Wanted: some feedback on a newbie's thoughts on developing a City

[DeletedUser5679]

First of all: I am aware that many well-written guides exist, and I've looked at some (I particularly like the 'Double Spiral Design' thread, particularly the post about the 'Wheat Ear design' (I'll be loosely using both concepts, to some extent).

But in all honesty I did not (and do not) want to work from a guide. The enjoyment for me comes about doing it, thinking 'on the spot', so to speak. Also, I played quite a lot of the old, late 1980s / early 1990s SimCity recently, through a Dos emulator and am familiar with —but not excellent in— Forge of Empires. So, I'm confident I'll manage.

And sofar I am doing well, but of course I will encounter some issues that I will have to tackle. So, some feedback would be appreciated.


The first isue is: the fact that at one point the upgrades for all your building will grow in size. I have managed to neatly (efficiently) replace all the residences (I have 24 of them) when they went from 2x2 to 2x3, but as of yet I know that in the foreseeable future will likely not have much if any room to upgrade my 16 workshops to the 3x2 variety. (At least.for the next 5 or 6 expansions this will not change — and I already bought quite a few expansions with diamonds; the next one would cost me 2300 diamonds which I think is too much) I

I think that there is not one obvious solution for this. There are several possibilies:

1. Sell some workshops
2. Sell some residences
3. Sell some workshops and some residences
4. Don't sell anything; just have patience, play the game and lay out all the expansions until there is enough room to upgrade the workshops

I'm inclined towards option #4. What are your thoughts on this?

Btw I think it is safe to assume that the Manufactories will at one point also grow in size; am I right?

 

[Deleted User - 106219]

Yes, manufactories also grow in size.

Why do you need 16 Workshops?

 

[DeletedUser5679]

Yes, manufactories also grow in size.

Why do you need 16 Workshops?

Is it too much in your perception? There has not been a point in the game that I thought I produced too much resources — I twice hit the max of my storage room but I could buy steel and planks for the excessive resources at the wholesale trader so that wasn't a loss. And I did at various points use most of my resources, so I am not under the impression that I constantly had more than I needed.

But I take it from your question that you would have made less? Or, maybe when upgrading sell some of them?

 

[m4rt1n]

Currently I have 8 workshops but 2 are diamond workshops and that is enough to run 5 of each of my boosted factories, (15 in total) and constantly produce troops. I also bough a few expansions and ended up with 40 houses, currently on chapter 8, after 10 months play.

I'd suggest cutting a few of the workshops and see how you go.

 

[DeletedUser3781]

16 workshops is really a lot. I have 6 (and had 6 for the most of the game), many people have 8 or 10. If you're not going to buy more premium expansions, you'll probably need to cut some of them down.
Ways to gain more supplies:

• give help to people that helped you
• take care of your culture, with higher culture your workshops and residences make more resources
• use Power of Provision spells on your workshops
• use supplies instants
• build Wonders: Tome of Secrets, Endless Excavation and/or Prosperity Towers; each of them is better than the workshop when you consider they don't need population to run

 

[cwgiii]

Another point you might consider (although there will be a lot of folks that disagree), you don't necessarily need to upgrade all of your structures to the full level that you are playing at. I have basically gotten to the point that I don't upgrade anything anymore until it is absolutely necessary. I can time upgrades to correspond with events or as a requirement to complete a chapter. Even then, I make sure that I keep a good balance between population, culture and space before starting such an endeavor.

I personally felt too much pressure from various sides of these equations when advancing everything to the max all the time. My ranking has suffered, but I don't really care about that anyway.

This way, I have plenty of space when I really need it and can actually "play" when things come up like Fellowship Adventures, etc.

Just an alternate point of view.

 

[DeletedUser3781]

you don't necessarily need to upgrade all of your structures to the full level that you are playing at

I also play like that, it leaves me more space for the guest races.

 

[DeletedUser5679]

16 workshops is really a lot. I have 6 (and had 6 for the most of the game), many people have 8 or 10. If you're not going to buy more premium expansions, you'll probably need to cut some of them down.
Ways to gain more supplies:

• give help to people that helped you
• take care of your culture, with higher culture your workshops and residences make more resources
• use Power of Provision spells on your workshops
• use supplies instants
• build Wonders: Tome of Secrets, Endless Excavation and/or Prosperity Towers; each of them is better than the workshop when you consider they don't need population to run

Thanks for the tips!! I already discovered the helping other people thing (that's actually a very nice game aspect, and also implemented in FoE)

 

[DeletedUser5679]

Another point you might consider (although there will be a lot of folks that disagree), you don't necessarily need to upgrade all of your structures to the full level that you are playing at.

Cool, I like that. Thanks!

I was actually hesitating to do that with my residences, as layout-wise it seems nicer (more efficient) to me to have three 2x2 houses on at the end of a row which otherwise consists of two 2x3 houses, so that each house only takes op 2 stretches of road. But I saw I could upgrade the houses anyway, without having to sacrifice, and I figured the extra tax income would outweigh the perceived (or imagined) efficiency.

But it's good to know! Maybe I'll keep all my workspaces but only raise a few to bigger sizes, for the foreseeable future.

 

[DeletedUser5679]

Currently I have 8 workshops but 2 are diamond workshops and that is enough to run 5 of each of my boosted factories, (15 in total) and constantly produce troops. I also bough a few expansions and ended up with 40 houses, currently on chapter 8, after 10 months play.

I'd suggest cutting a few of the workshops and see how you go.

Thanks! I'll keep it in mind. For now I will remain as is, but in the future I might indeed do that. Or, keep them 2x2 if that deems convenient.

For some reason I'm somewhat of a number fetishist, and 24 residences and 16 workshops (not counting the premium ones, two of each) seem nice numbers to me. But of course this is not some hard criterium.

 

[Lelanya]

I keep 10 to 12 workshops until the top-up gets irritating. So you have a ready made answer to respacing your workshops. Put your buildings shortest side to roads to save space.

 

[DeletedUser2838]

I keep all producing buildings (residences, workshops manufactories) at different levels. So for example I might have workshops at levels 4, 6, 8 and 10 with 10 being the limit of the chapter. Reasons'
1. If all buildings are at the top level of a chapter then when a task comes up to raise the level of a workshop you can't.
2. If you get a task to raise a workshop to level 5+, then you can raise a level 4 to a level 5, perhaps in half an hour. Raising a level 8 to a level 9 is also fine but may take 5 hrs.
3. I reduces your demand for space and to be honest I'm needing the wholesaler a few times a day already to offload unwanted excess coins and supplies. So you don't need bigger buildings producing more.
4. If you decide to sell a building for whatever reason your losses are not so great if you have a few low level buildings.

 

[Deleted User - 1634960]

Can you replace some Culture Buildings? Each new (non-Premium) Culture Building is a little more economical (more Culture/square) than the earlier ones.

 

[DeletedUser5679]

@foolfighter that sounds like a great, pragmatic building strategy! I like it a lot. I can even say that I de facto already adapted it, but you provide an excellent rational reasoning for keeping it this way. Indeed I'm rarely low on basic resources so I can better dedicate new space to the updating of Manufactories.

 

[DeletedUser]

I would suggest that you look at the wiki to see how big the buildings will get, that way you will be more prepared for the inevitable changes in size.