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Cosmic Raven's HQS - Condensed

RazorbackPirate

Well-Known Member
I’m very flattered by this, and will contribute what I can but am still just learning myself! My St. Marks in both my cities (LMA & CA) is at 10, and my impression is that i do a lot more Collect Coins quests than most HQSers, probably 15 or more a day. In my LMA city, have two slots open on Collect Coins and Collect Supplies most of the day, and I will spam UBQs on one of them to fill up the other, trying to keep one empty at all time so that it can fill up the other when collections don’t quite add up to the total. But probably everybody knows to do this. At any rate, my coins/supplies quest may even outnumber my 24-hr production quests, depending on RNG. And St Mark gives a lot of goods. I have both the LoA and the RAH in both cities at 10, and still have more coin that supplies. All those buildings make a lot of goods.

I think the reason why CR discounted LMA is that he felt strongly that you should not unlock “dead end” tech tree segments so that you can save them for event quests and not be forced by an event to move up an age. To get the two slots in LMA, you have to reasearch Optics, which is one of those dead ends. He may not even have realized you can get 2 slots in LMA for that reason. But event quests nowadays almost never require unlocking a tech, so saving the dead end ones seems less essential.

With Cooperages in particular, when your quest-support GBs are at 10, 2 hampers fulfill both the 24-hour productions quest AND the entire Collect Supplies quest, which is sweet. I swapped them for breweries after I got the diamonds, but I kind of miss those Cooperages.

This kind of detail is gold to me. I started rebuilding my LMA city for HQS right after the spring event. I've built the essential GBs but they're all still around level 5. It's only been about 3 weeks, that all the pieces have come into place and the GBs at high enough levels to really make a difference. Just this week, I finally unlocked breweries and apartments. I replaced the last of the townhouses this past Saturday. I've been questing with Cooperages for the last few months, but really just limping along while I focused on building and leveling my GBs. They gave up their diamonds long ago, but it sounds like I shouldn't so quick to replace them.

Reading this gives me a lot to look forward to. I can see I'm nowhere close to being finished with LMA. Having been pushed into LMA by the Spring Event, I have left the dead ends locked including optics. I've also largely left the C-map alone too. I completed the PvP tower province during the Spring Event, the first goods province during Cleopatra, the second to complete Van Gogh. Now that we've had two events in a row, that haven't required advancement, I'm hoping this is the new normal. I'd like to unlock the expansions on the tech tree and get the ones from the map. That's 5 or 6 expansions.

If it's not already out there somewhere, It would be great to have the complete process to get the second RQ slot in LMA. So far, I've seen more questions than answers about how to do it, I know which Story Quest to complete, but not collect, that opens the second slot, but have no clarity about the steps needed to get that far without triggering something else. Anything you can document would help us all.

We're all learning as we go along, maybe that's the silver lining of an incomplete guide. C.R. gave us a strong foundation that others are now building upon. With each new contribution, and new perspectives, I see the concept of HQS getting stronger and more refined. I hope it continues. So please share what you learn, so we can follow in your footsteps.
 

Agent327

Well-Known Member
Uh, you get to use any production building in OF. So it is actually even easier. Fill the city with blacksmiths.
The entire HQS strategy is focused on the 24-hour productions. You apparently need to do some reading before commenting on these threads as an authority.

Maybe you do need to do some reading dude. Already said I do them with terracefarms and a Galaxy on the side. Not going to use blacksmiths for it. That is only a waster of space and production bonus.
 

DeletedUser29623

If it's not already out there somewhere, It would be great to have the complete process to get the second RQ slot in LMA. So far, I've seen more questions than answers about how to do it, I know which Story Quest to complete, but not collect, that opens the second slot, but have no clarity about the steps needed to get that far without triggering something else. Anything you can document would help us all.

Here you go: https://meowthsite.wordpress.com/2017/03/18/19/

It was @sloppyjoeslayer who pointed me to it. Worked like a charm, but you do have to get used to a perpetual green check mark.
 

