Feedback Cultural Settlements - Balancing Changes

[ebs the drunk]

I was worried about the time this time, but it look like I will make it in time. I do have the Diplomacy
Except for 2 horn, will I have it all in 8 hours. I will have to raise the Meat Hall, that will give me the diplomacy, I need to get 1200.
I really have been fighting the time this time and I may choose to buy the 2 horn for diamond but I would have time, and can replace a markets place with a beast hunter and still the 1200 diplomacy but the last goods building have to be placed after I get the diplomacy as one of the wood farms will be replaced of the mead hall.
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Don't waste time on the mead hall for diplomacy. Just build it for the quest, and delete it. After you have all your goods, drop your roads and build 22 runestones or drop some goods buildings and build 5 more shrines. You can rebuild the goods buildings after you have the 1200 diplomacy.

 

[ebs the drunk]

@i2mcabre
As it's been said, the trees are not impediments. You can hover over an impediment and it will pop up and tell you that it is one. Tree's won't do that and disappear when you buy the expansion.

 

[Emberguard]

And since I almost see everyone writing a SoK is THE best building for fp's, I find it a bit strange this Greater Runestone get here NOT this "must have" like Shrine of Knowlegde get !
And can you ever upgrade a SoK? Yes, with a Reno kit or One Up kit, but that you can also with this Greater Runestone, isn't it?
But : can you ever upgrade a SoK to lvl 2 or even to lvl 5? No .

I can get 10x the amount of SoK from an event for free in the time it takes to get a lvl 1 or 2 runestone. So no, I'm not too bothered by whether or not I achieve acquiring a runestone. I'd love to win it and put it in my city. But it'd be unrealistic to focus on it as a major addition to your city.

The runestone is designed as a complement to growing your city, not something you can scale up to acquiring on mass. It'd have more value to a new city then to a well established one

I should have been able to finish this settlement with a few hours to spare but then the last quest - Have 6 goods buildings and 1200 diplomacy proves to be impossible without another expansion. There's no time left to produce the required goods to purchase another expansion and I will not use diamonds because I would not do so on the live servers. After all the time I put into this, I feel cheated out of completing the settlement on time. There was no way to plan for the surprise requirement of 1200 diplomacy. Based on this experience, I can guarantee that I will never bother with this nonsense on the live server.

Goods buildings = Have
Diplomacy = Achieve once

Don't waste time on the mead hall for diplomacy. Just build it for the quest, and delete it. After you have all your goods, drop your roads and build 22 runestones or drop some goods buildings and build 5 more shrines. You can rebuild the goods buildings after you have the 1200 diplomacy.

Thanks for the advice regarding mead hall. Will have to keep that in mind for the live servers if I'm running short on time

 

[FrejaSP]

Don't waste time on the mead hall for diplomacy. Just build it for the quest, and delete it. After you have all your goods, drop your roads and build 22 runestones or drop some goods buildings and build 5 more shrines. You can rebuild the goods buildings after you have the 1200 diplomacy.

I know I just like to finish it with style and my point was, I could do it this time. I had cobber get an expansion more before time and place the 6th. goods building there.
But no, I won't waste the time

 

[ebs the drunk]

Thanks for the advice regarding mead hall. Will have to keep that in mind for the live servers if I'm running short on time

Yea the mead hall doesn't need completed, it just needs to be started to complete the quest.
In fact all 20 quests can be completed in about 2mins at the end for the same reason. Just work on unlocking everything and getting enough expansions to unlock everything.

 

[DeletedUser9410]

Maybe I'm the only one left still not having any success at all with this. I'm only at quest 12 and my timers ran out days ago

Lol, don;t feel bad, i'v only just finished my 1st run through.
i'v read a lot of posts here saying what's right and what's wrong to do.
Personally i decided to stop worrying about the timers and just try complete it the best way i can. I have seen from my own 1 that i did many things wrong, ( eg trying to get x amount of axes instead of getting x amount of diplomacy )
I think i understand the whole concept now and i know my next run through will be better
I'm actually starting to enjoy the challenge now, and i feel it's much more enjoyable if i don't take it seriously.
Many will say my 1st settlement was a mess, and i even think that, but it was a learning curve for me, i'v now got 1 emissary who gives me 1 extra fp a day from my city hall. ( that's 1 fp extra i wasn't getting before )
It's added a new dimension to the game and i'm starting to look forward to seeing it on the live servers.
Will i play it on all my worlds ? Probably not, but only because i find it a bit time consuming.

