Agree BP is a real drag. The only way to keep up with the requirements for academy and LPs is to streak for chests, and that in itself is super boring. So I don't see any solution there I don't feel either of those will change. As for your other issues, I really think being in an active guild could help you with some tips for advancing. For example I would advise you to put your PH outside your base. This way you will guarantee yourself a 12 hour shield, and if you are lucky, you may be hit by a streaker who will leave your loot alone, especially if your PR is low. You could also learn more effective farming techniques that would allow you to accumulate several million resources in one play session, to reduce the amount being looted. Those are just two simple things that would change your experience immediately.
Thanks for your reply. I actually do have my ph on the outside, I have for most of the time I've played. It's never re-armed and outside the reach of all defenses but it's surprising how many people leave it or miss it. My rank is super low now, and I have been getting attacked for loot less than usual so that's been helpful. I understand getting attacked is part of the game and don't begrudge people stealing loot as that's what the game is about. I don't expect it will never happen. Losing a few million in a day gets rough though. I will look into better farming techniques and consider finding a guild. Thanks again!
The upcoming PH 11 alongside its upgradable counterparts looks fantastic. The only concern I now have is how much time/creativity is being authorized for such upgrades. I have no doubt that the developers have some great ideas. This was evident through most of the upgrades leading to PH 8. It was during those early days that Midoki also took things a step further and introduced some visually stunning Holiday themes. Unfortunately times have changed and the creative juices that once flourished from a visual perspective now seem limited by development time. Don’t get me wrong here. I understand that a lot of time and resources were used developing the Thunderstruck and the Sir Henry Boggs Challenge. Both are enjoyable in their own way, but the time spent developing them overshadowed the need to improve AI on various Pirates, etc. It also seems to have taken away the creative juices from a visual perspective. One can only wonder if the time would have been better spent on fixing the AI, maintaining the Holiday themes and keeping the visual juices flowing. Other changes such as nerf’ing BP’s from sea voyages, the extreme cost of funding perks, upgrading LP’s, introducing the Loyalty Tokens, etc., has taken away the enjoyment for most. Thus is the reason why so many of us drop rank to farm and streak. It’s a laborious process requiring little skill. As a long time player I stopped purchasing gems as I witnessed the above changes taking place. For me it was a slap on the wrist for the average player and placing the emphasis on players who spend excessive amounts of real money. I suppose it’s those players that keep freemium games active, but at what cost. Even average players can keep the wheels turning if they feel the offerings are reasonable and game play continues to develop/improve. This is how I saw the game during the early days. Back then I didn’t hesitate spending real money to play. I did it because I felt the game play earned it. Perhaps things will now change with the release of the new PH, but sadly I feel were reaching the zenith of continued development. All I can hope for is that I’m wrong. Now I’m left wondering how Midoki might regain loyalty from the average player(s) this far in the development process. TiGeR
Maybe I'm weird, but for me...playing PP is like sex... 1) I like to take my time. Too fast? Too bad... 2) ....and I never...ever...have paid for it...
On a related note, please someone remind me of the BP requirements of the last lot of upgrades. Thanks to upgrading legendaries I have little BP left. Zero BP for PH? Was is 40K for Academy? Voodoo Hutt? Anything else?
I only check in once per day because I have been getting relentlessly attacked over and over again. I cant save resources to do proper upgrading. I made the mistake of upgrading my PH to a max level while my defenses were not. The price to upgrade one piece of wall gets insane and the only time I can save resources is by putting up a shield for a week. That only works so well because I can only do it once every 28 days. I also can't re-arm my defenses because for some reason, we get penalized for upgrading them. If I could drop back to PH 8 or 9, I totally would so that I would actually have a chance at not getting the destroyed 100% message every time I log in.
2) is the problem. Midoki is a company that is here to make money. That is their 1st purpose. Our entertainment and enjoyment of this game is only so that they can make money. If they don't make money, we don't have a game to play. So while everyone here is putting forth ideas for modoki to develop (and thus spend more money ) new ideas to keep the game fresh and fun, you decide to come in and announce with grotesquely misplaced hubris that you never contribute to the game in any real world significant way. You're not a hero bro, you're a leech. The vast majority of the people in this thread have supported this game with actual money to make it worth Midoki's time and money (but mostly money) to keep this game running. You have sponged off of us and our contributions to this game and now you show up expecting to be congratulated and revered? I would tell you how I really feel about you, but I don't want to get kicked from the forums. Maybe you don't have the financial resources to contribute. That's cool; by all means keep playing the game for free. If that is the case though, lose the attitude. You are not playing the game pure. You are not playing the better than the rest of us who are funding your fun. And if that is not the case, if you are more than capable of dropping a few dollars into the game every month or two, then maybe its time to put on your big boy pants and pay your own way. And who knows, maybe if you and the rest of the leeches out on the seas actually contributed your fair share the next update might include features that make the game more fun instead of a desperate grab at my gems.
