DeletedUser30312
I'm throwing out some ideas here about using DCs to build up WW farms. This isn't a guide, just some theorycrafting; if any one wants to build a formal strategy out of it, go ahead.
Anyway, my WW farm over on Parkog started out about 2 years ago when I realized I'd been doing recurring quests wrong. Because I'd gained a pair of WWs in the 2016 Fall Event, I decided to recycle it into a WW farm. The plan at the time was to run the GE with the city to win more WWs. GE WWs were eventually replaced by the Fountain of Youth, but in all this time I've only managed to win two FoYs in that city. Bad RNG I guess.
Yesterday, I won enough fragments to complete a WW Shrink Kit, and I got to thinking about how the GE hadn't really panned out for my farm, but rather how I'd gained my WWs primarily through events and that the DCs had enough similarities to event structure maybe to be a viable way of building up a WW farm. I can handle nearly all the DC tasks over on that city, and I started thinking how to structure a city to complete them and build up a WW farm.
I'd include the use of RQs and the GE as secondary strategies. Some DC tasks are based around completing other quests and the GE anyway. Exploiting RQs makes quest completion DC tasks easy. I wouldn't go with a full-blown HQS though, the whole point is to build a WW farm, and not cover the city with supply buildings. CR does advocate gathering lots of WWs/FoYs for later use, but I think a WW farm really doesn't need to have an advanced age, since the whole point is to farm diamonds and the WW's age is irrelevant to diamond production. I suppose some aspects of the HQS could work here though, since CR was all about parking in HMA and CA, and I think both are ideal for WW farms. Main downside to the HQS is that it predates DCs, and I don't know how well the two really mesh. Basically, I'd say it's probably okay to start with a HQS into HMA, gather a starting number of WWs to kick off the farm, say 5-10 and then transition to the DC strategy fully. Maybe CA would work too, but my farm is solidly parked in HMA, so that's what I'm familiar with. Keep in mind that I'm not really keen on the HQS myself, but I find it to have some very useful insights into doing RQs.
GE of course can award useful buildings including the FoY, but the Little Wishing Well is the real goal for the farm. FoYs are good for WW placeholders though. Generally I negotiate through the GE, since I have the city pumping out about 150-200 goods a day, but some DCs require fighting as well as negotiating.
Now onto the tasks themselves.
First off there's coins, collecting and paying them. Now, parking in HMA has me with a surplus of nearly 26 million coins because I spend them on almost nothing, but it's taken some time to build this up. I think aiming for special buildings is ideal here for coin collection since they make more than normal houses. The DC can award stuff like SoKs, Oases, and Fishing Huts, and the GE has the SSW and Tribal Square, which are good for the coin production aspect, and there's the Fnord RQ which can exploit this along with the DC. Hell, if you get a DC with a coin collection and quest task, Fnord will do them both at once. Anyway, I like using the Oasis/Tribal Square here, because they produce coins and goods which help DC completion, and they generate enough population to run my Alchemists (see below) without needing any normal houses. The Fishing Hut is similar, but because it's 33% bigger, I consider it slightly inferior, although it's worth it as a placeholder. SoKs and SSWs are good for the FP production, in case one gets an FP spending task, but I wouldn't go too overboard on them because the SoKs don't have a lot of population.
Then there's supply production. This is where HMA and CA are ideal because the Alchemists and Clockmakers are so small, and easy to cycle the 24 hour x2 production quests for those buildings. This completes RQs to take one DC task, it produces supplies to complete another type of task, and produced supplies can be paid out to complete another task. That leaves the complete x 5/15 minute or 1/4/8 hour quests that everyone just loves so much! Well, those really aren't too bad either if you're cycling RQs IME. I find that about 10-12 supply buildings generally tend to be enough to cover DC production tasks, including the dreaded 83 5 minute productions, with no more than say 3-4 Blacksmiths to handle some overflow. If you're doing 5 or 6 production quests every day anyway, you should be able to handle this task. Another bonus is that these small production building don't really require a lot of population, so you can get away with staffing them with Oases or Tribal Squares. (Though again, I haven't really tried this seriously in CA, so I don't know how well it works with Clockmakers).
