Should I sell my self-aid kits?

[DeletedUser41019]

I never actually check who aids me, I just assumed that since most buildings get aided, it means most of them aid me most of the time. I guess I should keep an eye on that in the future.

 

[DeletedUser]

Mass Aid kits means there's nothing for my social contacts to aid for the rest of the day.

Mass aid kits are best used just before you collect. I never use them except then. (Of course, I never use individual self aid kits at any other time, either.)

 

[DeletedUser40527]

I never actually check who aids me, I just assumed that since most buildings get aided, it means most of them aid me most of the time. I guess I should keep an eye on that in the future.

Easy way to find out who is aiding you is to aid from within the town hall event screen. Filter for "friends", and aid everyone listed in the town hall events. You can go back several days. Then go look at your friend's list. The ones that you didn't aid are the ones that didn't aid you either.

Also, happiness building aids last 12 hours. But most of the event buildings that produce things like FP are 24 hours. So you weren't totally off when you said 24 hours.

If you need happiness, but want your friends to aid your production buildings instead, get rid of the cultural buildings/decorations, and build roads (the more advanced ones) instead. They give happiness, but do not get aided. Or, just build a Hagia which gives plenty of happiness by itself in the earlier ages plus FP to boot. Hagia is my only happiness building in my city currently, and I have a lot of excess happiness to accomodate quite a bit more population.

 

[DeletedUser41019]

I didn't know you could aid from the town hall. I thought you could only do it either from the screen that pops up when you log in, or using the lists at the bottom for friends, guild members and neighbors. I tend to aid people whether they aid me or not, I nearly always need the coins. But I'll do as you suggest tomorrow just to take a look and see who is aiding me.

I can't get the Hagia yet, I'm still a couple of blueprints missing. I've only been able to get the oracle and the lighthouse of alexandria so far, because the blueprints are given at random when I do my aiding and I do not buy diamonds. It's annoying though when I get like five copies of one of the nine I need, and there is one missing. Eventually I'll get all these great buildings, but from the looks of it, it could take quite some time.

I've got decent roads, but I have a large population and therefore having my happiness dependant on the roads wouldn't be an option for me. I need so many people because I have kept ALL my production buildings that I have deposits for, I have done so because I find it useful for trading. Some people have advised me to get rid of my bronze age ones, but honestly, I don't mind keeping them because they cost me almost nothing to run and take up little space. As for my happiness buildings, I have two academies and a letterpress (LMA) and two churches (HMA). I'll be getting rid of the churches at some point when there is something better for the same amount of space. I don't mind these buildings getting aided to be fair, I find that half or more of my coins and supplies buildings get aided anyway, so I usually get enough. If not I can always activate a boost from the friends tavern if I need extra for the short term.

 

[Jern2017]

@HelenofBorg, why do you feel the need to keep goods buildings from several ages below yours? You said they are useful for trading, but why would need so many BA/IA/EMA goods that you'd need the goods buildings to produce and keep enough of said goods? If you have to obtain some of those goods to unlock a technology or construct a Great Building, using your LMA/HMA goods and trade them down is a much cheaper and better solution.

 

[DeletedUser40527]

I can't get the Hagia yet, I'm still a couple of blueprints missing. I've only been able to get the oracle and the lighthouse of alexandria so far, because the blueprints are given at random when I do my aiding and I do not buy diamonds. It's annoying though when I get like five copies of one of the nine I need, and there is one missing. Eventually I'll get all these great buildings, but from the looks of it, it could take quite some time.

Your guild should be able to help you get BP for Hagia. A good guild should be able to swap FP with you easily. If you put FP on someone else's Hagia, the BP reward you get from it will always be Hagia BPs (not random BP). So just make a private swap arrangement with a guildie that has a Hagia. Something like: you give 15 FP a day on his Hagia, and he gives you 15 FP a day on one of your GB. Net result is that you get 1st or 2nd place on his Hagia and get Hagia BPs. This applies to BPs for any GB you are interested in building. Also, most guilds will also have "swap threads" where you can get BPs for other GBs. But this is hit-or-miss if you are looking for a specific GB. But just to get random BPs from other ages, it's awesome. I'm only in HMA, but have complete sets of BP for Alcatraz and Cape Canaveral, and near complete set for St.Basil, Arctic Orangery, Himenji Castle, and some others. If your guild does not have members with Hagia, or does not do swap threads at least, I would seriously consider finding a better guild. These are like the basic things that a guild should provide.

EDIT: Also, just in case you didn't know, you can trade in 2 pieces of BP to get another random one of the same GB if you are missing 1 of the 9. So if you just need 1 print, you can roll the dice and see if you get lucky by trading in some of the ones where you have 5 copies. However, I would only do this if you are trying to build. After building it, you will need more sets of prints to go past level 10, so I wouldn't recommend trading in after that.