Agent327

Well-Known Member
@RazorbackPirate

Looking back at it, I only addressed the issue of supply buildings being to big, to "produce supplies". The moment Danny suggested there might be some miscommunication I agreed with him.

After that you wated a lot of time and text to show where I was wrong on a point I never addressed. No problem. Fine by me if that makes your day.
 

RazorbackPirate

Well-Known Member
Worked like a charm, but you do have to get used to a perpetual green check mark.

I remember you mentioning the perpetual green arrow in a previous post, saying you had to be careful not to collect because of it. I can imagine fighting the natural instinct to collect the reward. I'm sure the weeks I've spent completing 60+ RQs daily, is going to work against that. Complete, collect, complete, collect, complete, collect, you sort of go on autopilot. The first few days will be a bit frustrating as I fight against the muscle memory.

Thanks for posting the link, looks like I've got some studying to do.
 

DeletedUser35195

One of the things you've shown me with your personal adaptation of the HQS strategy, is that not every age C.R. recommends tech sprinting through or around should be avoided.

When I found the original HQS guide, I had just gotten pushed into LMA by the tech requirement of the Spring Event. I was sceptical when you began posting about your experience in LMA, but you were able to show LMA is not necessarily an age to be avoided, or simply quested for diamonds. You supported your experience with a good amount of analysis, which for me has added quite a bit to the HQS body of knowledge.

What I appreciate about this response is that it shows you believe the original guide can be improved upon. @Lauramiller’s experience, as well as your own, shows that there is room to flex and to deviate from what CR wrote in his original guide (and which @sloppyjoeslayer and @JCera seem to agree that there are some good things to learn from within the guide without accepting everything uncritically).

That’s how I feel about the guide. It’s not perfect or for everybody, but there are a lot of good things to learn from. I’m personally using most all the guide, except I’m also making some adjustments. Like @Agent327 wrote, for me to build an atomium in CA is crazy. I’m going to do more like @doardeproba wrote on page 54 of CR’s original guide about Great Buildings, working toward a level 80 Arc rush in CA, and hold off on building CDM until after that point. I’ve also built the TOR and RAH because I believe they will help my city grow in ways CR didn’t.

I tried to condense the original guide because there’s a lot of information in it that’s been super helpful for me, and I wanted to help others. And I want to learn from it what I can and try to make it even better in the way that I implement it in my own city. I don’t think anyone should follow it slavishly, but hopefully can learn from it and have more fun and be more successful in growing their city because of it.
 
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DeletedUser35195

Oh, one more great part of owning 80 clockmakers is that it’s easy to do the first 34 soccer cup quests on day one. I could easily fire up 20 5-minute, 15 1-hour, 10 4-hour, 18 8-hour, and 5 (or more) 24-hour productions to be waiting and ready for the event to start. The longest I had to wait was for my units to be ready to collect the 2nd time it asked for recruits.
 

RazorbackPirate

Well-Known Member
What I appreciate about this response is that it shows you believe the original guide can be improved upon. @Lauramiller’s experience, as well as your own, shows that there is room to flex and to deviate from what CR wrote in his original guide (and which @sloppyjoeslayer and @JCera seem to agree that there are some good things to learn from within the guide without accepting everything uncritically).

That’s how I feel about the guide. It’s not perfect or for everybody, but there are a lot of good things to learn from. I’m personally using most all the guide, except I’m also making some adjustments. Like @Agent327 wrote, for me to build an atomium in CA is crazy. I’m going to do more like @doardeproba wrote on page 54 of CR’s original guide about Great Buildings, working toward a level 80 Arc rush in CA, and hold off on building CDM until after that point. I’ve also built the TOR and RAH because I believe they will help my city grow in ways CR didn’t.

I tried to condense the original guide because there’s a lot of information in it that’s been super helpful for me, and I wanted to help others. And I want to learn from it what I can and try to make it even better in the way that I implement it in my own city. I don’t think anyone should follow it slavishly, but hopefully can learn from it and have more fun and be more successful in growing their city because of it.

