Question World Map: Encounter Difficulty

[Jude the Brave]

I have been in this position before, where I have solved all the 'achievable' Provinces surrounding me & the next ring are all 'Hard' or 'Very Hard'. So, not achievable (not by me anyway). So, no scouting, no Encountering, just look every now & again & confirm it is impossible at this stage, other than in a Tournament, to do any Encountering.
Then suddenly, for some reason I don't understand, some of my surrounding Provinces have changed from 'Hard' to 'Easy' & the 'Very Hard' to 'Medium'. So, I can actually do some Encountering again.

Can someone please explain to me, what the 'trigger' is/was, to change the difficulty level down from 'impossible' to 'achievable', & so allow me to be active again on the World Map. As I am now in that position again.
I gather I have to just be patient & wait.
But for what.?

 

[Pauly7]

You most likely completed one or more squad size upgrade researches. If not, then certain Ancient Wonder upgrades could also have affected it.

 

[CrazyWizard]

I have been in this position before, where I have solved all the 'achievable' Provinces surrounding me & the next ring are all 'Hard' or 'Very Hard'. So, not achievable (not by me anyway). So, no scouting, no Encountering, just look every now & again & confirm it is impossible at this stage, other than in a Tournament, to do any Encountering.
Then suddenly, for some reason I don't understand, some of my surrounding Provinces have changed from 'Hard' to 'Easy' & the 'Very Hard' to 'Medium'. So, I can actually do some Encountering again.

Can someone please explain to me, what the 'trigger' is/was, to change the difficulty level down from 'impossible' to 'achievable', & so allow me to be active again on the World Map. As I am now in that position again.
I gather I have to just be patient & wait.
But for what.?

It's indeed squad size research, wonders do not count.
example:
enemy SS = 100
Yours SS = 60

This will be a difficult match

you unlock another SS and add 15 SS

its now 75 vs 100 and that makes it less difficult.

• The SS of the enemy will be is based on how much gold coins the scout will cost.
• How difficult the encounter will be is based on the difference between your SS and the enemies SS.

 

[Pauly7]

wonders do not count.

When the game assesses whether to call a province easy, medium or hard, is it not also looking at factors such as how quickly you are producing troops?

 

[CrazyWizard]

nope, just SS1 vs SS2 nothing else

 

[Sir Derf]

Why would it be easier to win a province encounter if you are able to produce cannon fodder faster?

 

[Pauly7]

Why would it be easier to win a province encounter if you are able to produce cannon fodder faster?

Well it could do, if making more troops made the difference between having the 5 squads to use or not, but I didn't mean just that. Perhaps more pertinent would be the AWs that make the attack power of troops more potent.

nope, just SS1 vs SS2 nothing else

I'll bow to your superior knowledge on that. So really, two people could look at the same province that said "hard", and it could be really easy for one person and impossible for the other.

 

[CrazyWizard]

I'll bow to your superior knowledge on that. So really, two people could look at the same province that said "hard", and it could be really easy for one person and impossible for the other.

How do you consider that?
Making units is not hard, and having a trillion units do not make it possible to win battles.
let me explain:

The enemy can overwhelm you so hard, that even if you would use ork strategist vs bandits (heavy range vs licht range) you will still be slaughtered and don't stand a chance.

It's not a matter of how many recources you can throw at a match,m when it comes to recources you better just negotiate and pay some goods.
It's about how hard a battle actually is.

So a measurement of SS vs SS makes the most basic sense, especially since each units has a "weight" so you do not compare horse riding armoured knights to unarmored peasants with a wooden blunt stick.

So it's like the battle of agincourt where 1500 knights and "peasant" 7000 longbowmen went agains 10.000 knights and 5000 "peasant" something of everything

How difficult would that battle be (ignoring the battle map)
The battle map is a mayor RNG in elvenar that could sometimes make an unwinnable battle, winnable or an battle you can't loose lost.
Just like the battle of Agincourt.

but ignoring terrein, the english would not have stood even the slightest chance. this was then a deep deep deep red elvenar battle.

 

[Pauly7]

How do you consider that?
Making units is not hard, and having a trillion units do not make it possible to win battles.

I understand that, but what I'm saying is that whilst troop numbers don't make much (but sometimes some) difference to whether a fight can be won, the attack power and health of the unit does. So someone going out with a level 30 Sanctuary and a level 30 Needles of the Tempest could potentially find those fights much easier than someone who didn't have those Wonders.

 

[CrazyWizard]

I understand that, but what I'm saying is that whilst troop numbers don't make much (but sometimes some) difference to whether a fight can be won, the attack power and health of the unit does. So someone going out with a level 30 Sanctuary and a level 30 Needles of the Tempest could potentially find those fights much easier than someone who didn't have those Wonders.

true, similar with combat booster buildings.
that is a part you have to factor in yourself.

It would make things way to complicated if you need to incorporate for example a fire phoenix, or a wonder.
Then you need to check and recalculate all the open standing provinces on each time a wonder changes, gets hooked or unhooked form a road connection. constant timing checkups ect.

