can they be used on any future Guest race?

I would assume, that since they don't produce a specific good, they'd be usable in any chapter- the instant effect should apply to any portal you're currently having. In other words- they should produce you fairy goods once you build fairy portal.

 

[DeletedUser3507]

Won one good for 50 days, produces a spell every 48 hours 5 % portal profits, called Trading post, 2 x 2, require a road..., 1960 culture for chapter 13

Spoiler: Trading Post

 

[DeletedUser9247]

I was thinking on just placing them to cash in the instants to use whenever...should work right?

 

[SoggyShorts]

I was thinking on just placing them to cash in the instants to use whenever...should work right?

Yup. Use them whenever guest race goods are the bottleneck keeping you tech locked.
There's no sense using them and then being stuck due to lack of seeds for example.
Also there's a case to be made for saving them until your portal is level 4 in order to get more out of them.

EDIT:
If there is a particular race that you don't like and want to skip entirely, then you need about 6 Trading posts worth of instants saved up.

 

[DeletedUser12171]

Yup. Use them whenever guest race goods are the bottleneck keeping you tech locked.
There's no sense using them and then being stuck due to lack of seeds for example.
Also there's a case to be made for saving them until your portal is level 4 in order to get more out of them.

EDIT:
If there is a particular race that you don't like and want to skip entirely, then you need about 6 Trading posts worth of instants saved up.

Personally I feel that would suck the fun out of any expansion

 

[SoggyShorts]

Personally I feel that would suck the fun out of any expansion

This is actually a serious concern. I think @Tedious asked if the TP might not cheapen the game... or perhaps it was someone else...regardless, the thing is that a lot of the choices could do this. I know that having 10 mana huts, a Dragon Abbey, and 4 harvest festivals made the Amuni chapter the easiest guest race chapter yet. Basically, all bottlenecks except guest race goods and KP have been removed. That combined with the hard cap on how many buildings you can have due to prestige limits made the chapter a rather mindless one.

I don't know what the answer to this is though. Should we avoid good buildings because they make the game too easy? That's a tough pill to swallow.
Personally, I decided to focus on set #2 since it would enhance my tournament score which is the only sport the game offers between chapters, but for those who haven't hit the end yet there is some fun to be had in seeing just how quickly you can advance in the game even if it kinda ends the game for you.

I suppose it is a problem that all games face though, isn't it? I mean the player wants to improve either their own skill level or their character/city's in order to do well, but the better they do, the sooner they "beat" the game. Successful games generally have replayability and/or end game content.
IMO there really isn't much endgame in Elvenar. Beating down the tournament each week, and dumping KP into wonders isn't exactly captivating.
Replayability is questionable since many players already have multiple cities and starting yet another one doesn't hold a lot of appeal.

Hopefully, the developers have something in mind for end game content- That hope and waiting for my Trading Posts to expire will keep me around for another 46 days

 

[DeletedUser12171]

I can see the utility of portal profit in helping newer players catch up to the current content. In an mmorpg I once played, the original level cap was Lv75 over time, it was raised it to 79, 84, and finally 99. At the last raise (84 - 99), they implemented a system where new players could get their characters up to lv85 within a month (2 weeks if you were hardcore) by simply completing a series of quests and some minor grind. From 85 onwards, xp gain was back to "normal". I think that was a decent method of bringing newer players to where the current content was, without handing the endgame to anyone

 

[SoggyShorts]

I can see the utility of portal profit in helping newer players catch up to the current content. In an mmorpg I once played................,

The main difference is that there isn't any end game content in Elvenar. In WoW and other MMOs there are multiple dungeons and raids where you need to be at max level in order to participate and getting to max is desirable because all of the best stuff is obtainable only in those dungeons.

To an extent, players get an advantage in tournaments after reaching the end of the tech tree because they can focus 100% of KP into wonders and use guest race space for extra temporary factories, but really a player could choose to do that at any point in the game.

Maybe if there were achievement quests that are only available at the end?
"Get xxxx points in the tournament"
"Gain 100 copper, 100 Ambrosia, 100 loot, 100 apprentices, 100 apples, 100 traps, and 100 essences" <--- this one on a timer

Achievements, in general, might be a great idea for Elvenar. Doesn't pretty much every game have them now?

 

[DeletedUser9601]

100 loot,

Whyyyyy would you even suggest that

/puke

 

[SoggyShorts]

Whyyyyy would you even suggest that

/puke

LoL what else to do for 7 months between chapters? Some super cool looking building or even a unique avatar for doing a quest that requires multiple portals at the same time and a mishmash of other settlement buildings is at least something to try.
I'd even suggest a bunch of "produce XXXXX" (not your boost) goods so you have to build non-boosted factories at high level to complete the quest.

Achievement quests should be ridiculous IMO

 

[DeletedUser9601]

LoL what else to do for 7 months between chapters? Some super cool looking building or even a unique avatar for doing a quest that requires multiple portals at the same time and a mishmash of other settlement buildings is at least something to try.
I'd even suggest a bunch of "produce XXXXX" (not your boost) goods so you have to build non-boosted factories at high level to complete the quest.

Achievement quests should be ridiculous IMO

True. In that sense, it makes sense.
I'm not quite done with Amuni (though could be if I wasn't stockpiling my Portal Profit spells), and I'm curious what the consensus is for using guest race space during downtime. I would think some mix of armories, another T3, and maybe building up my likely T6 factory.
But I could also see saving space for FSAs and events as a good alternative. I would expect Ch 14 before the Winter Event, but maybe not.

