Thursday 26 September 2013

Guild Quest Info

Hey there,

I decided to post here the info we have so far in regards to the current Guild Quests.

I am not entirely sure if all this info is accurate - so please, if you spot errors, do let me know so I can correct them.

There are also blank spaces which need to be filled AND I do not know if there are only 3 level ranges for the Guild Quests - or if there are more... so, if you can help with any of this, please let me know. Thanks!

Find the Guild Quest List HERE.

Hope you find it useful!

Saturday 21 September 2013

GOLEMS AHOY!

Hey Peeps,

Most of us have started saving up resources for the coming Golem battles and, as such, I decided to investigate what is actually needed for each Golem Take-Down.

As it stands, the numbers aren't very inspiring... But, then again, these may change for the actual event and/or these numbers may refer to the WHOLE guild, rather than each of the guildies individually. If this is indeed a guild wide scenario, then ignore the costs calculations for Pumpkins.

In any case, here it is, a spreadsheet with all the necessary info. I hope it is clear enough. If you do have doubts, do not hesitate to ask and I will reply to them here as well.

Click HERE to access the spreadsheet

There is also this POST in the forum about the event. However bear in mind that the table halfway down the page is not correct. The figures I have in the spreadsheet are the correct ones (as things stand now...)

Hope this helps! Enjoy!

Thursday 19 September 2013

A Few Tips On The HALLOWEEN EVENT 2013!

Hi everyone,

Yesterday we circulated an email throughout the guild with some info about the upcoming Halloween event. After it was sent I started thinking a bit more about it and decided some of the stuff said was probably not the best advice so I am posting a revised version of that email here so that I can correct that.

The corrections pertain to what was said about the Increased Storehouse and Silos as purchases from the Event Tab at the Merchants.

Click HERE for the official post about HALLOWEEN EVENT.

According to the test server the Halloween event will be somewhat similar to the last event (the one with the balloons). This time we will have a giant golem statue on our island between sectors 4 and 5 (on the little islet further up) that we will need to defeat.

The idea is that we once again convert resources and apply these in order to complete the Golem quests. The resources we will need are: marble, wheat and water. With these we build (respectively) Marbles, Ropes and Buckets of water. These are the applied in 3 stages on the golem, destroying each of its 3 hearts in order. After the last heart is destroyed the golem disappears. And we get some pumpkins.

But a new golem shows up soon after, so... save up some marble, wheat and water for this coming event.
I'm already building some extra wells, just in case.

So you have an idea on what might be needed, resource-wise:

To defeat the golem the FIRST time you will need:
1.5k damage on the Caramel Heart, then 2k damage on the Purple Heart, then 2.5k damage on the Violet Heart

750 marble gets you 25 Marbles – each marble gives 50 damage, so 1250 damage per Marbles Set in total to the Caramel Heart
500 wheat gets you 25 Ropes – each rope, 50 damage, so 1250 in total per Ropes Set to the Purple Heart
1250 water gets you 25 Buckets – each bucket gives 50 damage, so 1250 damage per Buckets Set to the Violet Heart

As soon as you defeat it, the second round will be:
2k damage for Caramel Heart, 3k damage for Purple Heart and 4k damage for Violet Heart.

So you will need to use more and more resources (and provision time!) as each round takes place... (so another tip is to perhaps build some extra buffs now that you might need during Halloween - your Provision House is likely to be busy then!)

The first time you defeat the Golem you get 10 pumpkins. The second time you get 20... so hopefully the rewards will also increase as we defeat the Golem time and again.

So, remember each resource you build will be tailored for each heart colour... so don’t build too much – or too little!

Again this seems to be a guild wide effort. The more golems we are able to defeat, the closer we'll get to completion of the event and get 100 extra pumpkins.

There is a quest bar displaying our progression and I can tell you that on the test server, after having build some pumpkin fields and defeated the Golem twice I had done one third of it (34 out of 100). So I'm thinking we may have to defeat the Golem some 5 or 6 times in total.


Bear in mind that these numbers may change for the actual event here in Newfoundland Server.


Another type of quests involves (like the easter eggs hunt) to find and click on 15 collectibles on the map. Banners, scarecrows, bushes. These will be scattered RANDOMLY throughout our islands. I think they are reset every day (even if you do not complete these quests) and a while after (1 or 2h) if you have managed to find all the collectibles. This seems to be an ongoing integral part of the game. Check HERE for more details on this.


