[Question] When to advance eras?

[DeletedUser31771]

I realize this is a personal and subjective question, but there might be some objective criteria or opinions from other players that can benefit me. Here is where I am:

1. Progressive era
2. Three techs from having to advance anyway
3. Have advanced through over half of the Postmodern continent map
4. Regularly 1st through 8th in my neighborhood and I plunder daily
5. Regularly complete 48/48 on GE sometimes 64ish/64
6. Somewhat understand unrefined/refined goods and have room for any necessary goods bldgs
7. Usually take top PvP on Progressive tower and 3rd or 4th on PME tower.
8. Attack bonuses 90/87
9. Defense bonuses 27/160

I realize that eventually I'll be forced to advance by an event quest to unlock a tech (assuming I deem the event prize(s) worth it), but, like I said, I am just getting antsy to advance. Any thoughts?

 

[DeletedUser8428]

I may be a dinosaur ... but Inno invented the game "Build your city, lead it successfully through the ages, research new technologies, conquer the world and triumph over your opponents. " I don't think they ever had "camping" in mind. And somehow in the last couple of years, the general culture of this game has reversed itself. The complaint earlier was the folks were racing through the ages without learning what they needed to and so arrived in the Future unprepared.

Pendulum has swung the other way - my current neighborhood is incredibly weird. LMA and Colonial only, the highest-ranked folks in this hood must have started the game when Moses was a pup. There are very few military GB (very few of the folks in my neighborhood do) here. No one is in a hurry to move forward.

Frankly, can't wait to get out of this hood or maybe I'll quit playing. It's become a different game and I'm not sure I'm interested in the direction this one is going. We'll have to see how I feel about it in the next month or so.

 

[DeletedUser32389]

I camped in ME for 6+ months and loved it. PME felt dull so I pushed through to CE, and stayed for a long time there as well. ME and CE have been my favorite eras to camp in. I pushed to FE and feel that was a mistake. TE is a drag, and theres no point in move to arctic IMHO, so in FE I stay. In hindsight I wish I had stayed in CE to grow more, I'm ranked around 16 in the hood now and scraping by. You have your two lane all worked out?

 

[DeletedUser31771]

Not sure what two lane being worked out means but I have about a quarter of my city on two lanes to accommodate the bldgs that require them

 

[DeletedUser27184]

Not sure what two lane being worked out means but I have about a quarter of my city on two lanes to accommodate the bldgs that require them

I love to park the city and stay for a while, so I find a lot of reasons and stuff to do while parking an age.

For example, one of my first objectives when I parked in ME was to get rid of all the 2lanes buildings. They are fat and ugly. So for me it is a sign that I need to park more and build up my GB's until they can support the city without the 2space lanes. Here what I did -
1. Get rid of residential buildings - For that I got the IT, level it up (for me it was to level 7) which was enough to KICK all the buildings. To get the gold production rolling you build and level you SMB to around level 6, while doing GE(up to fight 64 every week!) to get SSW for money.
2. Get rid of goods buildings - this can be done by building CF and level it to level 7, then do tons of RQ's.
3. Get rid of the production buildings. Well, I couldnt, but I did build and level the RAH+LoA and use the Hatters which need 1space lane.
4. Get rid of military buildings - Get the Traz, level it up, and RH and do GE up to level 64 every week.

So yes, in your stead I would stay and park a bit more.

 

[spnnr]

Great advice Jobu523 - I am surprised to see quite a few players having their entire city 2-laned even GvG players who I expect to be quite lean and mean with racks etc.
For clarification sake : do you need 2-lane goods buildings from Modern and above as the gbs produce unrefined goods?

As for the OP it seems they are ready to move on maybe by the Spring Event based on data posted.

I assume that the core stats such as coin/supplies /additional pop/happiness available etc. are all inline with whats expected in the new era or you have a tidy sum to keep you covered during the transitional period and enough fps to get you to where you want to end up.

