What is the Fascination with Parking?

[Jools1956]

Yes, I am a "noob". But, what is the deal with "parking"? I know this comes up often - this is a serious question, not a complaint, not a whine. I just would like some of the veterans perspective. When I joined the game it was marketed as a "building" game. The battle play was a fun "extra". I realize different players have different motivations to play - I get that. I am in the LMA, and really would call myself a purist - I enjoy planning and designing the city. And I have really gotten into the PvP, Guild Expeditions, etc. I have five GB's up - Zeus, LoA, ToR, CoA, Babel.

However, (and here is a bit of a whine), the leader in my LMA PvP has a Capitol, Castel de Monte, Zeus, St. Basil's, CoA, Arc, Traz, HoS, St. Marks, Deal Castle, FoD, ToR, Lighthouse, and a SPACESHIP. So, of course, no PvP opportunity. Okay, I'm cool to wait out the two weeks until the neighborhood changes. But - who knows, may get the same kind of competition?

The question - am I just stupid to play this way - staying true to an era? Or do I just need to suck it up and just start building GB's and forget the era aspect?

Serious advice only please, thanks!

 

[DeletedUser26154]

and a SPACESHIP

That's my cue.

start building GB

If you do not invest in Great Buildings, you will reach a point in your game where you have a real hard time.
The Great Buildings Boost and increase/improve your city's and army's necessary aspects and abilities.
Not all of the Great Buildings are considered "good" and a few are widely considered "wasteful" or "bad".
You want to get your Great Buildings and "Camp" to level them up.

There are many fine players here who will fill you in on what to do.
These are the widely-considered Essentials:

LoA, CdM, Zeus, CoA, Alcatraz, and St. Marks.

Those give you needed Military Attacking Boost, and also help supply production, coin production, and troop production.




Pay attention to this thread over the next few days and others will add more in detail.

 

[DeletedUser12620]

Yes, I am a "noob". But, what is the deal with "parking"? I know this comes up often - this is a serious question, not a complaint, not a whine. I just would like some of the veterans perspective

I parked in LMA for awhile about 2 years ago and was able to get an Alcatraz and level my attacking gbs to the point where I could become a hybrid type of player (both farmer and fighter). I did the same thing in INDY to get my ark but also level my gbs even higher for PE.

I personally find LMA to be a perfect place to camp and get gbs you need. I did that something awhile back while getting a chat in LMA (diamond mine).

HMA is great also, you can do lots of recurring quests to help stock up on goods, supplies, and coins!

 

[Jools1956]

Ardak - thanks for the reply. Brings up another question. I motivate and polish my fingers to the bone (friends and neighbors) to get blueprints, I can level up my Zeus and LoA after level 10 two more times already. When do the prints for the others start coming? Do I have to advance another era? I've looked at contributing to the buildings going up, gets expensive, but guess I will have to do that.

Forgotten - looks like I'm parking for awhile! Thanks for the reply!

I follow both of your posts here, you both always give good advice - Ardak - you're the "bomb".

 

[DeletedUser26965]

The conventional wisdom is to stay in an a lower age and level up GB's. GE fights become more difficult as you age up so if you fight GE then staying behind a while to level military GB's makes sense. Continent map fights and generally PvP become more difficult as well. I suppose there's other methods of playstyle where staying behind in age for long periods of time can be more conducive as well.

That being said there are advantages to ageing up quickly, mainly more expansions are available which in turn allows for more space which in turn allows for producing more stuff. Also one would be of more utility to their guild in regards to units and goods mainly for GvG e.g. a player in IA, while powerful with a level 80+ SoZ, CoA and CdM, is really not much use to a GvG guild as they can only fight in IA GvG and only make IA goods and also don't produce much by way of points towards the GE goal bar but since they could beat GE easily are fine for the competitions.

What Great Buildings you build and how far you level them will be determined by what you want to do in the game.

 

[DeletedUser31592]

Ardak - thanks for the reply. Brings up another question. I motivate and polish my fingers to the bone (friends and neighbors) to get blueprints, I can level up my Zeus and LoA after level 10 two more times already. When do the prints for the others start coming? Do I have to advance another era? I've looked at contributing to the buildings going up, gets expensive, but guess I will have to do that.

You will only get BPs from your era or lower as a reward for a recurring quest.
You can get the higher BPs from aiding, but it will take you a really long time to collect a set above your era.
The easiest way is to contribute to other GBs. Secure spots that pay out BPs as a reward.

