Number of manufactories

[Bojislav]

Hello there
I would like to ask for your opinion about a basic number of manufactories you need to build and keep in your city in order to progress (relatively) smoothly.

Until now (Elvenari chapter) my setting was 2 regular goods manufactories + 1 sentient goods manufactory. It is not too much but I was able to get through all previous chapters without waiting/unwanted delay - when I needed some extra goods I just used manufactory spells, time boosters, and my trader of course.

But I am not sure anymore if the 2+1 setting will be enough. You know, starting from the Elvenar chapter you need tons of goods literally everywhere. I have been stockpiling my orcs/mana/seeds, so the only problem are sentient goods. I mean, for now. It looks like from the next chapter my regular goods will be drained as well. (And I am not even mentioning upcoming changes in higher chapters, like the 18th one...)

Well, what do you think is the ideal number of manufactories? Are 2+1 enough, or 3+2 would become a new basic for the rest of the game?
I am consindering building more manufactories but if the 2+1 setting would be enough, I would rather save some space in the city.

Thank you for your opinions and advices, much appreciated!

 

[Pauly7]

Hi @Bojislav. I don't think there's an easy, one-size-fits-all answer to your question, because your own playstyle makes all the difference to this. It can also make a huge difference how many other goods producing buildings you have. For example, if you have any of the old goods producing sets then they can almost negate the need for manus altogether.

I'm not sure what your "2+1 system" actually means. Does that mean you have 2 manufactories from each of tier 1, tier 2 and tier 3? Even if that's the case then that's probably far fewer than they average. It isn't uncommon to see people with 8 tier 1 manus, 6 tier 2 and 4 tier 3, for example.

For me, in my chapter 15 city, I have 6 tier 1 manus, 4 tier 2 and 1 tier 3. I have one each of tiers 4-6. However three quarters of my tier 2 and 3 goods don't come from manus.

One big deciding factor is how much catering you do in tournaments and Spire. I solely cater the Spire and so I need a lot more goods than someone who fights everything.

 

[Bojislav]

Thank you for your answer @Pauly7

2+1 means for me 2 planks, 1 moonstone, 2 scrolls, 1 velvet, 2 dust, and 1 bismuth. Building manufactories is very costly in terms of population, so I wanted to gather some ideas before using the free space

I fight both, spire and the tournament encounters, so all of my goods are used for the progression through chapters.

 

[kimkimkim]

When I was in that chapter, sentient goods are really heavy, my set up was 2 steel, 2 planks, 0 scrolls ( I have 4 library sets as scrolls ), 2 silk, 1 elixir and 3 dust....now I have moved onto Embassies and I teleported 1 dust and brought back out an elixir.....but you would just have to get a feel of what you will need most and adjust to what is best for you

 

[Deleted User - 341074]

I don't think there's an easy, one-size-fits-all answer to your question, because your own playstyle makes all the difference to this.

On top of the factors you listed there's also

• How leveled up your ETC wonder is
• Whether you sustainably use MM spells on every collect
• If you produce on 3hx5+9h schedule or less
• Other boosts like TW and Mountain Halls

Someone with all of those produces 5x as much as someone with none of them.

 

[Gargon667]

No such thing as a perfect ratio, apart from what has already been mentioned, it´s different for every town, but it is also different for every chapter. Stay flexible and use the teleport spells
For chapter 15 I think I had nearly no (maybe 2 or 3 total) factories for the first 3 Tiers (I usually don´t use many of those, because I don´t cater), I had a total of 8 (I think) sentient factories.
Nowadays I run around with 10+T1 factories and hardly any other factories (for FA reasons). I stopped playing chapters after 15, because they are a) useless and b) bad for tourney scores.

 

[ickyelf]

To add to the comments from @Pauly7 and @SoggyShorts...