Of course the original guide can be improved upon. My biggest complaint about the original, was C.R.'s dogmatic approach to it's implementation. Reading the guide and the discussions that followed, two thoughts kept going through my mind. The first was that C.R. had created and documented a solid strategy to approach the game. It had been thoroughly tested by multiple players within his guild, who had all been successful using it exactly as outlined.

The problem, as I see it, is that success also created a pair of blinders for him that became more evident as the discussion unfolded. As questions came in, and alternatives proposed, instead of considering the options and alternatives, he became increasingly dogmatic in his approach. Instead of seeing his guide as a foundation the FoE community could build upon, he saw it as a completed work. I think part of that stems from the fact that he'd worked the problem for so long, and through so many iterations both in his mind and in the game. He had too much knowledge he could never get out. He had over thought the problem so much, he was stuck in the weeds.

As he continued to dig in his heels and point to the success of his guildmates my second thought, which came up over and over again, and I still believe today, was "Dude, you're just scratching the surface of this thing!"

While there were plenty of posts, that showed a clear bias against him, against his strategy, and against the very idea of a city built for heavy questing, there were also a lot of great ideas. Little snippets and nuggets of knowledge others tried to inject. instead of giving them a platform where they could have been discussed, analysed, tested, and either implemented or rejected, He often just dismissed them out of hand. He'd seen the success of other players who'd done it exactly his way, and unfortunately believed that to be successful, it could only be done exactly his way.

We know, that's not the case. I still regret C.R. never had the chance to fully document the HQS strategy and complete his guide. But maybe that's also a good thing. Being incomplete, there's plenty of room for HQS to be improved, refined, and customized. I for one, welcome that. Thanks for taking on this project. I hope the rest of the FoE community supports your efforts as much as I do.
 

RazorbackPirate

Well-Known Member
Oh, one more great part of owning 80 clockmakers is that it’s easy to do the first 34 soccer cup quests on day one. I could easily fire up 20 5-minute, 15 1-hour, 10 4-hour, 18 8-hour, and 5 (or more) 24-hour productions to be waiting and ready for the event to start. The longest I had to wait was for my units to be ready to collect the 2nd time it asked for recruits.

I pulled 4 of my Alchs off their 24-hour productions, but just couldn't bring myself to pull more. But I also keep 6 blacksmiths around just for this purpose. They handle the productions runs for the Daily Challenges and Event Quests, so my Alchs can keep producing Saltpeter.

My units all came from GE level 3. I'd complete all the encounters in a quadrant so all I had to do was open the chest. When I got the Quest, I jumped into GE, opened the chest, got the units, and it was done.
 

DeletedUser29623

So I did move up, and here’s a weird thing. GE just gave me 3 riflemen, even though I started it in CA, and it also gave me a Capitol blueprint. I thought that all the rewards and all the requirements of GE remain pegged to whatever age the player was in when starting the expedition?
 

DeletedUser31592

So I did move up, and here’s a weird thing. GE just gave me 3 riflemen, even though I started it in CA, and it also gave me a Capitol blueprint. I thought that all the rewards and all the requirements of GE remain pegged to whatever age the player was in when starting the expedition?
If you age up after the GE has started, encounter rewards will be tied to your previous era. (BP rewards very well could be the exception- I've never paid attention.) However, RELICS will award you with items from your new age.
 

DeletedUser29623

You guys are absolutely right. I got them from a relic and it was 5 not 3. I was rushing through that session of GE clicking relics as I went, without really paying attention to where the rewards were coming from.
 

DeletedUser29623

One annoying thing that’s happened twice is that when you move up an age and finally get to the new age’s recurring quests, At the start two of those quests are for troops, 4 of two kinds. But if you get those units through GE, those two quests simply vanish from the recurring quest rotation. You may have fulfilled the request, but you don’t get to collect on them.

This happened to me in one city, and I assumed I’d accidentally aborted them while cycling past to another RQ, but this time I was really careful about it and they definitely just disappeared when I got the troops from GE.
 

RazorbackPirate

Well-Known Member
One annoying thing that’s happened twice is that when you move up an age and finally get to the new age’s recurring quests, At the start two of those quests are for troops, 4 of two kinds. But if you get those units through GE, those two quests simply vanish from the recurring quest rotation. You may have fulfilled the request, but you don’t get to collect on them.