 

[DeletedUser12620]

Ardak - thanks for the reply. Brings up another question. I motivate and polish my fingers to the bone (friends and neighbors) to get blueprints, I can level up my Zeus and LoA after level 10 two more times already. When do the prints for the others start coming? Do I have to advance another era? I've looked at contributing to the buildings going up, gets expensive, but guess I will have to do that.

Forgotten - looks like I'm parking for awhile! Thanks for the reply!

I follow both of your posts here, you both always give good advice - Ardak - you're the "bomb".

Let's say you need Arc prints. You will need to only add future era player and ONLY aid future building. You won't need to advance to get higher level blueprints.

 

[DeletedUser31592]

Parking for the sake of being the big fish in the little pond is dumb, in my opinion. Not a fun way to play the game. Remaining in an era for a while to set your city up for the future is smart. Rushing through the tech tree (and therefore eras) and the map is a surefire way to cause more work in the long run. I learned that the hard way. Goods are critical. I won't move up an era until I have plenty of goods stockpiled. Once you hit Modern Era, to produce those goods, it uses goods from a previous era (you begin making what is called refined goods using unrefined goods). So it is important to have plenty of goods from each era.

 

[Jools1956]

The conventional wisdom is to stay in an a lower age and level up GB's. GE fights become more difficult as you age up so if you fight GE then staying behind a while to level military GB's makes sense. Continent map fights and generally PvP become more difficult as well. I suppose there's other methods of playstyle where staying behind in age for long periods of time can be more conducive as well.

That being said there are advantages to ageing up quickly, mainly more expansions are available which in turn allows for more space which in turn allows for producing more stuff. Also one would be of more utility to their guild in regards to units and goods mainly for GvG e.g. a player in IA, while powerful with a level 80+ SoZ, CoA and CdM, is really not much use to a GvG guild as they can only fight in IA GvG and only make IA goods and also don't produce much by way of points towards the GE goal bar but since they could beat GE easily are fine for the competitions.

What Great Buildings you build and how far you level them will be determined by what you want to do in the game.

The All Stars are out this morning - thanks for the reply. I'll nestle into my little village for awhile and work on the GB's. I had a really good fall event reaping "goodies" so I'll sit out the next two and work on building GB's!

 

[Jools1956]

Parking for the sake of being the big fish in the little pond is dumb, in my opinion. Not a fun way to play the game. Remaining in an era for a while to set your city up for the future is smart. Rushing through the tech tree (and therefore eras) and the map is a surefire way to cause more work in the long run. I learned that the hard way. Goods are critical. I won't move up an era until I have plenty of goods stockpiled. Once you hit Modern Era, to produce those goods, it uses goods from a previous era (you begin making what is called refined goods using unrefined goods). So it is important to have plenty of goods from each era.

It's not "dumb" if you dominate the PvP every week and take home 100 medals for expansions. Maybe that's the goal for that player, who knows. What is the "right" amount of goods per era? I produce every four hours, so I'm sitting on around a thousand of everything - what's the right amount? Thanks for the advice.

 

[DeletedUser31592]

It's not "dumb" if you dominate the PvP every week and take home 100 medals for expansions. Maybe that's the goal for that player, who knows. What is the "right" amount of goods per era? I produce every four hours, so I'm sitting on around a thousand of everything - what's the right amount? Thanks for the advice.

Well, dumb in my opinion because it takes the fun out. Easy wins get boring. (And going forward- 100 medals is nothing. My city produces several hundred a day. Expansions cost hundreds of thousands in higher eras. Contributing to Arcs are the easiest way to get medals- thousands per reward, typically.)

The right amount? There isn't one. I left PE with over 10,000 of the goods I have a boost over, and a few thousand of each of the others. They are gone. I had to rebuild the PE goods buildings a few weeks ago. I'm parked in PME because I can never get above 500 of each ME and PME goods. Part of the reason is trading up to try and build higher level GBs. I've been here about 6-9 months, maybe more. I can't remember. I can't move up because CE goods require the unrefined PE goods, which are gone. Often they were traded for ME goods when I was short there. I didn't stay in ME long enough, which is where everything got messed up. I was parked in PE for so long, I was eager to move on and I forgot WHY I had to park. So I am paying for it now. Racing never gets you anywhere, unless you want to spend a lot of money. Apparently I forget this every year or two.

 

[Jools1956]

Well, dumb in my opinion because it takes the fun out. Easy wins get boring. (And going forward- 100 medals is nothing. My city produces several hundred a day. Expansions cost hundreds of thousands in higher eras. Contributing to Arcs are the easiest way to get medals- thousands per reward, typically.)