 

[DeletedUser9537]

Thanks to all who pointed out the obvious I realized the trees and shrubs (and the little group of bunnies!) were put there distract the easily distracted (I just cannot pass by a shiny bauble!)...

Which opens up a whole lot more space. And Yes I do admit to using the screenshots like graph paper to lay out stuff so that my OCD doesn't take over and make me sit for hours moving and removing and scooting from here to there.

 

[DeletedUser9537]

Expanding one square and shifting everything around enabled me to build two more Shrines, reduce the number of road squares and give myself a clear view of which direction to head next. I still have 9 days and am on track to finishing within that time. The next major rebuild will be to replace Shacks with Huts to open up space for another Axe and Mead building plus have room for the needed Shrines to add Diplomacy for the Beast Hunter to produce Horns...




Like Captain Jack mentioned above. I too made a complete mess my first time around. Then took the time to study others suggestions and idea's, and am now enjoying the challenge of working out the best plan for me within my timeline!

 

[FrejaSP]

I have choosen a different way than you. I do not place more goods building than I can feed, then when I get enough copper to run an extre for a while, I will take down a few shrines and producere goods until I run out of cobber again Right now I have 2,364 copper. Right now I want 2 expansions for 5 and 12 mead. After I ger 1th expansion placed at the end of the road between the 6 shrines, I will move the mead brewery to there and I can get one more shrine and 8 shacks can get road.
After that, it will be time to get my huts.

 

[DeletedUser9729]

Two days ago I finished my third settlement, with 1 day and 8 hours left. (zero diamonds used).
I was playing not very active, about 3-5 times a day I looked at the settlement, never had a daily goodproduction of more than 25 goods per building. With 7 days left I had to produce 564 cultural goods and thought I would miss the first rewards.
I bought another expansion (had a total of 12 tiles now), I gave a boost to my copperproduction a few hours.
The last 4 days I had 5 cultural buildings running so I was going fast and finished the settlement in time.
I had one time a 4x reward of a 4 hour axe production the last days.

Conclusion:
It is quite hard to finish the settlement in time without a plan, but with a bit luck it can be done by average active players.
I said before that the reward for the second timelock should be a higher amount of fragments. Knowing now that average active players will not get the first reward each time I think they will not go for the second place more than once if the reward stays so low.

I think that getting the 4x bonus must be more vissible. (a blinking star, or different color or something like that). I missed it by collecting the goods and only saw that I had a bonus because I knew the amount of goods I already had.

Still like the puzzling aspect and the planning.

 

[FrejaSP]

Conclusion:
It is quite hard to finish the settlement in time without a plan, but with a bit luck it can be done by average active players.
I said before that the reward for the second timelock should be a higher amount of fragments. Knowing now that average active players will not get the first reward each time I think they will not go for the second place more than once if the reward stays so low.

I do believe the second reward need to give more fragments.

In stead of 6, 2 and 1, make it 4, 3 and 2

It will still give 9 fragments if you make it in time but second time will get 5 and 3th time will get 2

So instead of 9, 3, 1 it will give 9, 5 and 2. That seem much more fair ti me and less stressful.

 

[DeletedUser8859]

How to remove those rocky obstacles from the building space?

 

[FrejaSP]

How to remove those rocky obstacles from the building space?

Not possible, the challenge is to build around them and they do, that each settlement will be different from each others.
You can have a plan, but only about how to get expansions enough to get enough copper to produce the goods you need. You can't just place the buildings same way each time.

 

[DeletedUser9410]

Expanding one square and shifting everything around enabled me to build two more Shrines, reduce the number of road squares and give myself a clear view of which direction to head next. I still have 9 days and am on track to finishing within that time. The next major rebuild will be to replace Shacks with Huts to open up space for another Axe and Mead building plus have room for the needed Shrines to add Diplomacy for the Beast Hunter to produce Horns...


View attachment 3669

Like Captain Jack mentioned above. I too made a complete mess my first time around. Then took the time to study others suggestions and idea's, and am now enjoying the challenge of working out the best plan for me within my timeline!

