GUIDE TO: Buff partners

When I started playing this game I was constantly troubled trying to find a good buffing partner in this game. There were people who buffed a few buildings once a day, didn't say anything then stopped after a couple days. People who needed to be told exactly what to buff all the time. All kinds of other weird stuff as well.

Im gonna state for the record what a perfect buffer is like.

1) You have a large supply of fisheries capable of buffing every building in your own town throughout the day. Not saying you should buff yourself, just that you should have enough fisheries to be able to buff yourself.

2) Avoid self buffing.

3) Try to buff intelligent targets. Clearly an iron weaponsmith should be buffed before a farm, same with a level 3 hardwood sawmill. You shouldn't need to be told what needs buffing

4) you should only dictate what needs buffing if you really need an odd resource like wheat which you are running out of. Oh and please don't assume that I need it buffed every time just because I said it once. Buff instructions should be a 1 time deal unless otherwise stated.

5) You spend a lot of time in front of a computer. Obviously the most valuable part of being a good buffer, but since it can't really be expected of people you have to make due with a large amount of buffers.

6) You should be able to buff people without being asked.

7) Tell the other player exactly how many plates you buffed him. Do this through mail since this game disconnects people all the time.

8) Tell the other player that you repaid his buff. Through mail if you don't get a response through whisper.

9) Please be clear about the context of the buff, there is a big difference between "buffed you 25 plates", and "repaid your buff of 25 plates"

10) Buff back EVERY single plate that you were buffed. Trust is important in this game. Don't screw up a good buff partner over a couple of fishplates....


Since I am on the topic of buffing I my as well talk about sandwiches and baskets.

NOTE: You should discuss in detail where your buffing partner should put sandwiches and baskets.

Sandwiches, should be used on 4 or 5 of your most valuable buildings. The idea is its a more reliable buff, if the other guy isn't on for 15 minutes after your fishplates wear off, the sandwich will still be on. Otherwise its for when you will be offline for a long period of time. More of a "hold me over" until you can build baskets.

Baskets, only good for the overnight buff. Build as many as you can a day, by the time you can build them, there should be LOTS of good places for you to put them before you go to bed.

So, the guide in general is okay, but:
If you are buffing my island in return for buffs I did for you, do not willy nilly buff where you please. Buffing my sleeping level 2 smelter, then the level 1 is operational (and yes I see it all the time) is ridiculous. I will tell you exactly what I need, when I need it. If you are buffing just cause...then feel free to light the island up.
This may be different for DarkD, but most higher level players, do not what you just to buff whatever.

Well duh don't buff a sleeping thing. I got a buff partner who inspects my marble deposits before buffing my marble masons. Come up with a better example because if you really need me to tell you not to buff a sleeping building or a farm with dead wheat fields, then you shouldn't be my buffing partner....

Furthermore, unless you have your village buffed as completely as humanly possible, you are missing out big time on resources. Pretty much every building in my kingdom is level 3 except for some tier 3 buildings like longbowmakers, hardwood sawmills, etc. If everything is buffed I make a huge amount of resources. And this is a game where I can trade 30 iron swords for 200 hardwood planks, or as demacia and glennwood have demonstrated 400 horses for 200 gold. Heck, simply having my firwood cutters buffed all day long, allows me to run my operation with a shortage of firwood cutters because by the end of the day I have a backlog of firwood logs.

Explaining all the nitpicky details just slows the whole operation down. I have 6 level 3 fisheries, and I don't have time to tell you what to buff because quite literally I have enough fish to buff everything **** near 100% of the time that i'm awake.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by DarkD

[snip] or as demacia and glennwood have demonstrated 400 horses for 200 gold. [snip]

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This won't last long at all. No horse is worth half a gold coin. Water is an "unlimited" resource, and wheat is nearly a dime a dozen. Anyone who actually understands the value of things will soon realize this is a huge rip off. Just because you built a building that cost 1000 Hardwood, doesn't make every single thing you ever produce from that building to include the cost. People are selling 400HW for 20ish Gold, which makes one sale of 400 at 200 coins pay back the building plus interest almost fivefold.

This is the perfect example of taking advantage of people who do not know any better, and offering one-sided trades to benefit one's own self at the expense of you, the unknowing consumer. So to anyone out there who hasn't already, don't let yourself be taken advantage of with unfair trades.

Don't mean to derail your topic I'm just extremely passionate about these people who are continuing to rip others off and then convincing others that it is the way it should be, or that it is the norm, when it is not. As demonstrated by your post by saying people have demonstrated that this is the way to go, it is not. It's creating an elitist attitude and false inflation on certain resources that aren't worth as much as people put them out to be. Yeah, everything is worth what it's purchaser will pay for it and whatever. But this is like counterfeiting dollar bills and trying to sell them to people for $2.

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Originally Posted by Keranik

This won't last long at all. No horse is worth half a gold coin. Water is an "unlimited" resource, and wheat is nearly a dime a dozen. Anyone who actually understands the value of things will soon realize this is a huge rip off. Just because you built a building that cost 1000 Hardwood, doesn't make every single thing you ever produce from that building to include the cost. People are selling 400HW for 20ish Gold, which makes one sale of 400 at 200 coins pay back the building plus interest almost fivefold.

This is the perfect example of taking advantage of people who do not know any better, and offering one-sided trades to benefit one's own self at the expense of you, the unknowing consumer. So to anyone out there who hasn't already, don't let yourself be taken advantage of with unfair trades.