The right amount? There isn't one. I left PE with over 10,000 of the goods I have a boost over, and a few thousand of each of the others. They are gone. I had to rebuild the PE goods buildings a few weeks ago. I'm parked in PME because I can never get above 500 of each ME and PME goods. Part of the reason is trading up to try and build higher level GBs. I've been here about 6-9 months, maybe more. I can't remember. I can't move up because CE goods require the unrefined PE goods, which are gone. Often they were traded for ME goods when I was short there. I didn't stay in ME long enough, which is where everything got messed up. I was parked in PE for so long, I was eager to move on and I forgot WHY I had to park. So I am paying for it now. Racing never gets you anywhere, unless you want to spend a lot of money. Apparently I forget this every year or two.

Awesome information - thanks! That will save some time and frustration!

 

[DeletedUser29055]

I think the key with the unrefined goods is getting the goods GB (St. Marks, Babel, FoD, LoA, ... did I miss one?). What also helps is not updating event buildings that produce goods and keep them in one or two lower ages.
Contributing to higher GB of other players is much better than aiding. It may cost if you cannot make a swap with the player, but it's often worth. Especially GB like Arcs that can get really high, you can get many blueprints and medals from the fifth position that usually does not cost that much.

 

[Jools1956]

I think the key with the unrefined goods is getting the goods GB (St. Marks, Babel, FoD, LoA, ... did I miss one?). What also helps is not updating event buildings that produce goods and keep them in one or two lower ages.
Contributing to higher GB of other players is much better than aiding. It may cost if you cannot make a swap with the player, but it's often worth. Especially GB like Arcs that can get really high, you can get many blueprints and medals from the fifth position that usually does not cost that much.

Ugghh. Too many little secrets to uncover. Swapping - hmmm. That's a new one to me. Don't have a clue how to do that and what could someone in LMA possibly have to swap for an ARC blueprint? Someone mentioned in an earlier post somewhere about global chat, but I'm a mobile player so that's not available to me. And at one FP an hour, I'm not sure I will live long enough to level up the 5 GB's I have (even with my little WW and upgraded Cider Mill). And I go back to my original dilemma - somehow an ARC and a Spaceship just don't work for me in a LMA village (admittedly my "quirk"). But, it appears that this is the game.

Thanks - everyone on this forum is SO VERY helpful, seriously. Thanks for your patience with us "noobs"! The little red haired girl may be down, but is certainly not out!!!!!

 

[DeletedUser31592]

I think the key with the unrefined goods is getting the goods GB (St. Marks, Babel, FoD, LoA, ... did I miss one?). What also helps is not updating event buildings that produce goods and keep them in one or two lower ages.
Contributing to higher GB of other players is much better than aiding. It may cost if you cannot make a swap with the player, but it's often worth. Especially GB like Arcs that can get really high, you can get many blueprints and medals from the fifth position that usually does not cost that much.

Royal Albert Hall is the missing GB

 

[DeletedUser31592]

Ugghh. Too many little secrets to uncover. Swapping - hmmm. That's a new one to me. Don't have a clue how to do that and what could someone in LMA possibly have to swap for an ARC blueprint? Someone mentioned in an earlier post somewhere about global chat, but I'm a mobile player so that's not available to me. And at one FP an hour, I'm not sure I will live long enough to level up the 5 GB's I have (even with my little WW and upgraded Cider Mill). And I go back to my original dilemma - somehow an ARC and a Spaceship just don't work for me in a LMA village (admittedly my "quirk"). But, it appears that this is the game.

Thanks - everyone on this forum is SO VERY helpful, seriously. Thanks for your patience with us "noobs"! The little red haired girl may be down, but is certainly not out!!!!!

I started in two new worlds maybe 6 weeks ago. I was trying to compare me playing in my style versus one of the guides here (about getting GBs in your first month, or is it weeks.. can't remember). I have a full set of Arc BPs in one city and a full set of CF in the other. (Once I built the GBs, my initial experiment was done, now I'm conducting a few more- I targeted the different GBs). One city is Iron Age, and I continue to guild hop- mainly because I haven't found one I like. I have over 1,500 stock piled FPs in my inventory. The other city is EMA and I quit guild hopping early on. I was up to about 600 stock piled FPs, but I leveled up one of my GBs a couple of days ago.

