[Question] Optimising my World Layout?

[DeletedUser28005]

I included two screenshots of my world.

http://imgur.com/a/9zynx

Any tips on making it more space efficient?

12/30/2016 http://imgur.com/a/PsuNs

 

[Algona]

One problem sticks out immediately to me. Lack of Great Buildings. Figure out what you like and want to do in the game, then select the GBs that suit your play. Feel free to ask for advice on choosing. Or if you need help with understanding how to acquire GB blueprints.

The earlier you start your GBs the better. An example of what happens if you progress too far in the tech tree without them.

https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/gold-vs-population.15691/

Always remember, friends don't let friends build Colosseum and Notre Dame.

 

[DeletedUser28005]

One problem sticks out immediately to me. Lack of Great Buildings. Figure out what you like and want to do in the game, then select the GBs that suit your play. Feel free to ask for advice on choosing. Or if you need help with understanding how to acquire GB blueprints.

The earlier you start your GBs the better. An example of what happens if you progress too far in the tech tree without them.

https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/gold-vs-population.15691/

Always remember, friends don't let friends build Colosseum and Notre Dame.

I feel as though I progressed too quickly so I want to slow down and acquire all of the blueprints. I've been doing FOE for my highschool, so I need to donate all of my FPs to the Dynamic Tower. I can only get FPs through aiding or the guild expedition.

Is my wanting to get all of the great buildings too much? How can I go about maximising my space efficiency (I only have around three expansions for this age left)?

 

[Algona]

QUOTE="Kurzgesagt, post: 123023, member: 28005"]I feel as though I progressed too quickly so I want to slow down and acquire all of the blueprints. I've been doing FOE for my highschool, so I need to donate all of my FPs to the Dynamic Tower. I can only get FPs through aiding or the guild expedition.

Is my wanting to get all of the great buildings too much? How can I go about maximising my space efficiency (I only have around three expansions for this age left)?[/QUOTE]

Ya lost me here. I don't understand the reference to high school or D Tower. Is there a typo in the next sentence? Should that be 'BPs through aiding'?

I'm pretty sure you won't want all GBs, some are truly awful, others may not suit your play style.

I won't give you specifics on how to structure your city, it's both too dependent on your play style and won't do any good in the long run.

Generally road placement is the key, twists, turns, redundancy, too much contact, hooking up to the wrong side of a building, there is a long list of mistakes to avoid. You seem to do ok with your roads, although i suspect you'll be doing a major reorg of the entire city fairly soon.

 

[DeletedUser28005]

QUOTE="Kurzgesagt, post: 123023, member: 28005"]I feel as though I progressed too quickly so I want to slow down and acquire all of the blueprints. I've been doing FOE for my highschool, so I need to donate all of my FPs to the Dynamic Tower. I can only get FPs through aiding or the guild expedition.

Is my wanting to get all of the great buildings too much? How can I go about maximising my space efficiency (I only have around three expansions for this age left)?

Ya lost me here. I don't understand the reference to high school or D Tower. Is there a typo in the next sentence? Should that be 'BPs through aiding'?

I'm pretty sure you won't want all GBs, some are truly awful, others may not suit your play style.

I won't give you specifics on how to structure your city, it's both too dependent on your play style and won't do any good in the long run.

Generally road placement is the key, twists, turns, redundancy, too much contact, hooking up to the wrong side of a building, there is a long list of mistakes to avoid. You seem to do ok with your roads, although i suspect you'll be doing a major reorg of the entire city fairly soon.[/QUOTE]
Whoops, I meant I can only get blueprints from through aiding (dynamic tower blueprints won't help me right now). Thanks for the advice however.

 

[DeletedUser26154]

how to structure your city

I've had numerous players compliment me on my "Tight city" as they would describe it.
No wasted space, no excess roads. Everything is very organized.
I keep one little area open for when I have to build something for quests.



I don't pvp, plunder or GvG, so I don't feel the need for an Alcatraz at this time.

My Great Buildings are:
Statue of Zeus [Level 10, boosts your invading army's attack and defense strength]
Cathedral of Aachen [Level 10, gives you coins and boosts your invading army's attack and defense strength]
Castel del Monte [Level 10, gives you daily Forge Points and boosts your invading army's attack and defense strength]
Temple of Relics [Level 8 and not really necessary to level, gives you a chance to win ***Relics*** on G.E. map]
Hagia Sophia [Level 3, gives you daily Forge Points and supplies Happiness for your city]
Lighthouse of Alexandria [Level 3, increases your supply building's production output and provides you with unplunderable goods]
Tower of Babel [Level 2, minor population increase and provides you with unplunderable goods every day]
St. Mark's Basilica [Level 4, boosts the coin output of your residential buildings and provides you with unplunderable goods every day]
Observatory [Level 4, adds to your guild's support pool for GvG and produces goods for your guild's treasury]
Royal Albert Hall [Level 1, increases your supply building's production output and provides you with unplunderable goods]

This is part of what Algona means by

I'm pretty sure you won't want all GBs, some are truly awful, others may not suit your play style.

