Aid Button

[DeletedUser9732]

SoK, Oasis, Tiger's - regardless of their age it will prioritize those.

Is this confirmed to only be these 3? I know that HoFs are definitely not on the list, as everyone is complaining about it (and I can't understand how it was left off and the Tiger is in), but is there anything else?

• Next (if you don't have the above buildings or they're already m/p-ed) you get a 50% chance for Motivate and 50% chance for Polish
• Regardless of what was chosen, M or P, you get a random building selected for that action; BUT it's inclined toward your current age; So the chances are highest for your current age, then for your previous age, etc. It will still choose a building at random, but will lean toward recent-age buildings more;

That....well, that sucks. Decos, even the fun event ones, are dead. The tree of love I have is now a liability, instead of being something nifty I was saving for what I presume would have been next year's upgrade.

 

[DeletedUser2145]

Is this confirmed to only be these 3? I know that HoFs are definitely not on the list, as everyone is complaining about it (and I can't understand how it was left off and the Tiger is in), but is there anything else?

Nothing else at this time, it's confirmed those 3 buildings are the only ones given first priority. As to why the Tiger's Den was included and not the HoF, no official statement. My personal guess is you don't want to put the HoF as a top priority because this doesn't work for your neighborhood and friends list which is a larger list of players than your guild members list. Your guildmates are essentially the only folks where you'd want that to be a priority. The Tiger's Den, I have a personal guess as to why it was included which I won't share here since folks will just take it out of context.

 

[DeletedUser6172]

My city was set up at 120% and no need for any polishing.

So now you can free up quite a bit of space for additional goods and military buildings. How is that bad??

 

[DeletedUser]

Correcting myself on this. It's:

• SoK, Oasis, Tiger's - regardless of their age it will prioritize those.
• Next (if you don't have the above buildings or they're already m/p-ed) you get a 50% chance for Motivate and 50% chance for Polish
• Regardless of what was chosen, M or P, you get a random building selected for that action; BUT it's inclined toward your current age; So the chances are highest for your current age, then for your previous age, etc. It will still choose a building at random, but will lean toward recent-age buildings more;
• If it chose to motivate but there is no building left to motivate, it will switch to polish. And vice versa, if it chooses polish but there's nothing to polish, it will switch to motivate.

Thanks for the clarification, Phantom! I understand how it works now. So my Iron Age deco were probably polished because the coin flip for M/P landed on P, and the deco was the only thing left to polish.

I think the benefits of Aid far outweigh the drawbacks and am really happy the feature was added. Yes I agree the selection algorithm can be tweaked, but all in good time. Aid definitely does change the game mechanics though. I, for one, will get rid of all my decorations. Even my 4 beautiful Soccer Cup trophies...

 

[DeletedUser13535]

I'm not happy with this feature. It means my Bakery, paid with diamonds and one age below my current one that VASTLY out powers my current age buildings will never get motivated using this feature.
I got a gargoyle as a gift, put it down, lo and behold now my theater and graveyard get lowest priority when they are of the greatest benefit. Is it really that difficult to program in having the building with the highest benefit (gem bought buildings!) be given priority and not age? Age seems like a ridiculous marker and I feel duped out of my hard earned gems.

 

[DeletedUser1862]

I do agree that there should be some kind of priority given to diamond and event buildings (including those 1x1 decorations) over the others. But the system is rather nice.
Kinda makes it harder for BP-searchers. I had one of every age deco in my city (centered kinda) to help those, but it seems that it just adds some things to the automatic list now and if someone does come by looking for a certain age, it probably already got polished by the randome algorithm.
Maybe make some items unavailable to the automatics would work?

 

[DeletedUser]

Well, I am extremely displeased with this aid button feature. Early on I found that depending on polish to maintain production bonuses was foolish. You simply cannot rely on it to be there in the right amount constantly. Insuring that I have 3 to 8 bushes constantly polished is not a solution. The developers have deemed there priorities such that the one item I wish motivated every day is not on their list. It therefore is no longer motivated each day as it has been until this change. I have set up my city so I do not ever need polish. Now that is mostly what I get and mostly bushes.

I will get used to the idea that motivating and polishing as a part of the game strategy is no longer a matter of preference and strategy but a random event determined by someone else's priorities. I think this is a lousy change to the game;.

 

[DeletedUser8796]

I love the aid button saves me 3 hours of P/M ing

 

[DeletedUser7292]

Does it reset your bp count if only stone age things are available?

 

[DeletedUser2145]

There is no BP count. That's wrong information someone has been spreading around. You either get or you don't get a blue print with each M/P action. There's no counter involved.

 

[DeletedUser]

I don't speak tech, so please bear with me.

Currently, the computer is set to randomly MP based on age. It starts with highest age and works its way down.

Why not set the computer to select structures based on value - first motivate houses with highest base coin output, supply buildings with highest output, and cult buildings that have the highest happiness value?

