Cultural Settlements Feedback

[DeletedUser30312]

They're definitely a let down. On my side cities, I'm not worrying about the time limit since I don't feel a need for the runestone, but it's annoyingly close on my main. I'm up to my third settlement, since I've been doing a lot of resetting getting the hang of things. The first time, I finished gold with 20 hours to spare. The second one I only hit on silver, but I wasted a bit of time overproducing some goods by mistake. That's one of the things that's annoying me with this feature, the narrow margin of error. It can be done without diamonds, but just one or two mistakes early on can mess up a whole run. Nor am I happy they "fixed" the diplomacy "bug" since it makes things even tighter.

I think part of it is how things are balanced around the random x4 aspect, but if the RNG doesn't cooperate -- and there are times that it won't -- it becomes difficult at best to finish on time. Both settlements I finished on my main only got the x4 once in each of my first two attempts, and if I'm not mistaken that's under the probable result. I know that does happen at times, but it's an uncontrollable aspect of the feature that makes things more difficult. Then again, I almost never like RNG reliance combined with a timer on any sort of game, and a game like FoE where there's no saving and reloading to mitigate things makes it even less pleasant.

I still say some things need to loosened up somewhere; if Inno could make the DCs easier by removing the penalties or some of the quests that were fine as they were, then can adjust things here. As things stand now, I think any one of the following would help: some slightly reduced expansion costs, they don't need to spike as fast as they do, especially now since we'll probably need more with the diplomacy "fix". Lower the final diplomacy cost to 1000 since none of research requires more than that. Or reduce the build time on the final set of build from 8 to 4 hours, why they need 8 freakin' hours to complete with a time limit in place that decreases with every settlement is beyond me. Well almost beyond me; this whole settlement feature is almost certainly designed to make player think they need need to spend diamonds. Look how many people have griped about it so far. That's how the whole freemium model works, and you'd better believe Inno's studied up on game psychology.

 

[DeletedUser30900]

They're definitely a let down. On my side cities, I'm not worrying about the time limit since I don't feel a need for the runestone, but it's annoyingly close on my main. I'm up to my third settlement.
this whole settlement feature is almost certainly designed to make player think they need need to spend diamonds. Look how many people have griped about it so far. That's how the whole freemium model works, and you'd better believe Inno's studied up on game psychology.

Hmmm, I guess it’s your personal problem since you sound like you do need diamond to help you finish on time. Majority of the players have done at least 6 settlements( I’m on my 8th less than 150 diamond spent in total)

 

[DeletedUser30312]

Read again before posting your useless snark. I did not say I used diamonds on any settlement, nor did I. I did say Inno likely wants players to think so because it makes money.

It is a sloppy feature because Beta only catches obvious bugs that need to be fixed before Live and sometimes even those are missed with some of the tight deadlines Inno gives itself. It doesn't reflect how people actually play the game, because Beta hands out diamonds like candy with each new feature probably so players can quickly complete things for testing purposes. There's a lot of things that slip through because there's not a lot of long term play observed AND things are rushed. Remember the Crystal Villa or Rail Gun nerfs? No? Look at how the DC was tweaked several times after hitting Live. Just look at this feature itself, how people build unconnected houses, were exploiting the Diplomacy, ignoring later buildings unless necessary and so on. Definitely says to me this wasn't fully thought out in advance.

 

[RazorbackPirate]

Read again before posting your useless snark. I did not say I used diamonds on any settlement, nor did I. I did say Inno likely wants players to think so because it makes money.

It is a sloppy feature because Beta only catches obvious bugs that need to be fixed before Live and sometimes even those are missed with some of the tight deadlines Inno gives itself. It doesn't reflect how people actually play the game, because Beta hands out diamonds like candy with each new feature probably so players can quickly complete things for testing purposes. There's a lot of things that slip through because there's not a lot of long term play observed AND things are rushed. Remember the Crystal Villa or Rail Gun nerfs? No? Look at how the DC was tweaked several times after hitting Live. Just look at this feature itself, how people build unconnected houses, were exploiting the Diplomacy, ignoring later buildings unless necessary and so on. Definitely says to me this wasn't fully thought out in advance.

I'm on my 7th Settlement in 2 cities. With each of the 6 prior Settlements completed, I finished well within the first time frame each time. The 1st, my worst result, with 1 day to spare.

My current has a gnarly set of Impediments, compounded by a 4x RNG that's not giving me much help. I have bought 9 expansions in each, I expect that is all I need, but I'm cranking out enough extra wool to buy the 12 Wool expansion, if needed. Regardless, with 2 days : 1:30 hours left on the clock, I'm a maximum of 6 hours away from finishing. 8 hours max for the remaining goods I need, and an 8 hour build time for the Mead Halls.