The Pumpkin Fields are purchased at the Merchant’s. There are 3 types of pumpkin fields and you will only be able to get 3 of each.
Level I – yield 45 pumpkins and each pumpkin takes 8h to produce!
Level II – yield 80 pumpkins and the cycle lasts 4h
Level III – yield 100 pumpkins and the cycle takes only 1h.

Each of these cost more or less as much as building the three variations of Wheatfields. So the price is okay.

You can buff them of course. Remember if you only buff at the very end of the cycle you still get the buffing result.

A tip is to perhaps use 3x and 4x buffs ONLY on the Level III pumpkin fields – as you will yield a lot more pumpkins as a result. For the others I will probably simply use solid sandwiches close to when the cycle is ending.


Here is the list of items that I think are important to try and obtain during this event:
Grim-Reaper General 1x
Cost: 1560 pumpkins
Not as good as the Veteran General but, with it you will be able to do a lot more than with just normal generals. Also, if you have a Vet, you can still profit from having one of these as they can be quite handy for more complex blocks in higher adventures. I’m going to try and get one if I can.

OKAY. CORRECTION TIME!!

If Pumpkins become as valuable as Easter Eggs, we're talking at about 15, maybe 20 gold coins PER Pumpkin. what does this mean in regards to the items sold in the shop?


This means a Silo, Village House or Increased Storehouse (600 Pumpkins each) will in fact cost 9 000/2 000 gold coins!

SILOS
A Silo can usually be found on the TO for about 3 500/4 000 gold coins or less. So for the price of 1 Pumpkin purchased silo you can get THREE at the TO!

Why are silos important? Well,if you level a silo to the same level of your farm – and keep it at the same distance from the wheatfield and storehouse, the silo will replenish the wheatfield without ever letting it deplete.

VILLAGE HOUSE
Gives 1 extra settler per ever 2 hours. Not a very good buy in my opinion... not sure if they're worth getting for 12k coin...

INCREASED STOREHOUSE
This means you have 3 times the space for each level you upgrade it (which means you will still have to spend resources upgrading it, yes). Even though storehouses are always handy as well all know (with more storehouses we are likely to improve our production times and, therefore, improve our production) 12k gold coins still seems a bit of a steep price.
In my case, I could simply buy 3 Noble Deeds of TO and release 3 building licenses and build 3 storehouses instead. 3 Noble Deeds would cost me about 1 500 gold coins of TO. So, a lot cheaper than actually getting the Special Storehouse in exchange for Pumpkins...
To me the special storehouse may only be a viable option if one was pretty much out of space on the island.
Since that is far from being my situation, for me it would actually be beneficial to have MORE storehouses scattered around, rather than less (improving travel times for production buildings).


IN FACT, I'm not even sure getting the Grim-Reaper General compensates at all. At 1560 Pumpkins, this roughly translates into 31 200 gold coins. That is a lot of gold!
A Grim-Reaper General is nothing more than a Battle-Hardened General. The only difference is in the picture - their specs are exactly the same.

BHG cost 1 250 gems from the Merchants. You can actually buy them on Trade tab for about 12k or 13k gold coins - saving you more than half the Pumkins you'd need to use to get it...

So, we might be better off actually selling the dammned Pumpkins rather than buying anything with them.

Then again, this will all depend on how trading for them will take place - it's a gamble. If Pumpkins are 8 gold coins each or less, the Grim Reaper General might just be worth getting (IF the price per gem stays at 10 gold coins each), if they cost more than that... you're probably better off selling them and getting a BHG through Trade

Hope this helps!

A Few Tips On The EXPLORERS SKILL TREE

Hello everyone,

Been a while since I last posted here but, with this new system coming into place today I thought this to be the ideal excuse to write up something...

So. First it were the Geologists, now it's the Explorers... tricky?!
Maybe!

First and foremost let's look at what we can upgrade HERE.

As we all know the Explorers can do 2 things:
1 - they search for ADVENTURES
2 - they search for TREASURE

As such their upgradeable skills are naturally divided between the two options. For this reason (and particularly if you have more than one explorer) it would be best to tailor each of the explorers to either be an Adventure Expert OR a Treasure Hunter Expert.

For me the choice is really simple: all my explorers are bound to become Adventure Experts. And this, fine folks, is for the simple reason that some good people have done the maths and found that the most profitable way of using the explorers is by sending them on Adventure Searches. Further more, they have stated that it is the Medium Search the best out of the three.
So, for me, it's the Adventure Path taken.

Still, as we all know, sometimes during events we do get a few quests pertaining to Treasure Searches so, enhancing your Explorer in the Treasure Path is also a feasible option. As always it is your choice!

