About those village schools...

Two months ago, when the village schools were offered in the X-mas event, many people asked which items they should prioritize. The universal answer was the schools are last, as they would give only 1 person every 2 hours, or a total of 12 a day. As it would take a significant number of schools just to increase the basic rate enough to see a difference, it was not a reasonable investment.

On behalf of myself and everyone else who gave this advice, I am sorry. In the latest test server patch, these school were made upgrade-able. The school now is linked to the storehouse, which does increase the travel time, but not a significant amount compared to the 2 hour cycle time. However, the number of settlers does increase with each level, making a potential 5 settlers every 2 hours, or 60 settlers a day. Each 8 levels of schools can double the basic rate of settler recruitment.

As this was not known at the time of the event where extra schools were available, perhaps Blue Byte would be able to add them in with another event in the future (hint: Easter). This would give people the chance to get the extra ones without waiting another year.

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Originally Posted by aurboth

Two months ago, when the village schools were offered in the X-mas event, many people asked which items they should prioritize. The universal answer was the schools are last, as they would give only 1 person every 2 hours, or a total of 12 a day. As it would take a significant number of schools just to increase the basic rate enough to see a difference, it was not a reasonable investment.

On behalf of myself and everyone else who gave this advice, I am sorry. In the latest test server patch, these school were made upgrade-able. The school now is linked to the storehouse, which does increase the travel time, but not a significant amount compared to the 2 hour cycle time. However, the number of settlers does increase with each level, making a potential 5 settlers every 2 hours, or 60 settlers a day. Each 8 levels of schools can double the basic rate of settler recruitment.

As this was not known at the time of the event where extra schools were available, perhaps Blue Byte would be able to add them in with another event in the future (hint: Easter). This would give people the chance to get the extra ones without waiting another year.

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yes i agree - allowing a building that cant be upgraded later to be upgraded is very annoying to those of us that skipped the building and the building is limited quantity - meaning we likely forever missed out on some.

Aurboth, not your fault. We can only go based on the info available at the time. I'm guessing the leveling was added after listening to all the negative feedback about how useless the building was. Good news for those who took a chance on it. :) And yes, I think they should offer it again in another event.

Count me as one of those who advised that it should be the last building to get. I had 3 of them from previous events and (at the time) was sorry I had ever gotten them. :(

upgradable and buffable now yes would have been nice to have seen something about that in the dev diaries. TY BBs

Well, isn't one of the reasons we play games is for intellectual stimulation, intrigue, challenge? So they threw a monkey wrench in. Advantage to those who got them, disadvantage to those who didn't. Challenge now is to figure out how to get them :)

Well that is a bit of good fortune for me.

should give an option for those that did not purchase at event - to purchase those ones for beans (people that already had event ones - nothing).

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Originally Posted by Draconus2004

should give an option for those that did not purchase at event - to purchase those ones for beans (people that already had event ones - nothing).

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I can understand how people got upset about this, but it is hardly fair to now punish those that did buy them upfront. Those that bought these schools did also lose out on not getting other things, now BB is going to come along and tell them it was all for nothing anyway ?

You honestly can't blame the BB's for not giving out a future Dev diary on Village Schools being upgradable 2 years later, That isn't fair for them. Many people have 6 Village Schools because they wanted them and thought they will be helpful in population. I don't even think they were planning at all to have the Village Schools to be upgraded until now.

All I see here is now that the Village Schools has a purpose and you by having 6 Village schools able to get to level 5 and saving 10,000 Bread is that all of a sudden you want to complain because you didn't buy them in the past and wanting to put the blame on the BB's for it. They only recently thought and probably decided to make the Village Schools upgradable, well in the past it wasn't. The Dev team in germany only tells the BB's here so much on what is being Develop and what not.

The ability to upgrade a non-upgradable building is unprecedented. thus - special considerations are needed given this is a LIMITED item. forever at a disadvantage because they changed their word.

I am sorry if my original post could be implied that I believe negative action should be taken towards anyone who did buy it, nor was it to be implied that the company representatives who work with us should be held at fault for the change. However, many people did make their decision on where to spend their event currency in relation to this item, and the people who are looked to for advice, and referring to players, not moderators, gave the advice that would still be given had there not been a dramatic change in the structure of the building.

Since there was a change, if Blue Byte wanted to ameliorate some of the negativity that will occur when the improved schools do finally reach the playing environment, one solution could be to add them back into an upcoming event, purchasable for the event currency. I would suggest that the limit of the building be shared with the previous event; this should not penalize anyone who purchased the buildings before. One foreseeable problem would be the increased demand of event currency, as there would be more things of value to be purchased. However, people will have the opportunity to purchase event currency, as with all previous events, and would have the option of spending more on this event where they may not have made that decision on the previous. It might even generate some extra revenue, which would be an added bonus to the positive public relations of giving players a second chance to get something that they missed before.

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Originally Posted by Draconus2004

The ability to upgrade a non-upgradable building is unprecedented. thus - special considerations are needed given this is a LIMITED item. forever at a disadvantage because they changed their word.

