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    Your Elvenar Team

Very Hard Provinces

Moho

Chef
The problem remains though. I have just entered Chapter III, Ascending Magic, but the magic hasn't happened yet. What I mean is the first research , Advanced Scouts, turned out to be a major disappointment. It promised smaller enemy army sizes and lower negotiation expenditure, while it cost 55 knowledge points and sizeable resources. The only effect was that the level of only one province dropped from Very Hard to Hard, whereas all the other provinces up to the locked ones (and including those) remained at the same level, that is Very hard. It would have been cheaper to negotiate that Hard province at a Very Hard level than do a costly research with little palpable consequences...
 

SoggyShorts

Mathematician par Excellence
What I mean is the first research , Advanced Scouts, turned out to be a major disappointment.
Advanced scouts techs only reduce the difficulty in provinces that you have NOT scouted yet.
The # of enemies that you face in a province is determined by the coins cost of scouting that province and is locked in forever once you click "scout"
For this reason, early on you should only scout what you know you can clear.
 

Sir Squirrel

Artist EXTRAORDINAIRE and Buddy Fan Club member
Yeah Moho you are at a tough part in the game. All I can say is it gets easier once you get through that part. Once you research a few more squad size upgrades it will be better and once you get through to chapter 4 the game gets easier.
 

Mykan

Oh Wise One
That's what I thought too. But all the newly scouted provinces are equally hard: Very Hard.

Sadly it will be that way until chapter 5 ish. To get out of it faster you should:
  • Scout the minimum provinces - note this is scout not complete, the difficulty is set when you press scout and is based on cost of scouting.
  • Research the optional squad sizes
In terms of combat difficulty is very much a function of squad size (SS) comparison. It is why early tournaments can't be lost as your SS far outweighs the enemy. Tournaments only become a risk of losing when you SS gets close enough to the enemy SS, the issues with random enemies and AI with multiple troop selection plus a couple other things. But SS is the biggest factor.

In terms of world map, once you get the battles do a decent level you then decide what level of scouditing/province difficulty works for you. If you want super easy in time then stay to minimum, If you have less patience just scout the colours that suit your difficulty preference and then wait for next chapter once those are gone. Word of warning that much later some chapters have no scout techs, so you provinces need to last a couple chapters in terms of difficulty.
 

Moho

Chef
If you want super easy in time then stay to minimum
Thank you for your advice. It all makes sense. I was referring strictly to the provinces I had to scout in order to expand my city. For example, the advisors have proposed the following two different missions: 1) Have three level 5 armories and 2) Upgrade your Main Hall to level 8. My Main Hall is level 5 and I used to have only two level 3 armories. These upgrades need population, that is more Residences with more Cultural buildings. Of course I'm upgrading the existent Cultural buildings, but it takes time and chance, and besides all, everything needs space. To accommodate the new buildings, I had to plant City Expansions which can be obtained by scouting and clearing provinces, which are all red - Very Hard. I was happy to see the Advanced Scouting research, but unfortunately it barely seemed to have any effect after investing so much in it. That's all.
 

LutherTheHairy

Active Member
[QUOTE="Moho, post: 203072, member: 27694] I was referring strictly to the provinces I had to scout in order to expand my city. For example, the advisors have proposed the following two different missions: 1) Have three level 5 armories and 2) Upgrade your Main Hall to level 8. My Main Hall is level 5 and I used to have only two level 3 armories. These upgrades need population, that is more Residences with more Cultural buildings. Of course I'm upgrading the existent Cultural buildings, but it takes time and chance, and besides all, everything needs space.
[/QUOTE]


As your squad size gets larger, that drops the difficulty of combat (though, once scouted, the number of troops/cost of catering remains the same.). There are different philosophies on researching the optional squad size upgrades. Some say do not do so because it only makes for more troops to fight/higher negotiating costs in spire and tournament...but, I just started a second city that is about to make the jump to chapter III... It was prohibitively expensive to scout and clear all the provinces I needed without the squad size upgrade. I don't think it changed catering costs, but made the battles a lot more winnable.

Another one is when to upgrade main hall. MH takes a LOT of people and culture. I tend to only upgrade it when I have to, either because I want more gold from Neighbor Help or because scouting or research activation costs are getting to near my MH gold and supplies capacity! I ignore the MH upgrade quests which seem to always come too soon for me.

As for the space pressure, well, that is part of the game, and I suspect part of Innos way to sell more diamonds (premium province buys), which is about the only way they make money to pay for the servers and all the people who create the game and moderate these forums. They make some from selling troop kits and other packages during events and fellowship adventures, but I bet diamond sales are most of their revenue.
 
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Moho

Chef
As for the space pressure, well, that is part of the game
It is part of the game, of course, but my point was scouting and clearing provinces is a must when you need more space to develop your city. Some voices here hypothesized I may have over-scouted and that could be the reason why the Advanced Scouts research didn't help me much.

I still believe this part of the game is not well-thought. To go through such an costly research and only benefit from one single Hard province when all the rest I scouted were Very Hard made me feel disappointed and betrayed.
 

Darielle

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, and Buddy Fan Club Member
It is part of the game, of course, but my point was scouting and clearing provinces is a must when you need more space to develop your city. Some voices here hypothesized I may have over-scouted and that could be the reason why the Advanced Scouts research didn't help me much.

I still believe this part of the game is not well-thought. To go through such an costly research and only benefit from one single Hard province when all the rest I scouted were Very Hard made me feel disappointed and betrayed.
Those quests you mention come in a row, not necessarily when they are right for you. If you did too many quests, you'll get quests that you aren't ready for. So don't think of those quests as things you "must" do. They aren't. One thing about this game is that it goes at a slow pace. People tend to want to go as fast as they possibly can. In this game, that can be a huge problem. Inno designed the game to go slow. Just wait until you get into the later chapters ... you'll probably tear out your hair when you need to spend months in a particular chapter, lol. I love this game, but it definitely is not one for the overachievers, unless they learn to love the spire or tourneys and take the rest of the game at a more leisurely pace.
 

Moho

Chef
I love this game, but it definitely is not one for the overachievers, unless they learn to love the spire or tourneys and take the rest of the game at a more leisurely pace.
One thing I've learned is to be careful when judging things or people because I'm quick to judge and I think I have an acute sense of justice. But now that I'm not a teenager anymore I know I can be terribly one-sided and see things from my narrow view only.

All this dialog, with shared ideas and feelings, can only offer people a wider perspective and hopefully the big picture too. We, humans, have the great advantage of being able to store knowledge and share it through complex language, which makes the whole experience of life so much fun and precious.

It feels like there are always two people when I play the game: one who struggles and strives, and the other who pats the former on the back and says: "It's okay, kid. Relax." :)
 

Darielle

Chef, Scroll-Keeper, and Buddy Fan Club Member
One thing I've learned is to be careful when judging things or people because I'm quick to judge and I think I have an acute sense of justice. But now that I'm not a teenager anymore I know I can be terribly one-sided and see things from my narrow view only.

All this dialog, with shared ideas and feelings, can only offer people a wider perspective and hopefully the big picture too. We, humans, have the great advantage of being able to store knowledge and share it through complex language, which makes the whole experience of life so much fun and precious.

It feels like there are always two people when I play the game: one who struggles and strives, and the other who pats the former on the back and says: "It's okay, kid. Relax." :)
And sometimes, the two people are the same. It just depends on the circumstance. :)
 
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