I am a Marketeer and my Guild's and Neighborhood's go-to-guy for Fertilizer.

9 Fertilizer plants
5 Whaling stations
1 Lonely Tinning plant

For supplies:
8 premium Deli shops, I need those to keep up with the cost of supplies for my goods production, and a little bit more.

Every city and player has different needs and requirements.
I don't fight other people so my 8 Rogue Hideouts are more than enough for Guild Expeditions.


***Relics***
I cut and pasted this from the Wiki website.



There are more relic prizes available than listed here.
If you have a Temple of Relics and you do the Guild Expidition [G.E.] map, you have a chance to win relics.

And lastly, my Obligatory Major Armstrong picture.



Ace of Hearts.
Thank you.

 

[DeletedUser27889]

I've had numerous players compliment me on my "Tight city" as they would describe it.
No wasted space, no excess roads. Everything is very organized.
I keep one little area open for when I have to build something for quests.

You're city is truly a beautiful work of art and efficiency. I could only hope to have something 1/2 that good when I get to two lane roads. I do have one small suggestion someone had made to me once and it made a good deal of sense. The spot you've left open for for quests, or even if you were to have another spot waiting for a GB to get put into, while it isn't being utilized throw an old goods building there, whatever you have room for and an excess population to run. This helps to shore up reserves and even if you don't need any reserves dumping it's daily production into your guild treasury would earn you points. Even if you only have spare population enough to run an iron age building, it's still worth points. For the building itself and putting the goods in treasury. Anyway just a take it or leave it idea.

 

[DeletedUser26154]

Hello Manda, you are the first to ask these questions, so I'll answer best I can.
Thank you for the compliments. I put over $1,200 in my game since I began playing May 2016.
That is a major factor in my being able to keep my city "tight" and efficient.
Diamonds make all the difference.

The spot you've left open for for quests

I used to put obsolete goods buildings in those spots but it didn't make any difference.
1 Fertilizer plant = many many iron age goods buildings.
This is the Fair Trade Calculator. I recommend it to everyone.
http://foe.dppro.nl/index.php?l=tools&s=fairtrade

earn you points.

I'm trying to keep my point value as low as possible.
So I am not put into very high level neighborhoods.
I'm laying low for a long time so I can get my Great Buildings to level 10 before advancing to Modern Era.
I leveled my three offensive military Great Buildings first.
I don't have defensive military Great Buildings because I do not get raided or plundered.
My Diplomacy, Watch fires, and weekly tower ranking stop plundering before it starts.


Xilya and I are on very good terms and this is friendly competition.
It's more like "who happens to win this week" instead of "let's fight each other for #1".
Diplomacy hard at work.

Right now I have 2671 excess population and enough happiness to keep them enthusiastic without any polish.
I used to have many Progressive era military buildings.
I removed them when I had in excess of 100 unattached Progressive Era military units.
I replaced the Progressive era military buildings with Industrial era goods buildings.
Fertilizer is a very good for trading. I can trade it for anything within it's trade range.
Refer to the fair trade calculator above to understand what I mean.

I fight with these unattached units I won doing quests.
7 Modern Era and 1 Post-Modern Era.



All my battles are won on the continent and Guild Expedition map.
I can get away with using 1 Post-Modern or 1 Modern unit, with 7 rogues.
I don't pvp, GvG or attack other people's cities.

This helps to shore up reserves

That is my plan. I want a massive mountain of many goods before I get to Modern era.

waiting for a GB to get put into

Let me show you my blueprints.





I have no plans on adding more G.B.s to my city at this time.
Once I get to Modern era, sometime next Spring or Summer, I'm sure that will change.

your guild treasury

I donate every single time my Guild Leader requests donations.
He knows that he can send me a letter on the guild treasury's behalf and I'll deliver.

Anyway just a take it or leave it idea.

I'll take it!

*Edit: I had one too many pictures of the same image in there.