 

[DeletedUser31771]

Thanks for the feedback

 

[DeletedUser25920]

There is no right or wrong answer here. You can move up an age, whenever you feel is the right time.

Factors one could consider (and different players have different priorities)

- If you stayed very long in PE, what was the reason, and does that reason not exist anymore? (Or maybe you have not been long in PE, and stayed longer in CA and IndA and where already say on ME map then)

- If you do GE by fighting, the attack boosts of the defending armies go up somewhat in next age. (eg maybe you want to get the full 90/90 from GBs first).

- I am assuming you were using unattached ME & PME troops from story quests, which you had to be careful with as they cannot be replaced. If you move up to ME, you can get lots of ME troops, and not worry about the handful of unattached troops every time you send them to battle

- If you are doing recurring quests/have CF ME hatters are better (smaller) than PE supply buildings

- Do you have a big enough stock of goods? I personally make enough of current age goods to do the next 3 era’s of tech (eg PE goods are needed for ME, PME, CE research you can check wiki for exact amounts)

- Do you still use houses? If so - and as has been mentioned above - maybe you want to replace them with a population GB (Inno or Habitat). Saves lots of space and from PE and above also saves lots on roads. (If possible do that before advancing to ME)

- ME is where you will need to produce refined goods. Will you produce them by special buildings, RQ’s, standard goods buildings or combination thereof? Also you can check what BA boosts you have, and then check what CA goods are needed to produce these refined goods and see if you have enough (also your GB will produce CA goods, and you can trade those for the 1-3 types you need as unrefined).

- Check from beta/wikia the tech research requirements of the current/upcoming events, so you can plan ahead when you want to do the move to ME (so at a time of your choosing rather than be forced by an event task)

 

[DeletedUser31771]

Good points

 

[Czari]

I stay in an age until I have accumulated x amount of goods. The x is the amount of each good required to navigate through that age (I do this as soon as I enter a new age), plus I add in the amount of goods needed to build the two GBs of the age, even if I have already built them or don't plan to. This provides some "buffer room" for trading as well as the times I need to negotiate GE and/or the Continent Map.

I try to not let the Continent Map get too far ahead of me - that saps goods from having to negotiate. I never allow any event to "force" me to advance to an age if I don't want to at the time - ESPECIALLY since Inno runs back-to-back event.

I like to make my city as strong as possible before moving on ie. having the housing for my current era (a personal pet peeve is seeing cities with 4-5 housing eras), military built up, all goods needed built up as above, etc. This all becomes easier as another poster stated by having the appropriate GBs that take the place of needing housing, buildings for happiness, etc.

During my 3+ years of playing I have yet to hear someone state they regret they stayed in one age too long BUT I often hear comments such as, "I wish I hadn't moved up so quickly; now my military is too weak, I've run out of goods, etc." One longtime member of our guild was contemplating shutting down that world altogether as his city was too advanced and he was running into a lot of problems. The comment he made was, "I relied too much on trading instead of producing my own goods."

 

[DeletedUser7406]

I am assuming you were using unattached ME & PME troops from story quests, which you had to be careful with as they cannot be replaced. If you move up to ME, you can get lots of ME troops, and not worry about the handful of unattached troops every time you send them to battle

Currently, I am parked in PE with a PME Champion and finishing TE Map.
I find that with the one PME Champion and 7 Rogues, I can easily beat any ME or PME armies, even up 475+ Defense.
I do 64 every week in GE and do not see that changing. I finish 1st in my neighborhood for PE and PME.

The only reason I want to advance, is to get to CE quickly and get attack Helicopters. (and of course the better points)
TE Combat Drones are my favorite though, especially against Rocket Troops and Ninjas during GVG (another world)

I live on event buildings, (so no worries about unrefined goods, lots of SOK, removed all Cultural Buildings.
Producing 150+ FP a day. Got my Arc and Traz self-filling at over 30+, buildup up of units and Rogues, so no lacking there.