Don't mean to derail your topic I'm just extremely passionate about these people who are continuing to rip others off and then convincing others that it is the way it should be, or that it is the norm, when it is not. As demonstrated by your post by saying people have demonstrated that this is the way to go, it is not. It's creating an elitist attitude and false inflation on certain resources that aren't worth as much as people put them out to be. Yeah, everything is worth what it's purchaser will pay for it and whatever. But this is like counterfeiting dollar bills and trying to sell them to people for $2.

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To play devil's advocate, the prices are like they are because people keep on accepting them. Yes, there's a lot of one sided trades up there, but while you think it's people taking advantage of others, I think that at some point personal responsibility comes into play, and you should do some searching to make sure the deal you're about to accept is worth it. If you come into a game blindly without knowing how coins are gotten, then yes, you will most likely make mistakes (and before anyone makes any accusations about me defending one sided trades, you can sit down. I personally rarely put up any trades to the market, much less one sided ones).

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Originally Posted by Cenzton

To play devil's advocate, the prices are like they are because people keep on accepting them. Yes, there's a lot of one sided trades up there, but while you think it's people taking advantage of others, I think that at some point personal responsibility comes into play, and you should do some searching to make sure the deal you're about to accept is worth it. If you come into a game blindly without knowing how coins are gotten, then yes, you will most likely make mistakes (and before anyone makes any accusations about me defending one sided trades, you can sit down. I personally rarely put up any trades to the market, much less one sided ones).

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The funny thing is, I absolutely agree with you in almost every way. I just felt the need to educate the people who keep buying this crap because once they actually realize, its going to be too late. I'm trying to help people from making the same mistakes. And the people who are making these one sided trades are doing it knowing they would never themselves accept it. To me, that's taking advantage.

There is a thing in real life called Fair Market Value, and I was destroyed in chat earlier for mentioning it. It's the value of an item when two people are reasonable, knowing and willing to trade and not under any sort of pressure or self motivated intention. I believe that kind of trading can happen in this game, and those are the people that I would like to trade with. If I have 400 horses and you offer to buy them from me for 200 Coins, I'm not going to do it, I will not let another person pay what I feel is more than FMV. FMV does not base itself necessarily on supply and demand or other extraneous circumstance. I just wanted to bring to the attention of these people BEFORE they make the mistake of trading away all their coins for water and wheat.

It sure makes a difference when you have 6 friends sending you stuff, too.

At this point I would compare them to drug dealers, there are enough people buying them and enough people willing to cheat them that the moment that the moment one person stops doing it, another person starts. There are threads dedicated to what you're saying, but not enough people read the forum to learn it. The best countermeasure against unfair trades is to start undercutting the price yourself. If there is enough competition in the area then the price will drop to almost fair market value. Look at marble for example. Right now (gold:marble) in the market marble sells for 1:4 as a high and 1:10 as a low. It used to be a high of 2:1 when the trade center first came out and a low of 1:2.

If you honestly want to stop unfair deals, then making threads like this is nice and the same can be said for posting messages warning people in the global chat, but the best solution I can offer is to get in there yourself and kill the market value by flooding the market.

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Originally Posted by DarkD

At this point I would compare them to drug dealers, there are enough people buying them and enough people willing to cheat them that the moment that the moment one person stops doing it, another person starts. There are threads dedicated to what you're saying, but not enough people read the forum to learn it. The best countermeasure against unfair trades is to start undercutting the price yourself. If there is enough competition in the area then the price will drop to almost fair market value. Look at marble for example. Right now (gold:marble) in the market marble sells for 1:4 as a high and 1:10 as a low. It used to be a high of 2:1 when the trade center first came out and a low of 1:2.

If you honestly want to stop unfair deals, then making threads like this is nice and the same can be said for posting messages warning people in the global chat, but the best solution I can offer is to get in there yourself and kill the market value by flooding the market.

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Sorry for hi-jacking your thread :(

So back to the purpose of the thread.
Personal play preference should not be a user's guide. Best always to ask your "buffing partner" how they want to handle the swaps. Also, I would be curious to see how many players make fish plates once they get to baskets?

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Originally Posted by DarkD

At this point I would compare them to drug dealers.

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lol from cheater to Colombian drug lord. I am Demacia and I approve this message.

PS: i like you Darkd.

Baskets are ridiculously expensive. Unless you wanna switch to casual play and log in once a day then there is no reason to switch from fishplates to baskets.

LadyTerra, in your preference are your buildings buffed almost every minute that you and your buff partner are awake like mine are? My way has gotten me **** good results. Im not saying to stop all buffing instructions, but they shouldn't be dependent on them.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by LadyTerra

So back to the purpose of the thread.
Personal play preference should not be a user's guide. Best always to ask your "buffing partner" how they want to handle the swaps. Also, I would be curious to see how many players make fish plates once they get to baskets?

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I think this was a very well written thread and also quite relevant and speaks for itself. You shouldnt need to tell buff partners where to put the plethoras of fish plates each time as it becomes too much of a hassle and redundant. fyi, I still make plates and always will cause they are the most cost effective considering 1 sandwich for duration equals 4 plates yet the sandwich costs the same amount of fish plus bread. Personally I stopped making sandwiches once I could make baskets so I can use ALL my bread for settlers and fish food, and the main reason I made them to begin with was when I was gonna be offline for a while so baskets now took that place and really come in handy swapping them before I go to sleep and before I go to work :)

In closing I'd still like to say that IMHO fish plates are still the most important, and really still should be for anyone that actively plays the game since they are cheaper to make and you can self buff yourself the whole time you are on if needbe and/or have buff partners swap as they can. But a good buff partner will check depositis, fields, etc before buffing and not buff less important things like forestors, wells, etc cause thats what this thread is about, A GOOD BUFF PARTNER... not a noob that needs to be told where to put every last plate and just waste time like you need to train them every day.