 

[SoggyShorts]

I'm curious what the consensus is for using guest race space during downtime.

Based on the forums, I think the consensus is to fill the space with more factories and then complain that the new guest race needs space which you don't have.

Personally, I like adding armories for a few reasons
1. I don't log in as often between chapters, so a longer queue is great.
2. They are very fast to upgrade making them perfect for event upgrade quests
3. If I need to remove them for any reason they don't actually decrease my ability to do anything.

Libraries are also a nice option
1. Help finish off those roads
2. Good to stockpile mana for next chapter (the amuni start ate up a 2m stash pretty quickly)
3. They can be nuked for events/FA and rebuilt overnight for basically no cost.

Extra T3 instead of T6
1. Useful for tournaments
2. Forces you to save pop/space for eventual T6
3. Building up a T6 seems unnecessary since Beta should give you enough warning for upcoming race needs

I would expect Ch 14 before the Winter Event, but maybe not.

I think the Devs said 2 per year, if so end of Jan, early Feb is possible too.

 

[Heming]

Your final point I believe is the most important. If you now have a way to remove or reduce the guest race goods bottleneck, then it's everything else that matters. Basically, I think the best time to use them is to avoid tech lock- there are enough KP packs for wonders and downtime between chapters that you shouldn't need to place hourly KP into wonders during a guest race.

The interesting part is that you may be able to avoid all tech locks, but how far should you push it?
Not enough Guest race goods? Portal Profit.
Not enough Mana? Drop a bunch of spells to get it from your Dragon Abbey.
Not enough Sentient goods? Use some instants on factories +MM spells.
Not enough KP? Clear provinces/buy it.

Not enough seeds? There it is-- So far there is no way to get instant seeds, making this the unskippable bottleneck.

 

[Heming]

I just got Forest Glade. Now I need to fill it up with items but can't figure out how to start collecting. Give me some hints please

 

[SoggyShorts]

@Heming GoK has a pretty great guide, you can find it here:
https://www.gamersgemsofknowledge.com/woodelves-chapter-ix

If you still have questions, I or others will be glad to help

 

[DeletedUser20575]

Thinking about doing some math on when these spells are the best to use, and wanted to see if people have given this thought:
1. Wait until level 4 portals - more portal capacity means more goods from each spell.
2. Use right away to power-level portals - portal at level 4 for longer means more overall goods.
3. Use to unlock key techs.
4. Other/combo?

#3 is very situational. I am envisioning a tech that either (a) really boosts your city [like a residence upgrade] and/or unlocks 4-5 other techs to fill [if you don't want to be tech-locked and fill AWs]. I could see this being Sentient Good/Tier Factory upgrades, a prestige building tech that would let you upgrade lots of traps/golds, or something like that. My gut says that it would be rare, though.

#2 This will be the hard math, and the way I'd think of it is two ways:
First, for "regular guest races" assuming that you have an ElvenGems recommended build. Then trying to figure out the per-day production (and aggregate production) based on total goods required for a particular chapter.
Second, for "limited space races," like S&D and Amuni where a portal upgrade unlocks not only more productivity, but also more buildings that produce goods.

Complicating matters, as I think @SoggyShorts pointed out, is that with path #1, you might now have enough spells/goods to then delete all or most of your guest race buildings. So how do you value the extra space in your city now? I think the comparison then can only be "fastest way to produce required guest race goods," because you're either getting free city space at the front end or the back end.

Every chapter will also have complicating matters. For instance, mana/seed costs for techs, gold/supplies/tier goods for portal upgrades. There's no good reason to power-level a portal with guest race goods if you are stuck waiting 2-3 days per upgrade for sentient goods, for instance.

Thoughts?

I have a number of thoughts. As I sought out to find the use of portals, I didn't find much information other than this write up. However, there are pieces of information that are seemingly frequently be missing no matter which direction I turn to seek information. For example. How is one to know what "level 4 portals" means? Additionally, the meaning of "guest races" really threw me when I first saw it - and I yet do not know what it means. I can presume that "level" is the same as "chapter" which again, I explored and finally found. Tool tips are pitiful in my personal opinion - I have only started playing this approx 4 weeks ago. With a PhD in technology I really thought this would be pretty well developed for one that begins - I was completely incorrect on that matter. Again, tooltips is a big deal in development and find them to be quite shallow.
If someone can reply to this and give me some insight ... I would be ever so grateful. I am ignorant of some details to this game and possibly came into it with higher expectations - then again, maybe it's just me. If that's the case, I am willing to take it as just being me. Please accept my apologies if I come across as a complainer, that definitely is not my intent.

Thanks in advance -

 

[DeletedUser2207]

Starting in chapter 6 / Dwarves, each chapter has its own guest race, which the chapter is named after. Each guest race has a settlement that must be built to advance through the chapter, and then when the chapter is over the settlement is deleted and you can use the space for the next chapter's settlement

Each chapter settlement has its own portal, which has a max level of 4. The portal profits give an amount of settlement goods based on the size of the portal's inventory, which increases as the portal is upgraded. So, to get the maximum amount out of a portal profit wait until the portal is at level 4