I'm currently in Chapter 15

Production cycle is 3 hourly, 6 or sometimes 7 collections per day

Set up is:
4x Marble, 1x Steel (Platinum)
Extra Platinum from Watchful Winter Owl, and Elven Tree Gum and Moonstone from Coldfire Phoenix (gum only) and Moonstone set buildings

3x Crystal, 1x Scrolls (Arcane Ink)
Extra Obsidian and Royal Velvet from Moon Bear

2x Elixir, 2x Magic Dust (Alloy Shrooms)
Extra Bismuth from Moonstone set buildings

Fighting tournaments, mix of fighting and negotiating the Spire to the top, depends on boosts active, resources requested for the negotiation and whether the enemy troops are a bad mix (auto fighting only)

ETC is lvl 11, Simia is lvl 6, Timewarp is lvl 11 and going up

Using MMs on the Sentient manufactories when it suits to get the goods to activate researches, this isn't an issue as the MMs gained from tourneys weekly is more than usage

Using the trader to move Sentient goods around to the one needed, placing same tier trades, and by accepting cross tier trades if necessary - this chapter it makes sense to be a bit flexible, but don't need to accept 1 or 0 star trades, better to place 3 star trades at a discount that suits

This has worked well, haven't needed to feed the Storm Phoenix so far (which was the original plan, and partly why ETC was levelled up), and as one of the more advanced players in the Fellowship it hasn't been an option to rely on heavily discounted trades from others (not that I'd want to do that anyway)

For other chapters, the number/ mix of manufactories has been adjusted to suit the goods needed

Running an excess on standard goods, but there are reasons for that

 

[Pauly7]

When I was going through chapter 15 techs I fed the bluebird a lot, plus I used a lot of timeboosts on sentient elixir manus to get through them quicker. I went through with one each of the T4-6 manus, but someone wishing to do it without the boosts and still go quite quickly may decide to have two, or even three, each of those manus.

 

[ickyelf]

When I was going through chapter 15 techs I fed the bluebird a lot, plus I used a lot of timeboosts on sentient elixir manus to get through them quicker. I went through with one each of the T4-6 manus, but someone wishing to do it without the boosts and still go quite quickly may decide to have two, or even three, each of those manus.

... finding the right balance for the city makes a big difference.

Feeding an extra pet such as the Storm Phoenix might be a problem for some, if they don't have enough pet food to cover that and other pet feedings needed each week.

Having enough MMs to use on multiple Sentient manufactories on multiple days could be a block for other cities.

Running 5 or 6 Sentient manufactories needs a reasonable supply of Divine Seeds, plus extra for those that negotiate a lot in the Spire,... and if the aim is to quickly upgrade several Armories, and potentially Timewarp and Simia, then the demand for Seeds will be higher still - that'd need some planning to cope with.

 

[Lelanya]

OP also doesn't say what other boosts they have, like Mountain Halls,

 

[Bojislav]

Thank you for your ideas!

I did not mention my overall situation because I just wanted to hear your opinions and learn more about other player's strategies. Thanks to you I was able to review my city and find out that I can replace (=teleport; almost forgot about this option!) one of my scroll manufactories with the moonstone library which should be enough - this will save my population for other buildings and add some other boosts as well.

My production boost is currently on 772% (Mountain Halls and Timewarp at level 11), planning to get my ETC to the level 11 too.
Currently having several evolving buildings for additional goods, so the only issue is to have enough sentient goods.

I will try to build one more (of each) sentient goods manufactory, and see how it will work for me. I can teleport the building any time, so maybe it is a good idea to have some spare buildings in my inventory - to be more flexible with the setting in case of need.

 

[Pauly7]

I can teleport the building any time, so maybe it is a good idea to have some spare buildings in themy inventory - to be more flexible with the setting in case of need.

That's always a good position to get to... and if you play Fellowship Adventures, during those times you may wish to teleport away your sentient manus and bring out the pre-prepared T1 manus.

 

[Gargon667]

I will try to build one more (of each) sentient goods manufactory, and see how it will work for me. I can teleport the building any time, so maybe it is a good idea to have some spare buildings in my inventory - to be more flexible with the setting in case of need.

The most important would be T6, maybe build 2 or 3 of those instead of T4 and T5. If you look at reasearch activation costs in the chapter you´ll see that T4 and T5 are only used in a small mid section of the tree while the entire second half needs T6 only. use cross-tier trading for the techs that need other than T6.