@ChocolateGiddyUp It an unfortunate reality for many, I encourage our fellow guild members to think twice before upgrading too early. Ensuring they have the ability to attack at that higher level as well as reasonably fend off attackers is a key part in making that decision. There were many that rushed the upgrade just to get access to the larger silo, but lacked to troops to be able to fill it or defend their stores.
Even with a max base you're still going to be losing a good portion of defenses, at least at higher ranks. For loot, bring an army of thieves (I use 60 thieves and 10 gunners) and find bases where the collectors are full, send out 3-4 thieves to take all the collectors (3 can usually take all 7 gold mines, or all 7 distilleries, before cloak breaks, if you deploy them so they each attack a different one) - gunners instead if they're extra exposed or you need to take down a LF with Mack on it. Then let those thieves rehire while you search for your next base. You can get 300k+ profit per battle, and the couple units you use will rehire nearly as fast as you find and beat your next island - they will always be rehiring, but if you really stretch them out, you will fill your stores in one army. If you're impatient and use extra, you'll still make way more than someone can loot off you in one attack. Saving loot is only an issue if you don't have time to farm, but you can easily pull in way more than 5m in an hour-long grind session doing this trick. If you use a couple extra thieves and don't mind throwing a couple gems into rehiring once your army gets low, for about 10 gems you can max all your storage in a bit over an hour, and you can make those 10 gems back sailing. The most loot you can lose in one attack is 1,050,000 from stores (10% of max capacity) and 420k from collectors, and a slight bit from the PH, at their current max levels. With the thief farming method, you will make this back in 5-6 attacks, and you can get 20-40 attacks in with one army, even if you're fairly liberal about thief usage. You will not be able to keep up with how much you lose if you just go off the 12hr shields and collecting from mines/distilleries/exploration, even with one normal 100% attack thrown in when shield breaks. But if you don't fight to win, but rather fight purely to steal resources, it is extremely easy to make much more than you lose, just very tedious and grindy. Luckily you only have to do it once every couple days when your builders free up. You can max out everything completely free if you use this method, it just takes a lot of work. If you use the free gems you earn sailing to rehire those thieves you can do it even faster, but even completely gemfree it is possible. For BP, streaking to 30 for chests, ending, and repeating is the best solution, and the second best is to farm battered chests on western seas. You can pull in 10-20 battered chests a day if you hit all the 1* monsters near the base every chance you get. It takes a bit of dedication, but you'll make 1-2k a day off of it, so in around a month you will be able to do your AC upgrade - this works much better than farming bigger fish btw. Not every battered chest will have BP, but on average, over the hundreds you will farm, you will get around 85 per chest at PH10. Given that you have 2 weeks to build a PH, plus if you're a level behind on academy, another 6 weeks to catch up troops to that level, you can probably save up enough before you're ready for the next upgrade. This game is a long grind tho, expect to take many weeks to progress. If you are hurting for BP and have some cash, a stack of 100 merchant chests will get you around 20-25k bp as well as a ton of materials to upgrade your LP. But I understand that's not an option for most players.
@Skye Thanks for the detailed response. I would be a real son of a silly person to not try it out. As much as I like this game, I have never really spent the time to really learn attack strategy even though it is a huge component to the game. I stayed at lower levels and was never really bothered. When the merger happened, people started attacking and quitting, which pumped up my score to around 500. Then I got pummeled back down to 250 where it kinda leveled out.
Will the new upgrade fix any of the stupid ai I get constantly. Nothing I love more than seeing my gunners try to run 8 miles around a wall they could freaking shoot over. All the troop ai is garbage, not just the WD.
I doubt the upgrade will "fix" the ai. If they're walking around a wall then it means whatever they're aiming at is out of range. Sometimes it's funny what they focus on - it doesn't alway seem logical. I'm always frustrated with the fact that they'll sashay in front of a gun, gun tower or machine gun that's blazing away to get to a distiller or mine. I think it has to do with the "stay on target" programming and what each character "prefers" to attack.
Thanx @Skye for this detailed guide. Me, I prefer 30 thieves and 40 gunners for farming to reach also the collectors that are just behind the wall. And don´t forget to bring Sadie along, she fires across half of the island and if you place her right you maybe able to reach the stores without even using one thief or gunner.