 

[DeletedUser27889]

Hello Manda, you are the first to ask these questions, so I'll answer best I can.
Thank you for the compliments. I put over $1,200 in my game since I began playing May 2016.
That is a major factor in my being able to keep my city "tight" and efficient.
Diamonds make all the difference.

:slow clap: Wow I thought I was someone who was decent at planning and order but you blow me completely out of the water. Looking at your numbers I'm starting to worry that maybe I have been doing something wrong. I actually started playing about a month or two prior to you but I completely stalled my game months ago to level gbs, acquire bps and amass a good stock pile.

But I'm noticing with yours you have been playing less time, spent less time in era's as I have yet in some places your goods surplus is 3x what I've gotten done. May I ask how? Do you have any tips you wouldn't mind sharing? I see you say above you have 9 goods plants how are you able to fit in the population needed? Do you utilize the premium housing and is that enough to make the difference? I see from what you wrote you had previously had the military buildings, but even when you were running them you're stockpiles are still very high. Any of your trade secrets or tips you wouldn't mind passing along?

Kudos, clearly you are doing this game very right.

 

[DeletedUser26154]

Do you have any tips you wouldn't mind sharing?

I'll tell you everything I know as clearly as I can, with examples.

May I ask how?

I've never had less than 16 goods production buildings since EMA.
Colonial Age was my maximum at 22 goods production buildings.
8-hour production timers.
I collect on time 90% of the time.

Do you utilize the premium housing

No, I use premium supply buildings. I have one premium house that came in a pack.
I pick houses with 24-hour timers on purpose.

I see you say above you have 9 goods plants

Presently I have 9 Fertilizer plants and 15 goods factories total.

Any of your trade secrets or tips you wouldn't mind passing along?

Lots of goods factories running at maximum output around the clock.
Keep good trade relations with friends and neighbors.
I pick up the forge point cost when trading outside my guild.
I complete at least a 8 of the reoccurring quests for gathering coins and supplies every day.

I'm starting to worry that maybe I have been doing something wrong.

You are not. I am just at the far end of the curve. Lots of Diamonds spent along the way really helped.

Kudos, clearly you are doing this game very right.

I wouldn't go that far.
I learned a lot from the forums.

 

[DeletedUser27889]

I'll tell you everything I know as clearly as I can, with examples.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions, I think that was really informative for not only me but also the OP.

I think my main question is, how have you managed to have enough population to run all of those goods buildings?

I understand completely now I have not had near enough goods buildings per era which causes me to stay longer in eras while I stockpile. Even prior to stalling for GBs I was no where near close to your numbers.

 

[DeletedUser26154]

I think my main question is, how have you managed to have enough population to run all of those goods buildings?

The big houses with 24-hour times hold the most population, and that's why I pick those on purpose.
The 24-hour timer houses also only take one M/P a day.
I also have a lot of premium cultural buildings and I always use those.
I always use premium supply buildings and premium cultural buildings.
Having those afford me the population, happiness, funds and additional floor space to run my operation.

*Edit to add picture*


Presently I have one cultural building that is unpolished.

I have Progressive era High-rises for residentials.
Progressive era Premium Deli shops for my supply bulidings.
Progressive era Premium Zeppelins for the bulk of my happiness.



Care for a cup of coffee?

 

[DeletedUser27889]

Thank you for explaining all that. Currently I am in LMA and have only the option of 2x2 houses. Do you remember how you were able to do it in the earlier eras with less pop/house? Right now I have as many of the largest pop house as I can fit with only room/pop for my military, which consists of 11 buildings. 3 goods buildings of my era, 1 of the previous and 1 of bronze for trades. Do you think my 'not enough' room for max goods could be my gbs? I do have 9 but I don't think that's a ton for my era but obviously they are taking up the most room. I am working on my medal collection to unlock more land. I don't really have a problem with happy. Between my GBs and the couple of special 3x3s I have from events I always have more than enough. Perhaps because I've focused so much on my military?

 

[DeletedUser26154]

Do you think my 'not enough' room for max goods could be my gbs? I do have 9

Show/list your G.B.s and someone will answer that. For now we'll stick with one topic for ease of reading.

Do you remember how you were able to do it in the earlier eras with less pop/house?

Yes, let me tell you what I remember as best as I can.

Early middle ages
I used many [over 20] Multi-story house and at least four Bakerys.


High middle ages
I replaced the multistory houses with 35 - 40 mansions and added at least 4 windmills.


Late middle ages
I kept my Mansions and added 4 Spice traders.
Supplies were not an issue as I kept adding to my Premium supply buildings.
Coins were the problem. So I added St. Marks Basilica and that really helped a lot.