Next there's goods. Some tasks require collecting goods and others require guild treasury donations, so you're going to want to generate a good number of them. And this is where the Oasis/Tribal Square continues to be useful. Downside is that they are only 5 goods/day but they are plunder safe if motivated. WWs themselves are also a decent source of goods, so they'll start cranking them out as you build them. The lower aged goods producing GBs are all useful here, the ToB, LoA, SMB, and FoD make a good solid foundation of goods production. And if you're going to be cycling through the RQs, build the Chateau to get more goods from the quests. This is a reason to stop the city at CA -- CA is the last age with x2 24 hour productions. Indy makes this x4, though Gunsmiths are okay if you're satisfied with only half as many quests, WWs are the focus here anyway; however PE absolutely positively sucks for productions since it's at x5 with two awkward big buildings and a third which requires 2-lane roads. The WWs and GBs then start making unrefined goods at ME which further complicates DC manipulation.
I recommend sticking with only the simpler negotiations and skipping DCs that have complex negotiations because of their high costs unless you picked a chest with WW/Shrink Kit fragments for the day.
I don't really recommend the multiproducers. They tend to be big and they require a lot of population, which then requires more happiness, and this eats up WW space. OTOH, they can produce goods or be used for production tasks. If you're going to use them, stick with a smaller one like the Aviary, Sunken Treasure, Rosarium, or Mad Scientist. I definitely don't recommend the Terrace Farm. Sets aren't too bad though, I have one Cherry Garden in my city, and that supplements the city with coins, supplies, goods,and happiness, and the pieces can be won in the DC. There's the Indian Palace too, and while it's more flexible, it requires 7 more spaces.
You'll have to do some fighting with DCs, but I don't find this too difficult either. First off, don't scout on the Continent Map unless you absolutely need to, since you'll get map advancement tasks if you have any scouted and unconquered provinces. If you want to fight rather than negotiate the GE, you'll probably need more units, but from negotiating and parking in HMA, I have plenty of units from the GE and some DC prizes to handle this without normal barracks. I have 4 Rogue Hideouts which seems to be ideal, and they can be slowly acquired from the DC, as well as a nice number of unattached rogues from DCs and relics. You'll want the Zeus and CdM for the attack boosts, but I've found that I can handle HMA combat well enough without the CoA. The Terracotta Army would probably be quite useful after getting the Zeus and CdM to level 10 for the extra attack bonus as well as the defense. Another reason to stay in the low ages is that the bonuses for the GE and DC armies you'll face aren't as high in the lower ages, so even a moderately leveled Zeus and CdM should be enough to give an advantage. The Traz shouldn't be necessary if you primarily negotiate the GE, and it takes up a lot of space you'll want for the WWs. The FoD can probably handle a good deal of the needed happiness, and I have some special event buildings which also produce happiness.
Polivate and tavern tasks are also pretty simple. You'll want to maintain at least 40-50 active friends for this stuff, but otherwise it shouldn't be a serious issue.
The daily chests to aim for are definitely the two chests that offer WW fragments, one has 1/3/5/7 WW fragments, the other has 3 or 5 fragments for the WW or the Shrink kit. If both come up, go for the second chest. You'll probably need to open about 8 of each chest to get a complete set of fragments, but you are guaranteed fragments. Next highest priority would be the collector's chest, which has a 5% chance for the WW. After that, I'd probably choose the Rogue's chest for unattached Rogues followed by the Battle Commander's Chest for unattached units. Also, the Challenger's Chest has a 7% chance to award a WW with every 7 successful DC completion, so you can slowly build up WWs there.
