Serious Game Flaw with Expert Buildings
My name is Texas_Pete (Michael) One of the things I love about this game is "getting inside the numbers" and working the math to find out the most economical way to run my island.
In the course of doing so, I've discovered a serious game flaw that occurs on most of the expert weapons buildings.
If you look at lower level weapons..... there is one thing you will find in common with all of them. They can be purchased in the Trade Office for about the same amount of resource value they can be made with.
In other words, 1000 Iron Swords, cost around 200 game coin (give or take) to buy in the TO, and if you figured the cost of resources to make them, would cost approximately that same 200 coin (or slightly less) to make with the Iron sword smith.
This IS NOT the case with High level weapons!!
If you buy 1000 Crossbows in the TO, it will cost you about 400 coin. (more or less)
However, if you were to produce 1000 crossbows with the crossbowsmith........It costs you a whopping 5400 Coin!!! Almost 14 times more!! And that's only if you keep the crossbowsmith buffed with irma's the full time!!
Try the math yourself.... to make 1000 crossbows cost 16,000 exotic logs (4800 coin) and 6000 Titanium Bars (6000 coin) for a total of 10,800 coin. Buffing with irma's cuts this cost in half to 5400 coin per 1000 crossbows.
By making crossbows 14 times more expensive to make than to buy, you've totally destroyed the value of the crossbowsmith .......... and the incentive to build it and it's supporting buildings!
Mind you, none of this takes into account the massive initial cost of granite and exotic planks to build the building in the first place!
There is nothing more frustrating than spending massive amounts of granite and exotic logs on a building that you have to keep "turned off".
Here's another way to put it: With all the expense of the granite and exotic planks I spent to build my Crossbowsmith and Titanium smelter ......... I could have gone ahead and upgraded almost every other lower level production building on my island instead!! which would have been far more beneficial!
Instead, I'm stuck with 2 meaningless buildings that I keep turned off all the time!!
Even though I haven't run the numbers, I suspect the same is true for the Damacene Swordsmith and Cannon Maker.
Respectfully, the only 3 expert buildings that are worth building in my opinion are:
Exotic Log Sawmill, which buffed, will produce 2000 planks for 1000 logs
Advanced Papermill, to make Codexes
Ornamentalsmith, to make Codexes
All the rest are a complete waste of time and will NEVER repay you for the building and operation cost!
It's simply much easier (and cheaper) to buy the weapons you need in the TO.
Now, there are a few that will argue that you need these buildings to fulfill occasional game and guild quests. But if you look at the paltry reward for game and guild quests and compare it to the staggering amount of cost to build and operate these buildings.......What you get from the quests is almost laughingly insignificant.....if not meaningless!
I'm sure this IS NOT what the game developers intended........ but by awarding High Level Weapons for Adventure loot, you've flooded the market with weapons so cheap, that it has made owning a high level weaponsmith and their supporting buildings (titanium smelter, carpenter, wheel maker, and such) meaningless and unprofitable!
I would be willing to wager that 95% of the Crossbows, Damacene Swords, and Cannons circulating in this game right now were awarded from Adventure loot ...... and the other 5% actually made by the perspective weaponsmith.
There are a couple of ways I can see to remedy this problem.
1. Greatly reduce the amount of resources needed to make these weapons. (least favorite choice)
2. Stop awarding these weapons as part of adventure loot. (most preferable choice)
If the only way to acquire these weapons was to "make them"....or trade with someone who makes them, the prices in the trade office would eventually adjust much more in line to the price in resources required to make these Weapons with the weaponsmith.
The goal would be to make the price of "buying these weapons in the TO about the same as making them yourself", just like the lower level weapons. This, in turn, would make building and operating these buildings meaningful again.
I hope I've been able to explain this well enough that it makes sense.
Now I know there will be some who will "scream bloody murder" at the thought of losing high level weapons from adventure loot. That's to be expected. But doing so would make the game more challenging and rewarding as well as bringing high level weapons buildings back into the game again.
Thanks for your time, and I look forward to your feedback.
Sincerely,
Michael