Something like this:

1. M/P special structure - Shrine, Tiger's Den, etc (by the way, side note here: why isn't HoF included here??)

2. 30/70 random choice - 30% chance of polish, 70% chance of motivation

3: If Polish selected - computer polishes highest value structure in city

4: If motivate selected - 50/50 chance of supply or coin

5: If supply selected - motivate building with highest base value

6. If coin selected - motivate house with highest base value

Here is an example. I currently have shoemakers, frame houses, and clapboards in my city. I just advanced to HMA, and I am now swapping out frame houses for brownstones. With the aid button, the computer goes for the highest age structure - the brownstones. LOL I either get a polish (if one is available), or a brownstone is motivated.

Using the decision tree I detailed above, I would first have a 70/30 chance of either polish or motivate. If motivate is selected, my poor ignored shoemakers would still have a 50% shot at being motivated. Furthermore, if coin is selected, the clapboards, with a higher output value than the brownstones would be motivated.

In a way, I guess the timing of this has saved me some real grief. I was holding out on updating supply buildings until I reached LMA so that I could put in some Spice Traders. With the new aid button though, premium buildings just aren't worth building. The Spice Traders would have carried me all the way to IndAge, if not Progressive Age. Now, the instant I advance to CA, they won't get motivated and will stop being useful.

There is just no two ways about it - premium buildings will lose their luster because they will become outdated in a single age, just like regular buildings. With the decision tree I described though, they won't become obsolete until a later age structure is added that has a higher base value.

I hope I explained that well enough.

 

[DeletedUser8152]

I have a proposal up for something along these lines (though less detailed) already: http://forum.us.forgeofempires.com/showthread.php?8223-Improved-Aid-priorities
You might want to comment there.

 

[CptDreadRoberts]

The answer to that is NO, but the evil fairies who roam this realm like to tell that story. It works like this:

1. Shrine of Knowledge, Oasis, Tiger's Den - random M/P from one of them
2. If you don't have any of the above buildings or they're m/p-ed, there's a 50% chance for M and 50% chance for P for a building from your current age
3. If you no longer have any current age buildings available, there's a 50% chance for M and 50% chance for P for a building from your previous age
4. Etc. It goes down age by age and gives you a random M/P.

thank u for the detail and insight. i too get bushes polished from my current age before anything else. have three bushes and all three got polished in order. but then again, 50% means each time it is 50/50.. this is why i dont gamble. or play rock, paper, scizzor, lizzard, Spock....

personally i dont use the button since i want to chose the age of the M/P since it controls what puzzle piece i get for great buildings. the only time i do chose it is when i forget it isn't the attack button.... dang did it three times today... oh well, if i polished their bushes they hate me anyway....

CptDreadRoberts
Big Bang Pirate

 

[DeletedUser14295]

There is no BP count. That's wrong information someone has been spreading around. You either get or you don't get a blue print with each M/P action. There's no counter involved.

Has the rate at which blue prints are awarded changed since the activation of the Aid button? I don't use the Aid button as I am trying to get a certain age. But I used to get 1-2 a day between players on various worlds, and I have only gotten 1 in the past 3-4 days.

Thanks

 

[DeletedUser2145]

Nothing has changed bp-wise since bps were introduced. You get the very first blue prints quickly, then the chance drops so they aren't received that quickly and it stays as such. Everything is chances --- you either get or don't get a bp so that influences how frequently you get bps.

 

[DeletedUser1862]

I encountered an increase in BPs found, but I have had 0 recently due to not polivating
I think my count is now 5.

 

[allupinya]

Too funny. The "Aid" button was created, apparently, for people who are either too busy, or perhaps too lazy, to visit their friends/guildmates/neighbors. For about a week it wasn't too bad, but like all things made easy, it didn't last and we are back to the same number of peeps "helping", only now instead of them having to visit and motivate/polish something decent, they hit the "Aid" button and about the only things getting hit are 1x1's that are from previous ages. I have these 1x1's because they make it possible for me to NOT need polishing for happiness (so I can ask guildmates/friends to motivate instead), and here they are, getting polished, all day, every day. Gee, thanks.

 

[DeletedUser8152]

Too funny. The "Aid" button was created, apparently, for people who are either too busy, or perhaps too lazy, to visit their friends/guildmates/neighbors. For about a week it wasn't too bad, but like all things made easy, it didn't last and we are back to the same number of peeps "helping", only now instead of them having to visit and motivate/polish something decent, they hit the "Aid" button and about the only things getting hit are 1x1's that are from previous ages. I have these 1x1's because they make it possible for me to NOT need polishing for happiness (so I can ask guildmates/friends to motivate instead), and here they are, getting polished, all day, every day. Gee, thanks.

Surprised to hear that, I still get way more MPs than I did before. Not as many as the first week, but still maybe double what it was.

 

[DeletedUser6172]

Before Aid was available, my Event Log was typically 14 pages.
Now it's typically 34 pages. Aid has more than doubled the number of visits.

 

[DeletedUser]

Before Aid was available, my Event Log was typically 14 pages.
Now it's typically 34 pages. Aid has more than doubled the number of visits.

Same here. While it's not always what I need MP'd it's still a huge improvement over previous participation levels. I cleaned out some filler 1x1's so they wouldn't be polished. I still design to never need polishing but if AID does polish I don't mind. It's the fact people ARE AIDing that matters. Every person that clicks AID increases the odds of my production buildings getting motivated.