This is what I did with my first Explorer.

First I used an Experienced Explorer. They are faster, which means I will use them more often, which means whatever changes I make I will benefit more from them.

FIRST ROW - MANUSCRIPT

Fearless Hiker
1/3 shortens the search time for all adventures about 5%.
2/3 shortens the search time for all adventures about 10%.
3/3 shortens the search time for all adventures about 15%.
Lucky Detour
1/3 raises a chance to find Granite on Medium treasure searches about 8%.
2/3 raises a chance to find Granite on Medium treasure searches about 16%.
3/3 raises a chance to find Granite on Medium treasure searches about 24%.
Pilgrimage
1/3 shortens the search time for Long treasure searches about 5%.
2/3 shortens the search time for Long treasure searches about 10%.
3/3 shortens the search time for Long treasure searches about 15%.
Mountain Boots
1/3 shortens the search time for all treasure searches about 3%.
2/3 shortens the search time for all treasure searches about 6%.
3/3 shortens the search time for all treasure searches about 9%

Since it's Adventure Path the only option is really FEARLESS HIKER, since all the others pertain to Treasure Hunting. That's 3 manuscripts down. What about the other 2? I chose LUCKY DETOUR. Why? Check the next row...


SECOND ROW - TOME
 
Wild Determination
1/3 allows finding more about 30% Map fragments on Adventure searches.
2/3 allows finding more about 60% Map fragments on Adventure searches.
3/3 allows finding more about 90% Map fragments on Adventure searches.
Powder Sack
1/3 allows finding more about 8% Saltpeter on Extra-long treasure searches.
2/3 allows finding more about 16% Saltpeter on Extra-long treasure searches.
3/3 allows finding more about 24% Saltpeter on Extra-long treasure searches.
Offbeat Roads
1/3 raises chances of finding Titanium ore on Long treasure searches about 5%.
2/3 raises chances of finding Titanium ore on Long treasure searches about 10%.
3/3 raises chances of finding Titanium ore on Long treasure searches about 15%.
Extended Weekend
1/3 shortens the search time for Medium treasure searches about 5%.
2/3 shortens the search time for Medium treasure searches about 10%.
3/3 shortens the search time for Medium treasure searches about 15%.

Well, once again the path is clear. 3 Tomes on WILD DETERMINATIO (you can trade map frags quite easily and they're about 5 or 6 gold coins a piece). And 2 on EXTENDED WEEKEND since, if I ever do Medium Treasure Searches I will not only have increased chances of getting Granite but I will have shortened the time taken to do it.


THIRD ROW - TOME:

Travel Expenses
1/3 reduces the cost of all Adventure searches about 10%.
2/3 reduces the cost of all Adventure searches about 20%.
3/3 reduces the cost of all Adventure searches about 30%.
Loot Wagon
1/3 allows finding more about 8% Granite on Medium treasure searches.
2/3 allows finding more about 16% Granite on Medium treasure searches.
3/3 allows finding more about 24% Granite on Medium treasure searches.
Sturdy Shovel
1/3 allows finding more about 3% loot on all Treasure searches.
2/3 allows finding more about 6% loot on all Treasure searches.
3/3 allows finding more about 9% loot on all Treasure searches.
Mistwalker
1/3 raises chances of finding Exotic Wood on Long treasure searches about 5%.
2/3 raises chances of finding Exotic Wood on Long treasure searches about 10%.
3/3 raises chances of finding Exotic Wood on Long treasure searches about 15%.

 Well this was an easy one too... 3 Tomes on TRAVEL EXPENSES and 2 on LOOT WAGON, having once again enhanced my chances at finding Granite on Medium Treasure Searches.


These were my choices for the first explorer. Even though I will do the same choices Adventure Path-wise for the second I am still unsure in regards to the Treasure Searches. Perhaps it will be good to diversify a bit...

In any case, I have not posted this here to tell you to do the same. What I do think it's important to consider is which speciality you want for your Explorer.

So consider if you want to send them for adventures pretty much exclusively.
Or if you want to tailor them for Medium, Long and Very Long Treasure Searches (you could actually tailor 3 explorers, one to each of the Treasure Search types: a Medium Search Expert, a Long Search Expert and a Very Long Search Expert).
Or if you could simply want to shorten search times as much as possible.

The possibilities are NOT endless - but there are quite a few of them... Best thing is to look through the Skill Tree carefully and plan ahead since mistakes in assigning books are costly!

And, if you missed it the first time, find HERE a link to the book building costs.

Enjoy!