I've got decent roads, but I have a large population and therefore having my happiness dependant on the roads wouldn't be an option for me. I need so many people because I have kept ALL my production buildings that I have deposits for, I have done so because I find it useful for trading. Some people have advised me to get rid of my bronze age ones, but honestly, I don't mind keeping them because they cost me almost nothing to run and take up little space. As for my happiness buildings, I have two academies and a letterpress (LMA) and two churches (HMA). I'll be getting rid of the churches at some point when there is something better for the same amount of space. I don't mind these buildings getting aided to be fair, I find that half or more of my coins and supplies buildings get aided anyway, so I usually get enough. If not I can always activate a boost from the friends tavern if I need extra for the short term.

Interesting. I've taken an opposite approach to getting goods. I basically use the recurring quest rewards to get goods. In HMA, it's "Produce Saltpeter" from the Alchemist buildings. I also run the "collect coins" quest. I built a Chateau Fronterac to leverage the rewards. So right now, each time it gives me goods as a reward, I get 10 instead of only 5. I currently run about 25 recurring quests per day (30% chance the rewards give goods, so statically speaking, it gives goods 8 times which = 80 random goods per day). I also get goods from my Lighthouse and St.Marks and often times Crow's nest. As a result of this play strategy, I have NO goods buildings. With no goods buildings, the event buildings that I have (like Crows nest, etc) provide enough population, so I have NO houses either (and I still have over 700 "available population"). Lower population also means NO cultural buildings needed for 120% happiness. With my Hagia alone, I currently have 1900 "additional happiness" available. This frees up land space for event buildings and GBs that produce FPs, and FPs are the most valuable "currency" in the game imo.

EDIT: And I'm never short on coins or supplies either. Obviously, with all the alchemists I have, supplies are ever growing. Just about to hit 8 million. My St.Marks gives me 170% coin boost (total 190% if you include the 20% from happiness), so coin supply is growing too. My crows nest alone pretty much completes the "collect coins" quest by itself, and I'll be adding the Unbirthday quest to my daily routine soon (when I get over 8 million coin).

 

[DeletedUser40527]

@HelenofBorg, why do you feel the need to keep goods buildings from several ages below yours? You said they are useful for trading, but why would need so many BA/IA/EMA goods that you'd need the goods buildings to produce and keep enough of said goods? If you have to obtain some of those goods to unlock a technology or construct a Great Building, using your LMA/HMA goods and trade them down is a much cheaper and better solution.

BA goods can be used to trade for GB construction goods from later ages. If she ever uses FP to "buy" goods from a later age player to construct a GB, she will still need goods to execute the trade since the exchange limits the ratio to 0.5. So, for example, if she were to build an Arc, she would need about 1000 goods (assuming she trades at a .5 ratio) to trade for those arc goods. That is actually what I did for my Arc. I basically built 7 vineyards and made about 1000 wine to make those trades happen.

 

[DeletedUser37581]

BA goods can be used to trade for GB construction goods from later ages. If she ever uses FP to "buy" goods from a later age player to construct a GB, she will still need goods to execute the trade since the exchange limits the ratio to 0.5. So, for example, if she were to build an Arc, she would need about 1000 goods (assuming she trades at a .5 ratio) to trade for those arc goods. That is actually what I did for my Arc. I basically built 7 vineyards and made about 1000 wine to make those trades happen.

Yes, you could "waste" space in your city to generate BA goods for those trades, but there is another option.

Someone from a higher age, say HMA, can trade current age goods down to BA goods at a 1:2 ratio making a very generous trade for guildies. Then use the BA goods in an FP trade for the goods needed for the GB. Effectively you get 4 GB goods for 1 current age goods with minimal trading - and you've provided a great deal for a guildie at no cost to you.

 

[DeletedUser40527]

Yes, you could "waste" space in your city to generate BA goods for those trades, but there is another option.

Someone from a higher age, say HMA, can trade current age goods down to BA goods at a 1:2 ratio making a very generous trade for guildies. Then use the BA goods in an FP trade for the goods needed for the GB. Effectively you get 4 GB goods for 1 current age goods with minimal trading - and you've provided a great deal for a guildie at no cost to you.

I really like this "second level" thinking strategy. Gonna use this in the future. When I first built my arc, I had plenty of land to build those vineyards. Now... not so much lol.

 

[Jern2017]

BA goods can be used to trade for GB construction goods from later ages. If she ever uses FP to "buy" goods from a later age player to construct a GB, she will still need goods to execute the trade since the exchange limits the ratio to 0.5. So, for example, if she were to build an Arc, she would need about 1000 goods (assuming she trades at a .5 ratio) to trade for those arc goods. That is actually what I did for my Arc. I basically built 7 vineyards and made about 1000 wine to make those trades happen.

Of course, but instead of wasting valuable space for BA goods buildings, you could use your current age goods and trade them down for BA goods.

 

[plinker2]

Please stay on topic. Thanks!

 

[DeletedUser30312]

Mass aid kits are best used just before you collect. I never use them except then. (Of course, I never use individual self aid kits at any other time, either.)

Most of my stuff generally gets aided by then in my active cities anyway. It's a waste to use mass aid for just one or two buildings, so I've never found them particularly useful. I've traded all of them in.