Because DC tasks are very similar to event quests, a city built around DCs shouldn't have a lot of trouble getting through an event, and plenty of events are good opportunities to win more WWs and/or Shrink Kits.
Anyway, my WW farm over on Parkog started out about 2 years ago when I realized I'd been doing recurring quests wrong. Because I'd gained a pair of WWs in the 2016 Fall Event, I decided to recycle it into a WW farm. The plan at the time was to run the GE with the city to win more WWs. GE WWs were eventually replaced by the Fountain of Youth, but in all this time I've only managed to win two FoYs in that city. Bad RNG I guess.
Yesterday, I won enough fragments to complete a WW Shrink Kit, and I got to thinking about how the GE hadn't really panned out for my farm, but rather how I'd gained my WWs primarily through events and that the DCs had enough similarities to event structure maybe to be a viable way of building up a WW farm. I can handle nearly all the DC tasks over on that city, and I started thinking how to structure a city to complete them and build up a WW farm.
I'd include the use of RQs and the GE as secondary strategies. Some DC tasks are based around completing other quests and the GE anyway. Exploiting RQs makes quest completion DC tasks easy. I wouldn't go with a full-blown HQS though, the whole point is to build a WW farm, and not cover the city with supply buildings. CR does advocate gathering lots of WWs/FoYs for later use, but I think a WW farm really doesn't need to have an advanced age, since the whole point is to farm diamonds and the WW's age is irrelevant to diamond production. I suppose some aspects of the HQS could work here though, since CR was all about parking in HMA and CA, and I think both are ideal for WW farms. Main downside to the HQS is that it predates DCs, and I don't know how well the two really mesh. Basically, I'd say it's probably okay to start with a HQS into HMA, gather a starting number of WWs to kick off the farm, say 5-10 and then transition to the DC strategy fully. Maybe CA would work too, but my farm is solidly parked in HMA, so that's what I'm familiar with. Keep in mind that I'm not really keen on the HQS myself, but I find it to have some very useful insights into doing RQs.
GE of course can award useful buildings including the FoY, but the Little Wishing Well is the real goal for the farm. FoYs are good for WW placeholders though. Generally I negotiate through the GE, since I have the city pumping out about 150-200 goods a day, but some DCs require fighting as well as negotiating.
Now onto the tasks themselves.
First off there's coins, collecting and paying them. Now, parking in HMA has me with a surplus of nearly 26 million coins because I spend them on almost nothing, but it's taken some time to build this up. I think aiming for special buildings is ideal here for coin collection since they make more than normal houses. The DC can award stuff like SoKs, Oases, and Fishing Huts, and the GE has the SSW and Tribal Square, which are good for the coin production aspect, and there's the Fnord RQ which can exploit this along with the DC. Hell, if you get a DC with a coin collection and quest task, Fnord will do them both at once. Anyway, I like using the Oasis/Tribal Square here, because they produce coins and goods which help DC completion, and they generate enough population to run my Alchemists (see below) without needing any normal houses. The Fishing Hut is similar, but because it's 33% bigger, I consider it slightly inferior, although it's worth it as a placeholder. SoKs and SSWs are good for the FP production, in case one gets an FP spending task, but I wouldn't go too overboard on them because the SoKs don't have a lot of population.
Then there's supply production. This is where HMA and CA are ideal because the Alchemists and Clockmakers are so small, and easy to cycle the 24 hour x2 production quests for those buildings. This completes RQs to take one DC task, it produces supplies to complete another type of task, and produced supplies can be paid out to complete another task. That leaves the complete x 5/15 minute or 1/4/8 hour quests that everyone just loves so much! Well, those really aren't too bad either if you're cycling RQs IME. I find that about 10-12 supply buildings generally tend to be enough to cover DC production tasks, including the dreaded 83 5 minute productions, with no more than say 3-4 Blacksmiths to handle some overflow. If you're doing 5 or 6 production quests every day anyway, you should be able to handle this task. Another bonus is that these small production building don't really require a lot of population, so you can get away with staffing them with Oases or Tribal Squares. (Though again, I haven't really tried this seriously in CA, so I don't know how well it works with Clockmakers).