So, it is very possible to find BPs early on. Contributing to GBs is actually a great way GET FPs. Guild hopping helps expedite this. To build up a stock pile, look for GBs that are close to leveling. Say it needs 25 points to level up, third place is open (no one has contributed) and pays 15 FPs as a reward. You put 13 FPs on there and you will 'lock' the reward. It would be mathematically impossible for someone to take over your spot. Now once it is leveled up, you will receive 15 FPs. So you just gained 2. It starts slow, but as you have more FPs stock piled (it is important to leave them in your inventory so you can lock other GBs), you can start going after bigger rewards.

I'm about to leave. I will check my smaller cities later to see if I can try to find a visual to screen shot if this is confusing.

 

[Jools1956]

I started in two new worlds maybe 6 weeks ago. I was trying to compare me playing in my style versus one of the guides here (about getting GBs in your first month, or is it weeks.. can't remember). I have a full set of Arc BPs in one city and a full set of CF in the other. (Once I built the GBs, my initial experiment was done, now I'm conducting a few more- I targeted the different GBs). One city is Iron Age, and I continue to guild hop- mainly because I haven't found one I like. I have over 1,500 stock piled FPs in my inventory. The other city is EMA and I quit guild hopping early on. I was up to about 600 stock piled FPs, but I leveled up one of my GBs a couple of days ago.

So, it is very possible to find BPs early on. Contributing to GBs is actually a great way GET FPs. Guild hopping helps expedite this. To build up a stock pile, look for GBs that are close to leveling. Say it needs 25 points to level up, third place is open (no one has contributed) and pays 15 FPs as a reward. You put 13 FPs on there and you will 'lock' the reward. It would be mathematically impossible for someone to take over your spot. Now once it is leveled up, you will receive 15 FPs. So you just gained 2. It starts slow, but as you have more FPs stock piled (it is important to leave them in your inventory so you can lock other GBs), you can start going after bigger rewards.

I'm about to leave. I will check my smaller cities later to see if I can try to find a visual to screen shot if this is confusing.

You're going to regret replying to my posts.......LOL. Not confusing at all. I need a new Guild for sure, mine is not active, but I hate to be a quitter. Agreed, if played right GB's produce good FP's. I do play the "lock everyone else out with the FP's contributed to a GB game" when possible. That worked with my first five, but my neighborhood is still LMA, only a few building the higher era GB's. (other than the long term parkers who have their buildings at levels 4,5,6, etc. which I can't compete with) I do search that right away when neighborhoods change. In my situation, how do I "hoard" FP's other than winning in events, etc. I'll time out at 10 FP's. Next question - I guess one has to "trade" for the goods (or pay for in diamonds) that are required to build the first level as I wouldn't have produced those products yet. Again, who wants LMA goods if they're at a higher level?

 

[DeletedUser]

Swapping - hmmm. That's a new one to me. Don't have a clue how to do that and what could someone in LMA possibly have to swap for an ARC blueprint?

Alvadora was referring to FP for FP swaps, not swapping FPs for Blueprints.

 

[Jools1956]

Alvadora was referring to FP for FP swaps, not swapping FPs for Blueprints.

Got it, thanks!!!!!

 

[DeletedUser27184]

But, what is the deal with "parking"?

As was said several times above, you need to park from time to time to advance your GB's to the current era just to stay relevant with GE/GvG and your plundering neighbors.

But parking a city is so much more then only this.

Parking a city have a snowball effect on the GB leveling.
You can use all your FP to advance your GB's (preferably through FP swaps).
You can farm the GE. Level 4 is hard. You need some time in an era before you can do it consistently every week. (don't forget to build ToR ASAP). You get even more FP's, goods, medals that you can invest into your city. Hopefully you get the FP buildings (terrace/SSW) and you start to make more FP consistently every day.
As the GB's level up you get more and more stuff (goods and what ever the GB is about). You use it to get Arc goods. You build the Arc -
The Arc even snowball your city more, as the rewards get bigger and bigger.
If you choose a good age (HMA, CA, ME are the best) you can use HQS system and boost your Goods/Medals/FP to new highes. With this FP's you even snowball harder.
In order to do GE4 easily, you push to the next age quests, and get the next age troops. Suddenly GE become so easy. But you cant go up an age, cause then you wont have the next age troops....
You have the space to put up gold buildings. Which you turn to FP. Snowball the whole shebang even more.

So, if you park correctly, over time, you can advance your city much faster then if you advance a bit, then park a bit and so on. And you can feel the snowball effect quite fast (in this game it means weeks).