I'm thinking to bank enough FP to sail through ME and PME in a week or 2, and then I can begin to flourish.

Any opposing views?

 

[DeletedUser40477]

First of all I appreciate everyone here taking time to share their knowledge of the game. It really helps other players to get the big picture.

jobu523 would you be so kind as to help me with some of your acronyms?
On statement 1 you used SMB and SSW. What are those?
On statement 2 you used RQ's. What is that?
And lastly, what is a hatter?

For abbreviations (and there are many) go here...
https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/game-abbreviations.23147/

But to answer your questions:
SMB = Saint Mark's Basilica
SSW = Sacred Sky Watch
RQ = Recurring Quest

Hatter = The name of a supply building in the Modern Era. They make, quite literally, hats. Some of which are quite fashionable. And apparently hats can be converted to supplies.

I do sometimes like to imagine someone pushing several thousand Church Hats into a Food Processing Plant and it kicking out Church Hat Brand Condensed Soup! Delicious!

 

[DeletedUser31499]

I spent one year in Industrial Age. During that time I got an arc and leveled it to 80. Got a Traz and leveled it to 52. Got a Cape and leveled it to 70. Got an AO and leveled it to 68. My CF, SMB, RAH are at level 10. Been working on getting my fighting bonus up there and my fp production to 400. It’s at 390 fp per day now.

Been in PE for 6 weeks now and it’s surprising how unprepared some of the cities in PE are.
I don’t need production buildings or goods buildings as I aid a lot in my guild at 1.9.
I have 600 million coins
I have 300 million hammers
I have 37 million medals in inventory and nothing but GE to spend them on.

 

[DeletedUser36255]

For abbreviations (and there are many) go here...
https://forum.us.forgeofempires.com/index.php?threads/game-abbreviations.23147/

But to answer your questions:
SMB = Saint Mark's Basilica
SSW = Sacred Sky Watch
RQ = Recurring Quest

Hatter = The name of a supply building in the Modern Era. They make, quite literally, hats. Some of which are quite fashionable. And apparently hats can be converted to supplies.

I do sometimes like to imagine someone pushing several thousand Church Hats into a Food Processing Plant and it kicking out Church Hat Brand Condensed Soup! Delicious!

Thank you! I deleted my post... I felt kind of silly asking so many questions. Thanks again.

 

[Emberguard]

I’ve based the decision on when to advance based on my goods stock and while waiting lvl my GBs

 

[DeletedUser36255]

I spent one year in Industrial Age. During that time I got an arc and leveled it to 80. Got a Traz and leveled it to 52. Got a Cape and leveled it to 70. Got an AO and leveled it to 68. My CF, SMB, RAH are at level 10. Been working on getting my fighting bonus up there and my fp production to 400. It’s at 390 fp per day now.

Been in PE for 6 weeks now and it’s surprising how unprepared some of the cities in PE are.
I don’t need production buildings or goods buildings as I aid a lot in my guild at 1.9.
I have 600 million coins
I have 300 million hammers
I have 37 million medals in inventory and nothing but GE to spend them on.

LP you mentioned (I don’t need production buildings or goods buildings as I aid a lot in my guild at 1.9.) How do you aid your guild? And do you get goods for doing so?

I would love to see you city!!

 

[DeletedUser31499]

Yes when aiding a GB at 1.9 I do the spend fp recurring quest. It costs me 66fp. That’s a lot ofmrecurring quest rewards when you are putting up to 2600 fp on an arc. Yes you get a lot of goods doing that in a guild where 40+ players have level 80 arcs and all but 1 in the guild has an arc. We also give 1.9 to any GBs in the guild as long as the owner has made it lockable at 1.9. Right now I’m on 29 GB in the guild at 1.9 ... for no profit. But the profit is the medals, more bps than I’ll ever need, and the rewards from the recurring quests. I’m on Korch as lord pest btw.