If anything, the change they made to the final quest is the 'loosening' of the requirements you asked for. Yes you now need a full 1,200 Diplomacy at the end, but only 4 Culture Goods buildings instead of the 6 required previously.

I'm honestly perplexed by the issues people are having with Settlements. I can only think it's a flaw in their strategy.

 

[ODragon]

I'm honestly perplexed by the issues people are having with Settlements. I can only think it's a flaw in their strategy.

From the people in my guild, it seem to be a copper problem. I'm blessed with a job that lets me do a lot of 15 min collections on one screen while doing work on the other. If you can only do 1+ hour collection times, I'm not sure how easy it is to do in the allotted time frame, especially if you don't get the cost saving 4x.

 

[RazorbackPirate]

From the people in my guild, it seem to be a copper problem. I'm blessed with a job that lets me do a lot of 15 min collections on one screen while doing work on the other. If you can only do 1+ hour collection times, I'm not sure how easy it is to do in the allotted time frame, especially if you don't get the cost saving 4x.

Could be. I typically run 1 hour copper cycles and only run 4 hour goods cycles. I sometimes get stopped up running a bit low on copper, but another hour or two of Copper collection gets me back in business, the stagger introduced often helping let on until I can expand enough to consistently produce enough. Even though I'm not 'right there' to collect and reset, it seems to work. 4 hour goods production cycles also maximizes the chances of getting 4x goods.

 

[- KQ -]

. 4 hour goods production cycles also maximizes the chances of getting 4x goods.

I'm trying to wrap my head around this.

I get X% chance of a 4 times bonus every time I collect. It doesn't matter if I collect a 4, 8 or 24 hour cycle, I still get the same percentage chance at the 4 times bonus. The only thing that increases my chances is to finish a settlement and the next time through I get a higher percentage chance of getting a 4 times bonus.

 

[DeletedUser]

I'm trying to wrap my head around this.

I get X% chance of a 4 times bonus every time I collect. It doesn't matter if I collect a 4, 8 or 24 hour cycle, I still get the same percentage chance at the 4 times bonus. The only thing that increases my chances is to finish a settlement and the next time through I get a higher percentage chance of getting a 4 times bonus.

Each individual collection will have the same % chance, unaffected by any previous or subsequent collections. However, if you use the 4 hour cycle and collect relatively close to on time, you will get twice as many collections with the same base number of goods collected. But you will get twice as many chances at the bonus. Over time, that will mean more 4x bonuses unless you are tremendously unlucky.

 

[DeletedUser36624]

I've found that with the reduced goods buildings, there is plenty of space to build the required diplomacy with 8 purchased expansions. Note that I run copper heavy early so I finish my copper requirements about 16-24 hours before finishing all the goods. This allows me to remove all shrines/marketplaces, and their required housing, and build willows while the required goods for the mead hall finish. If the impediments cooperate, it's not even necessary to wait for any clan totems to build in the space vacated by the mead hall at the end.

 

[- KQ -]

Each individual collection will have the same % chance, unaffected by any previous or subsequent collections. However, if you use the 4 hour cycle and collect relatively close to on time, you will get twice as many collections with the same base number of goods collected. But you will get twice as many chances at the bonus. Over time, that will mean more 4x bonuses unless you are tremendously unlucky.

I get that, but your overall percentage chance of hitting it remains unchanged. If you do 100 8 hour productions @ 20 percent and get 20 four time bonuses, it's no different than doing 200 4 hour productions @ 20 percent and getting 40 four time bonuses. The net result is the same.

 

[DeletedUser36624]

I get that, but your overall percentage chance of hitting it remains unchanged. If you do 100 8 hour productions @ 20 percent and get 20 four time bonuses, it's no different than doing 200 4 hour productions @ 20 percent and getting 40 four time bonuses. The net result is the same.

Yes, but you're more likely to get an extreme result (either good or bad) the fewer collections you do. An extremely good result doesn't do much more than an average result, but a very bad result could mean failing to finish on time.

 

[IngeJones]

I find the settlements doable well within the time - I have done it without diamonds just to see if it was possible, but usually I will instant-build my clan houses cos I am impatient. The thing about the settlements is they go so much better if you can get online every hour to "nurse" them along. Otherwise the return from the money producing buildings isn't so good and you need more of them.

 

[DeletedUser13838]

Yes, but you're more likely to get an extreme result (either good or bad) the fewer collections you do. An extremely good result doesn't do much more than an average result, but a very bad result could mean failing to finish on time.

The expected amount of resources is the same whether you do 4 or 8 hour cycles but the variance is lower with the 4 hour cycle.

 

[DeletedUser30312]

If anything, the change they made to the final quest is the 'loosening' of the requirements you asked for. Yes you now need a full 1,200 Diplomacy at the end, but only 4 Culture Goods buildings instead of the 6 required previously.