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I don't know that I completely agree with this. When the Provision House & Barracks debuted, there was no way to buf them to improve their performance. That was added later. I know that's not completely the same thing, but there are similarities. Some functionality was released, and at a later time, improved. Big deal. I guess the alternative would be to let things stagnate, but we'd probably hear complaints about that too.

I am not sure of the parallelism between the barracks / provision house and the village schools changes. The former are fairly integral to the game and created as part of the normal process of playing. You can obtain exactly one of each, and you can't lose the opportunity to get them. The event village schools are special purchase and will not recur in game until October, assuming they use the same event products again; and even then people will have really missed their chance for the previous ones. The most important change is that what was generally acknowledged as a fairly useless building, which no one who can look at the mathematics involve would buy, is now a very reasonable, even desirable, product to buy. And effectively penalizing thoughtful players who otherwise would spend money on the game is not a good marketing practice.

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Originally Posted by aurboth

I am not sure of the parallelism between the barracks / provision house and the village schools changes. The former are fairly integral to the game and created as part of the normal process of playing. You can obtain exactly one of each, and you can't lose the opportunity to get them.

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Not entirely true. Ever sense 2011, The Game play between the Barracks and Provision house has changed.

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Originally Posted by aurboth

I am not sure of the parallelism between the barracks / provision house and the village schools changes. The former are fairly integral to the game and created as part of the normal process of playing. You can obtain exactly one of each, and you can't lose the opportunity to get them. The event village schools are special purchase and will not recur in game until October, assuming they use the same event products again; and even then people will have really missed their chance for the previous ones. The most important change is that what was generally acknowledged as a fairly useless building, which no one who can look at the mathematics involve would buy, is now a very reasonable, even desirable, product to buy. And effectively penalizing thoughtful players who otherwise would spend money on the game is not a good marketing practice.

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I'm pretty darn good at math, and I own these buildings. A good number of people own so these buildings as well. It may be recalculate your understanding of people may or may not do.

As to the the basic theme of the thread, I understand your grievance, but I don't agree with it. The game evolves, it's different in many ways from when I started 2.5 years ago. Make decisions based on what you know, and move on. Adapt as things change. Just not that big a deal.

Furthermore, as there's no competition between you and me, or anyone else in the game, there's no concept of penalty. We just end up with different islands. Which, we already had.

It was a toss-up for me between Silo's and Schools, I ended up buying schools because I figured I could always trade for Silo's later. Got lucky there. Happy to hear that Schools will eventually be upgrade-able, It would be great if they were made trade-able as well.

As someone that never picked up a school, I'm okay with this. I can still get 3, and it's not like we'll ever get PvP. Given that this can have a large effect on the whole bread chain, they probably may need to up the leveling costs though.

Perhaps an easier solution would be to simply classify the new version of the schools as a new building, in the same way that the enhanced silo is a new building with the same purpose. It would prevent bugs from occurring when attempting to change one existing building to another, something that was not really possible in test. Those who purchased buildings in the past would get the same functionality as they always have, so they would not lose anything in the same way that those who have silos now do not lose by a more efficient version being available. Blue Byte would also be able to sell the newer schools to everyone who wanted one, which would compensate for people not being able to buy extras.

The patch notes from the last maintenance said that village schools were now upgradable. No upgrade is possible on the school I own. I also tried demolishing and rebuilding it. Is this a bug or are the upgrades only available on schools purchased after the applicable maintenance?

nice win win situation offer, I missed the christmass event and now I want the gold tower at least, if it is possible other stuff as well on the next event :)

I started playing during the Halloween event. I did some research about the village school before diving in, as it was the first "big" item I bought. Half the people were saying it was not worth it. I'm glad I did not listen to that half. Still, I was only able to afford 1, so it would nice to have more.

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Originally Posted by CL_Aurboth

Two months ago, when the village schools were offered in the X-mas event, many people asked which items they should prioritize. The universal answer was the schools are last, as they would give only 1 person every 2 hours, or a total of 12 a day. As it would take a significant number of schools just to increase the basic rate enough to see a difference, it was not a reasonable investment.

On behalf of myself and everyone else who gave this advice, I am sorry. In the latest test server patch, these school were made upgrade-able. The school now is linked to the storehouse, which does increase the travel time, but not a significant amount compared to the 2 hour cycle time. However, the number of settlers does increase with each level, making a potential 5 settlers every 2 hours, or 60 settlers a day. Each 8 levels of schools can double the basic rate of settler recruitment.

As this was not known at the time of the event where extra schools were available, perhaps Blue Byte would be able to add them in with another event in the future (hint: Easter). This would give people the chance to get the extra ones without waiting another year.

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Most likely because I didn't do the event the right way, all I could afford during the Halloween event was ONE silo. Let alone a Village School or even improved warehouse.

If it wasn't the appeal of having a Silo, I would've gotten an improved warehouse.

So I for one (not being in the forums during the time), definitely don't blame anyone, I would've loved a village school, since now it is upgradeable, but even so, I didn't even have enough for anything really last Halloween.

I don't know what happened during Christmas, but I was definitely able to get everything I wanted from the Christmas event, Halloween not so much. And I pray that I can do the Easter Event with everything I would like.