This happened to me in one city, and I assumed I’d accidentally aborted them while cycling past to another RQ, but this time I was really careful about it and they definitely just disappeared when I got the troops from GE.

Sounds like you would have to keep them active in the slot while you played. Similar to how I keep Collect x Coins open. Then the rewards from GE get credited. Maybe play the first week through with the troops RQs open?
 

DeletedUser29623

Sounds like you would have to keep them active in the slot while you played. Similar to how I keep Collect x Coins open. Then the rewards from GE get credited. Maybe play the first week through with the troops RQs open?

I’ll have to try that the next time I move up, but other quests, like acquire a particular province, pre-complete rather than vanish. The quest also says “have X units” not “recruit X units.” I once I have them it seems like that should autocomplete as well.
 

DeletedUser28711

The "Have 4 of Type A & 4 of Type B Military Unit" quests require that you have no more than 2 of each unit type it asks for before it will show in the recurring quest rotation. So, if you have 3 or more of either unit types, you must delete all your extra units before that quest will appear.

In CA, these Military Unit quests are:

4x Ranger & 4x Musketeer
4x Ranger & 4x Field Gun
4x Dragoon & 4x Grenadier
 

RazorbackPirate

Well-Known Member
I’ll have to try that the next time I move up, but other quests, like acquire a particular province, pre-complete rather than vanish. The quest also says “have X units” not “recruit X units.” I once I have them it seems like that should autocomplete as well.

That would make sense. I think the issue stems from the fact that the quest can only appear if you have 1/2 or less of the final requirement available. If the quest asks for you to have 4 of X and Y units, you need 2 or less for the quest to even appear. If it's not locked into an open spot, the moment you have 3 units, it deactivatess and can no longer appear. It can only appear again once you get back down to 2 units or less.

Because of this activation trigger, it's impossible for this quest to auto-complete. Unless you lock it open in an available quest slot it will always deactivate before you hit the quest requirement.
 

RazorbackPirate

Well-Known Member
One annoying thing that’s happened twice is that when you move up an age and finally get to the new age’s recurring quests, At the start two of those quests are for troops, 4 of two kinds. But if you get those units through GE, those two quests simply vanish from the recurring quest rotation. You may have fulfilled the request, but you don’t get to collect on them.

This happened to me in one city, and I assumed I’d accidentally aborted them while cycling past to another RQ, but this time I was really careful about it and they definitely just disappeared when I got the troops from GE.

Taking a bit of a detour, this is one of those quests that you just want to quest to get diamonds from. Once it gives out it's diamonds, you wouldn't continue to so this quest. Unless you're incredibly lucky and get diamonds the first time it completes, it can't be successfully quested using units from GE. With GE, this is a quest that's "one and done".

You'd enter GE with it open in a quest slot. Once you have enough units from GE to complete it, unless you delete enough unattached units to get down to the trigger number, you'll never see it again. I don't know about you, but once I start getting unattached units from my new, current age, I'm not deleting them. No way, No how. Essentially, you've got 1 chance at diamonds.

The only way you could successfully quest this one to ensure Diamonds is using barracks buildings and attached units before you do GE. Once you have enough units to complete it, you'd get the reward, delete half the units to trigger the quest again and repeat the process until you receive diamonds. If you do GE at the same time, once you get those first few unattached units, you're done.

You could cycle this pretty quickly with 2 barracks of each required unit type and a recruitment boost from the tavern. Recruit the first 4 units, delete 2, recruit 2, delete 2, recruit 2, until you get the diamonds. Once you've gotten diamonds from each of the quests, you can finally start GE without conflict.

This is one, you've got to do a cost/benefit analysis to see if it's even worth doing. The cost to build the barracks in coins, supplies and pop, the cost in coins and supplies to open additional slots, the cost and time of recruitment, time x amount of times, and the loss of GE until you get diamonds. It start to quickly sound like it might not be worth the effort.
 
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