Colonial age
I replaced all residentials with Gambrel roof houses and added 6 perfume distillerys.
I think I deleted my EMA supply production buildings [Bakerys] then, because I had supply-boosting Lighthouse of Alexandria up.


I also won 29 Shrines of Knowledge and 8 Luaus from summer event.
I had 5 Luaus up and running, but put them back into inventory with 5 Store Building.
Forge Points were no longer a major concern.


Industrial age.
I added Victorian houses as I needed them to keep up with population.
I spent maybe 3 weeks in Industrial age so I didn't change my supply buildings at all.


Progressive Era.
That's when I did the giant tear down, deleting and replacing all my residentials and supply buildings with Progressive buildings.
I won 17 more Shrines of Knowledge from another somewhat recent holiday event.
The Tech Tree is a lot easier when your city produces over 70 forge points a day.
The Premium Progressive Era residentials are better than the High-Rises, but the High-Rises are good enough for me now.


I always used Premium cultural buildings but I can't remember what went where and when.
All said and done I spent over $1,200 American dollars.
I remember spending at least $50 dollars on Forge points for rapid advancement through several early Eras/Ages.
I bought many blueprints early so I can have my essential Great Buildings up and running.
Every time I advanced to a new Era or Age, I bought the 8-pack of unattached troops for city defense and continent/G.E.
Lots of Rogue Hideouts from EMA on made a huge difference.
I have 8 Rogue hideouts installed in my city now and 5 more for reserve.
Also shown are my Watchfires in reserve.


I was always at least one Era/Age ahead of my city on the Continent/G.E map.
I always used advanced troops won from quests, and rogues, for all my fights.
Having my Temple of Relics helped.
I bought every Diamond expansion available as soon as possible.



You can spend less than half what I did and have a beautiful, workable city.
I went overboard because I love having a real easy, enjoyable, social good time with my game.

 

[DeletedUser27889]

WOW that right there is a great tutorial for anyone who is looking to play with a good deal of diamonds to see what they can work to accomplish if they use them smartly. That must have taken you a long time to compile. Thank you very much for laying that all out like that for me. With visual aids too!

I went and did the math for my city. Currently I have 45 apartment houses, they are 2x2 and provide 9225 population. If I replaced them with the premiums I would gain 1722 population, which would be enough to run 3 more goods producing buildings. It would cost 13,500 diamonds. For me, personally it's a bit more than I could afford to invest in the game.

But after seeing everything you were able to do and how you did it I took a long critical look at my city to see areas I could improve. I find I am running too many supply buildings, while these don't take up nearly the amount of population as goods building, I could afford to drop 2-3 enough to replace with at least one good producer. I've also tracked my military usage and found that though I have 2 archer buildings, I rarely find myself using archers and I could dump one of them and replace with a goods building. Or move it off the grid and swap it in and out for a goods building depending if I need to train.

Seeing your numbers I've also completely reworked the plans that I've laid out for the next month or so. I have been trading FPs for TE goods to get the Dynamic Tower which would take over almost all my supply buildings along with giving me the ability to get aid goods of the era of the next building I was going to trade up for, which was going to be arc. But seeing yours I've realized the space that my population is taking up is a huge factor for me that I have somehow overlooked. I am 1 more trade away from being able to put the tower in sticks but instead of using it for a head start on future arc goods, I am going to use it for CE Innovation Tower goods. Level 1 of that building alone would allow me to get rid of 17 houses. With 32 less squares in it's footprint. The population/level also goes up much more drastically than any I have access to in my current age. This means instead of trying to find more room for the population for another goods building, I just level it.

Thank you very much for taking all this time to show me what you have done and to also show your numbers which showed me what could have been done and clued me in that maybe I wasn't making the best choices. I had been focused so much on the goods that I didn't see how much my lack of population was holding me back. I'm very glad I saw your post when I did, before I started trading for arc goods and realized how much better a population building would be for the future of my city.

One last question, which might sound stupid but I haven't been able to figure it out. I was going to post a picture of my city like you did, to see if you could spot something I was doing wrong, but I wasn't able to figure out how you zoomed all the way out in yours to give your full city view?

Thank you again. As someone who tries to plot and plan and read and research I guess you really never know how well you are doing until you have something to compare to. With you and I starting at around the same time and seeing how you really did not rush, had much more stockpiled than I did with a good military as well, you are just doing a much better job than I am. You are quite the measuring stick. Thank you!!!!