If anything, I'd blame the fact, Pumpkins were so rare during the Halloween. Maybe because I was at a lower level, but presents were easier to get, and I think Easter Eggs are easy to get as well. But Pumpkins, that's one rare commodity that was hard to get, otherwise I would've gotten all three. One village school, One Improved Warehouse, One Silo. Hopefully next year, your explorers can get quite a bit of pumpkins.

is it possible to sell the village school? I dismantled it and it appears in the star menu, but doesn't come up when i try and list it...
Craig.

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Originally Posted by cransam

is it possible to sell the village school? I dismantled it and it appears in the star menu, but doesn't come up when i try and list it...
Craig.

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nope not tradable you're stuck with it in star

Got my first school at the event put my calculator to use and crunched few numbers. I liked what I saw then and bought 5 more from shop. Back then 72 settlers a day didn't look so spectacular, but when I x30 days it made a difference. The schools meant a free RB run every 9 days.

Now I have a free RB run every 2.5 days. :) And that's without buffing the schools:)

i don't have the patience for them i got the 3 from this event and ran a few BNs and it's just way too slow for me. i guess if all you do is LSs or maybe 1-2 adventures a week they are great but do 5-7 RBs or 10 BNs a day and they just take up space

My village schools are good complement to the usual bread settlers. Can't complain. They are at level 5 though. I won't have space for this year's schools.

If you are not convinced that schools are a good investment,here is the math to convince you that Village Schools are indeed a good investment now that they are upgradeable.

:rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by Breathless

If you are not convinced that schools are a good investment,here is the math to convince you that Village Schools are indeed a good investment now that they are upgradeable.

:cannoneer:

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Can you do that now for every chain? Even i can follow that chart :)

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Originally Posted by Karpatheia

Can you do that now for every chain? Even i can follow that chart :)

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your :settler: can make :bread: and then make more :settler: so you can arm them with :bronzesword: so they can kill making :coin: saving you a lot of :gem::gem::gem: making you very :)

Lmao..an lookie you getting all fancy and stuff

It's a simplified version that doesn't take into account the time to produce the included items, multiples of each building type, and the cost of each type of resource, but rather compares the number of spaces and building licenses used. I did do something similar for the improved silo, though.

Awesome comparison :) Thanks for your work:) Could you post a link to your silo sheet? I would like to see it

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Originally Posted by Troll-Phu

your :settler: can make :bread: and then make more :settler: so you can arm them with :bronzesword: so they can kill making :coin: saving you a lot of :gem::gem::gem: making you very :)

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That's cute. :)

The Improved Silo Diagram is here. (Note that it is designed to work WITH your existing silos.)

http://forum.thesettlersonline.net/t...921#post242921

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Originally Posted by Breathless

If you are not convinced that schools are a good investment,here is the math to convince you that Village Schools are indeed a good investment now that they are upgradeable.

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I don't quite understand why do you include residences and provision house to the license count. You will need one provision house anyway and residences for your settlers produced at schools. Otherwise I agreed with your calculations.

On the other hand I'm not quite convinced yet that I should upgrade schools from level 4 to level 5. At current market prices the value for the materials is 3000 gc or 100 000 bread. With that bread you can make 4000 settlers. School upgrade increase production by 12 settlers/day. Payback time is 333 days, if I calculated correctly.

You can figure your own math any way you like. That's how I calculate it for my purposes. My economy is based on adventures, :general: so granite :granite: is not expensive to me, but space is at a premium on my island. If your economy is based on fish, :fish: by all means, get the Fish Farms.

One of my guildmates produces nothing but Bronze Swords. :bronzesword: His economy is copper-based. :copperore: He does not adventure. A schoolhouse is worthless to him.

The Village School math applies to economies that are battle-based. Obviously, if you don't recycle your recruits fairly frequently, you don't need it.

In regards to the housing licenses, There appears to be some unintended behavior relating to the Village Schools. Prior to the event, I had Six level-5 Village Schools, producing a total of 360 settlers per day. :settler: Every day when I log in, there are about 200 settlers waiting to be assigned tasks. If I happen to log out with my population at its maximum level, there are no settlers waiting for me, but as soon as I kill some off, the waiting settlers magically queue up!

Without Village Schools, that behavior does not happen. :cool:

I have one village school, which is all I need for now, and it is very helpful. But I'm planning on grabbing 3 of them anyway just in case. No sense passing up limited items.

Same with the fish farms. I'm not sure I actually need them, but I'll grab a few anyway.

For that matter, I don't have any use for the grim reaper either, but I plan to get him, too.

Fish farms are making fish for nothing. There is no need to make fish food, no need to watch them, or maintain them. Put them up, upgrade and that's all you got to do to get your fish. And they also save you Build Lic. With the expansion islands around the corner every BL saved by shop/event/gem bought item will count. We don't know if BB will raise the BL limit (certainly hope so), but even if they do that will cost gems.

Fish farms are not necessity, but a very useful utility saving you BL's. 3 (or more if you buy extra) building that don't need anything from me to do. Thank you BB, we appreciate it :)