Now you only make a single change to anything when someone unlocks a research.
and combat buildings/wonders/phoenix can be monitored on opening a battle. this is much less resource intensive and a much sleeker design.

you might have 10.000 troops on the battlefield vs 15.000 enemy troops which would be a difficult battle, but if you have superior science and training (wonders /combat buildings) you might know you can pull it off.

In general every person would say you are weak and should not engage in this battle, but as a commander you can override that decision.
I'll guess this is the difference between "the world map" stated difficulty and the "real difficulty" you figure out as a commander of your army.

the game was also designed in bases as a game with no wonders, combat buildings and phoenixes, to a certain extend it's "legacy code".

 

[Pauly7]

Just to back up what you are saying, I suppose - In my main city all my provinces are now listed as "hard", but I wouldn't think twice about auto-fighting any of them and I don't get significant losses.

 

[Stucon]

When I was in early chapters I had the same thing. Have you moved into a new chapter? That can make a big impact.

 

[Jude the Brave]

Thanks CrazyWizard, for your clear & concise answers with easy to understand examples.
& thanks everyone for a very interesting discussion thread, even though most of it was way above my level.

Yes Stucon, in answer to your query.
I have just entered into Chapter III. So, I have no Ancient Wonders (though I have recently done the Research), & have not yet reached the Research stage where I can train up Heavy Range units, but am currently researching Priest/Mage, so that will be most useful, when I can train them into my fighting lineup.
So, for me, 'Hard' means not only larger opponent SS, but often the opponents have the full range of abilities, whereas I do not (yet).
I did manage to 'gain' a couple of Mage squads with the Winter Magic postboxes, & they are great to use. But as they are not replaceable, I have only used them rarely when nothing else will win me the fight.
I see that there is a SS Upgrade Research in the next column on the Research Tree, so I will definitely be doing that one next.

Cheers & thanks again everyone

 

[Stucon]

It's tough for a chapter, then gets easier (if it follows the same path as me)

 

[Lelanya]

If you just entered chapter 3, then you completed a scout research, and that is why it all got easier.
You know I was thinking some more advanced players might have taken their debate elsewhere rather than confuse you with it, Jude. Lol.

 

[FieryArien]

@Jude the Brave, the Squad Size Upgrade effect and the Advanced Scouts effect might need putting into context now.

What does Advanced Scouts research do? It lowers the cost of scouting provinces. The amount of enemy troops is determined by the cost of scouting the province. It is fixed at the moment you hit the scout button and there is no way to change it.

What does Squad Size Upgrade research do? As was already said, it allows the player to bring more troops to the battle.

So, the conclusion:
- Both researches work for lowering difficulty in the unscouted provinces. (Advanced Scouts reduce enemy numbers; Squad Size upgrades increase your numbers.)
- Only Squad Size upgrade works for lowering difficulty in already scouted provinces. (Because Advanced Scouts don’t have any effect on already scouted provinces.)

PS: Personally, in low chapters (definitely till 4th or 5th) I just catered the provinces, because the fights were often just silly. It gets better after that, because you unlock more troops as well as more stars.

 

[Pauly7]

PS: Personally, in low chapters (definitely till 4th or 5th) I just catered the provinces, because the fights were often just silly. It gets better after that, because you unlock more troops as well as more stars.

I found that when you play through completing all the optional squad size researches then the fighting is easy from the start, so long as you haven't overscouted.

 

[FieryArien]

I found that when you play through completing all the optional squad size researches then the fighting is easy from the start, so long as you haven't overscouted.

At the beginning the rings are very small and there is a jump in difficulty when a player advances to the next ring. Also some troops are completely missing, so a player doesn’t necessary have the counter unit. And for elves (as I was in my last city) it doesn’t matter if the barracks mage unit is available or not - it sucks the same either way. ;-)

It helped, when I always did the provinces near the end in these early chapters, when all squad size upgrades for the chapter were available. But that requires me to stockpile units (and rather also goods) and usually some event sabotages the plan anyway ...

 

[Gargon667]

nope, just SS1 vs SS2 nothing else

you forgot the advanced scout research techs

 

[Gargon667]

Basically there are 3 things affecting difficulty of map provinces:
- distance from your city (which is obviously fixed and you can do nothing about)
- number of advanced scouts (which reduces your enemy numbers and terefore also reduces negotiation costs)
- SS (which increases your own numbers, but does nothing to your enemy numbers)

Actually now that I think about it there is something else. Please correct me if I´m wrong:

Now the base determining factor is the gold cost of scouting right? Which is directly proportional to scouting time. But it should then also be the underlying factor for enemy troops (which then determines negotiation costs). Am I right so far? If not, enemy number calculation would have to be completely separate from gold/time calculation?

If that is true then enemy numbers will go up a tiny bit after every completed scout (or if rounding is done before determining enemy numbers, then every couple of scouts when the gold costs is increased). Because gold costs goes up slowly even if you keep scouting in the same ring.
so there would be another factor determining enemy numbers:

- number of scouted provinces