Absolutely, im basically doing mine the same way as you are now, of course mine looks a little different because obstacles etc but my basic plan is the same.
As you said, i also read what other people suggested and i think the biggest thing for me was understanding the way it works, eg.. not needing roads connecting everything, this was part of my problem in my 1st round and you DO need to have a plan.

 

[DeletedUser9410]

Not possible, the challenge is to build around them and they do, that each settlement will be different from each others.
You can have a plan, but only about how to get expansions enough to get enough copper to produce the goods you need. You can't just place the buildings same way each time.

Again i agree totally, you have to change with the terrain you are given, but once you understand the mechanics of it then it becomes a lot easier to do. Im hoping to complete this 2nd run within one of the time limits, then try for better the next time.
But im starting to enjoy the challenge now, i compare it to a jigsaw puzzle with the picture and shape of the pieces changing every time.

 

[DeletedUser9537]

This is my current rebuild compared to yesterdays. I am a couple hours away from getting payouts from all the Shrines and Huts, as well as the last 5 Axes needed to unlock the Beast Hunter.



I will remove the 4 Shrines so I can relocate the Hut to that location (there is a method to my madness ) Then I will build the Beast Hunter next to the Embassy and start a 4-hour production of Horns.

That will give me enough Horns to expand down to open the adjoining squares. I chose to do that to open up two expansions without obstacles Then everything pays out and I can do an 8-hour Horn production for the 11 needed for the Clan Totem... The axes and mead will keep on keeping on... Still on track to get the full bonus payout.

Join us tomorrow for the next exciting episode...

"My Axe Left Mead And Took My Only Horn!"

 

[softly explorer]

On my 3rd round still only ONE prod bonus (with 4,5% chance) while I got on my very first round (1,5% chance) at least 3 or even 4 times such bonus !
I would suggest the like some others already did, to make it more visual when you get a bonus
AND also this :
I suggest to give the % chance an extra boost WHEN, I as "Thane of the Vikings", bring Diplomacy high enough during the building up of the Vikings Settlement !
So it's even more important to have a plan and LOGICAL it is that the Vikings work harder and better (giving bonus!) when I raise "diplomacy" continious high enough

Just only "an example" : when producing Axes have at least 55 diplomacy to get a chance for a bonus ... while prod Mead at least 90 D, while prod Horns 240 D, while prod Wool 545 D, something like that for getting an even better chance for a prod. bonus.

Just a "suggestion", do not know if such is possible to work out, but see it as a nice challenge !

 

[DeletedUser9537]

Our Saga continues today with another rebuild after Beowulf tore through the Settlement looking for onions, for some odd reason... I Axed him to please... Leave Mead alone!

But he just growled some obscenity at me and went on about onions having layers...



Got rid of the temporary Shacks and rebuilt the Hut I removed yesterday and added another expansion. I am now working productions to build inventory for the Clan Totem...

I was also able to build enough Diplomacy to have 375 to finish another Quest. Straight lines make it easy to accomplish.

 

[Damjan88]

I may have stumbled onto a way to maximize the x4 bonus



So what happened here is i got to wool farms and had to basically demolish a lot of the markets and huts to fit 4 of those in the city (later i just demolished everything to fit 5 ) The plan was to run 4 x 8h productions and get 40 wool for 4 expansions But because i had 25k copper in reserve i figured i would run 10 x 8h and be done with wool farms. The first 5 unlocked the extra expansions, but on the last 5 i got the bonus twice and ended up getting 6 total expansions with wool (and 2/2/2 before) So now i ended up with a big empty settlement, and did a little math and decided to build a total of 8 huts / 4 shacks and 12markets and build up the copper needed and just replace them with goods building after I still need 125 axe/ 175 horna / 20 wool, with no bonuses it should take about 24 hours to finish the whole thing

Not sure how effective it is, but once you have both the markets and the max expansions you wish to buy unlocked, doing copper first and goods after that might shave of a decent amount of time in the settlement completion.

 

[FrejaSP]

I will be able to unlock huts in 12 hours. I already have the Diplomacy. After that, I will get one more expansion with Mead. Now it is time to making a plan with huts and later beast hunters.
Today, I'm going to run 4 hours cc produktion, was to many 1 hours yesterday.