I'm honestly perplexed by the issues people are having with Settlements. I can only think it's a flaw in their strategy.

Possibly. I didn't really have problems getting the goods buildings in with the new requirements and 8 expansions was enough to finish things off in the end. The biggest problem was was with a pair of bookkeeping errors that cost me too much valuable time. I'm not sure how much of it is bad RNG, like I said I only x4 once during the first, and that's low even for the 3% if I'm not mistaken.

I don't know, doing settlements optimally just feels rushed and sloppy to me compared to how I usually approach cities, and I'm not really enjoying it.

From the people in my guild, it seem to be a copper problem. I'm blessed with a job that lets me do a lot of 15 min collections on one screen while doing work on the other. If you can only do 1+ hour collection times, I'm not sure how easy it is to do in the allotted time frame, especially if you don't get the cost saving 4x.

The first one I completed with 20 hours to spare and I was largely relying on 4 hour cycles. Settlements do seem to require a certain amount of babysitting which isn't good if one doesn't really have the time. Sometimes while I'm plying for a while, I'll do short collection periods where I can repeatedly go back and collect. The goods I've been doing on 4 hour cycles, though I run 8 hours overnight if I can, the cost and result is the same, the only difference is 2 4 hour cycles gives one more chance for the x4 to kick in. I don't see any advantage to doing 24 hour cycles. Maybe it's a copper shortage problem, but it hasn't felt like a serious problem once I started going for 8 expansions in the settlement. Roughly 10 shrines to 3-4 goods seems to be adequate to me.

You know what would really suck? Doing that single 4 hour production for 5 goods when you only need one more, and then the x4 kicks in on it.

 

[- KQ -]

You know what would really suck? Doing that single 4 hour production for 5 goods when you only need one more, and then the x4 kicks in on it.

Last settlement I needed 19 more axes and had two buildings producing overnight. Yep, both of them hit 4X. The only time I've ended up with more than a handful of any one good left when I finished a settlement.

 

[ODragon]

Last settlement I needed 19 more axes and had two buildings producing overnight. Yep, both of them hit 4X. The only time I've ended up with more than a handful of any one good left when I finished a settlement.

I ran the 3x24 hours accidentally when I went to bed, by the time I realized it (the next morning), there was no point in cancelling it. 2 of them gave me 4x so I got enough to finish my axe needs AND have enough to buy the 55 axe expansion (something I would never normally do).

 

[DeletedUser30312]

What the?!

Is this supposed to be happening?



I was working on the new settlement just now and I saw this. For some reason, Napoleon, Genghis Khan, Cleopatra, and Sacagawea are all roaming around.

Damn, Cleo's gonna be cold! Even worse for her bearers. Couldn't she wait for the Egyptians to go in?

 

[RazorbackPirate]

I don't know, doing settlements optimally just feels rushed and sloppy to me compared to how I usually approach cities, and I'm not really enjoying it.

Maybe this is the problem. Don't do them optimally, just build a complete Settlement. I build, tear down, and rearrange quite a bit as my settlements evolve, but that's where the fun is for me, building an actual Settlement, in a City Building game. Who knew? It also happens to also be a winning approach.

The Settlement pictured below is my 7th, which will complete in an hour and a half, when the 2 Mead Halls complete construction. All my Settlements have looked similar, while also being unique. No sea of Totems or half finished goods buildings for me. I build complete Settlements, that I 'imagine' can sustain themselves once my tenure as Thane is complete. Everything built, everything running, and copper in the bank.



I'm just not into the whole 'punch list' approach.

 

[DeletedUser30312]

Maybe this is the problem. Don't do them optimally, just build a complete Settlement. I build, tear down, and rearrange quite a bit as my settlements evolve, but that's where the fun is for me, building an actual Settlement, in a City Building game. Who knew? It also happens to also be a winning approach.

By optimally here, I do mean build, tear down, rearrange, disconnect, not optimally for the main city. Then again too, it's probably some frustration left over from the earlier attempts where I didn't have enough expansions to do things properly. I made the mistake early of trying to wait for the Wool Farm to get the last expansions cheaply, but realized that was a bad approach because of how long it took to get wool. Maybe my opinion will improve after a few more settlements.

 

[RazorbackPirate]

By optimally here, I do mean build, tear down, rearrange, disconnect, not optimally for the main city. Then again too, it's probably some frustration left over from the earlier attempts where I didn't have enough expansions to do things properly. I made the mistake early of trying to wait for the Wool Farm to get the last expansions cheaply, but realized that was a bad approach because of how long it took to get wool. Maybe my opinion will improve after a few more settlements.

I put down expansions until the next expansion good is 5 goods. If I need to, I'll let the wool expansion cost get to 12, the 12 wool expansion typically, the last I need.