Edit: To think this convo started with me thinking you could use a tip from me! HAHAHAH =p

 

[DeletedUser26154]

It's my pleasure to help.

One last question, which might sound stupid but I haven't been able to figure it out. I was going to post a picture of my city like you did, to see if you could spot something I was doing wrong, but I wasn't able to figure out how you zoomed all the way out in yours to give your full city view?

I use Google Chrome for my browser and in the very top right corner there are three dots running up and down.
Click on that for a pop-up window that offers many features, one being zoom in and out.
I use Gyazo for capturing screen shots and making gifs.
I'll save images from Gyazo to my desktop then go from there.
I use Microsoft Paint for editing pictures, etc.



The world is my Meme Generator.

*Done editing*

 

[DeletedUser25920]

Very interesting posts. Manda, I am in the same boat as you, I am at LMA (with 44 apartment houses And I do not use premium buildings. I have long identified the main constraint is how to fit more people, but there was not much one can do about it. Other than in each age build the houses that give most people/tile (and less gold, but as gold is not a problem the choice is easy).

I have also progressed slowly, wanting to level up my GB's rather than rushing along the tech tree. I have GB's to address most other issues (St Marks, LoA, Hagia, Dresden) but there was not anything to be done about the housing problem. I have only one cultural building (graveyard) and 5k excess happiness; however there is no room for more houses...

I have come to the same conclusion: need one of the more advanced GB's that provide people to address this problem. I had looked into Babel and Capitol but I did not think they are worth it for the population. Habitat and Inno Tower though are quite good, especially if one gets them early. I will eventually build both, but I am going to start with the Habitat.

One thing to look out for is gold, once most of the houses are gone. However I have some SoK's which I built for the FP's, and an unexpected side effect is they provide lots of gold too (and they are always motivated).

And there are some other advantages when replacing houses with a GB:

- aid (m/p): Currently because there are so many houses (with 8 hr collections), usually only half to a third of coin collections are motivated. Getting rid of most of them, will ensure any remaining houses will be always motivated, and also all supply buildings will be motivated, as well as all culturals and decos polished.

- St Marks boost: Similarly, fewer (to none) houses means all coin collections from shrines and any remaining houses will be boosted.

- tech research for housing: So far (I am at LMA but I have seen this continues in the next ages too), the houses that provide the most population are at the end of the tech tree for that age. This is very frustrating as one researches new tech (military, goods, supply) but cannot use most of those until the end of the tech tree, once the better housing is unlocked. (as all these new buildings need more people, and you can only get more people once the better housing (people/tile) is researched. Having a GB, you can just level it up one (or more) level just as you are entering the new era, and you get more people immediately.

 

[Algona]

Lady Egwene, that was a great post! I especially liked the part about the advantage of leveling a GB to increase housing.

I agree with your analysis of Babel and Capitol. Babel is fine as a Goods producer, but the population is negligible. Capitol? Seems like a lot of effort for not much return.

A design tip that someone shared with me over a year ago. As you finish your current Era, redesign your city with the best and most housing you can get; it will have to last you through your advance through the next Era. Some time spent planning here, especially what new Era buildings you want, will pay off big in time and costs saved redesigning your city mid Era.

An additional tip: As you gather more GBs, SoKs, and other buildings that you will never tear down, design part of your city to be permanent. Take all that stuff and shove it into that permannent section. Then you can ignore it as you redesign the rest of your city; this reduces the complexity of the redesign process. A lot. This looms large as you get to two lane roads, you'll want a minimum of one lane road buildings hooked to those two lane roads.

I am a huge fan of 24 hour housing and supplies production. Between motivation and GB boosts it pays off big. Always motivated and no worries about collecting every few hours.

Fun thread. Looking forward to more great posts.

 

[DeletedUser26579]

***Relics***
I cut and pasted this from the Wiki website.

View attachment 2025

There are more relic prizes available than listed here.
If you have a Temple of Relics and you do the Guild Expidition [G.E.] map, you have a chance to win relics.

Wow. I had no idea that relics could give you that much -- even the common relics give more than I would have expected. I will definitely keep that in mind, especially since I'm trying to focus more on GE.

I'll also keep an eye out for opportunities to get BPs for the GBs you listed. I've already been contributing FPs to levelling a Guildmate's ToR.

Thanks.

 

[DeletedUser26154]

I'd love to see other players add their own input with illustrations.
This thread has the potential to be a very good learning tool.
If not for the forums and those I learned from, I would not be here.
And that's a fact.
Thank you.