Next there's goods. Some tasks require collecting goods and others require guild treasury donations, so you're going to want to generate a good number of them. And this is where the Oasis/Tribal Square continues to be useful. Downside is that they are only 5 goods/day but they are plunder safe if motivated. WWs themselves are also a decent source of goods, so they'll start cranking them out as you build them. The lower aged goods producing GBs are all useful here, the ToB, LoA, SMB, and FoD make a good solid foundation of goods production. And if you're going to be cycling through the RQs, build the Chateau to get more goods from the quests. This is a reason to stop the city at CA -- CA is the last age with x2 24 hour productions. Indy makes this x4, though Gunsmiths are okay if you're satisfied with only half as many quests, WWs are the focus here anyway; however PE absolutely positively sucks for productions since it's at x5 with two awkward big buildings and a third which requires 2-lane roads. The WWs and GBs then start making unrefined goods at ME which further complicates DC manipulation.
I recommend sticking with only the simpler negotiations and skipping DCs that have complex negotiations because of their high costs unless you picked a chest with WW/Shrink Kit fragments for the day.
I don't really recommend the multiproducers. They tend to be big and they require a lot of population, which then requires more happiness, and this eats up WW space. OTOH, they can produce goods or be used for production tasks. If you're going to use them, stick with a smaller one like the Aviary, Sunken Treasure, Rosarium, or Mad Scientist. I definitely don't recommend the Terrace Farm. Sets aren't too bad though, I have one Cherry Garden in my city, and that supplements the city with coins, supplies, goods,and happiness, and the pieces can be won in the DC. There's the Indian Palace too, and while it's more flexible, it requires 7 more spaces.
You'll have to do some fighting with DCs, but I don't find this too difficult either. First off, don't scout on the Continent Map unless you absolutely need to, since you'll get map advancement tasks if you have any scouted and unconquered provinces. If you want to fight rather than negotiate the GE, you'll probably need more units, but from negotiating and parking in HMA, I have plenty of units from the GE and some DC prizes to handle this without normal barracks. I have 4 Rogue Hideouts which seems to be ideal, and they can be slowly acquired from the DC, as well as a nice number of unattached rogues from DCs and relics. You'll want the Zeus and CdM for the attack boosts, but I've found that I can handle HMA combat well enough without the CoA. The Terracotta Army would probably be quite useful after getting the Zeus and CdM to level 10 for the extra attack bonus as well as the defense. Another reason to stay in the low ages is that the bonuses for the GE and DC armies you'll face aren't as high in the lower ages, so even a moderately leveled Zeus and CdM should be enough to give an advantage. The Traz shouldn't be necessary if you primarily negotiate the GE, and it takes up a lot of space you'll want for the WWs. The FoD can probably handle a good deal of the needed happiness, and I have some special event buildings which also produce happiness.
Polivate and tavern tasks are also pretty simple. You'll want to maintain at least 40-50 active friends for this stuff, but otherwise it shouldn't be a serious issue.
The daily chests to aim for are definitely the two chests that offer WW fragments, one has 1/3/5/7 WW fragments, the other has 3 or 5 fragments for the WW or the Shrink kit. If both come up, go for the second chest. You'll probably need to open about 8 of each chest to get a complete set of fragments, but you are guaranteed fragments. Next highest priority would be the collector's chest, which has a 5% chance for the WW. After that, I'd probably choose the Rogue's chest for unattached Rogues followed by the Battle Commander's Chest for unattached units. Also, the Challenger's Chest has a 7% chance to award a WW with every 7 successful DC completion, so you can slowly build up WWs there.
Because DC tasks are very similar to event quests, a city built around DCs shouldn't have a lot of trouble getting through an event, and plenty of events are good opportunities to win more WWs and/or Shrink Kits.
