It's almost upon us! And contrary to what some people would have you believe, it's great news for the lazy player. No more roads (and thus less limitation on how to lazily evolve your settlement) and more ability to focus on the rewards you want (instead of a little bit of everything).
I will update this post with in-game screenshots instead of spreadsheet layouts next week as I play through this plan on a world or two.
Prerequisites and General Strategy
So the starting point is going to be an assumption that you're in a solo guild with no QI support at all provided by your city. The concept also can be adapted if you're in a guild that clears the bosses and gets you to the farming nodes (actually even easier then as you don't need to make goods; just donate coins and supplies); but the in-between situation where you're in a guild that finishes the early donation nodes but doesn't open the farming nodes will be a struggle.
Because of the nature of QI, you're going to want to be online twice a day between 10 and 14 hours apart. This allows you 2 collections a day and, barring a whole lot of bonus AP production, an ability to always spend before you get capped.
Skip the middle tier of production buildings because the (current) need to be online and visit your settlement an hour after you start construction to get full benefit is positively unlazy. Rather save up enough Alloy to jump from T1 to T3. Their 10 hour constructions fit with the collection schedule.
You'll need 450 Quantum Shards per round for 3 expansions. And hopefully no more than 35 Quantum Shards on impediment removal (at least 1 of the 3 expansions needs to be naturally impediment free). This only gives you 1 round per championship guaranteed (we start with 500 free QS), but should be sustainable if you actually play to the extent discussed here (on average you need to exceed ~2300 personal progress to make back 500 shards over the round and should be making a bit over 4000). You can use extra shards to open chests after the last round of the championship I decide to play.
Select rope as one goods type as it's the smallest building. Troop donations are no longer a thing and will be ignored (Fighting is better, but needs some support from the main city to be smooth - and still takes more clicking).
When donating coins or supplies, try to keep them roughly balanced. Initially this will mean donating supplies. Later on it will mean donating coins and only using supplies to make goods.
Settlement Layout
3 initial expansions should all go on one of the two short edges of your settlement to make a slightly larger rectangle. Much of the settlement can be viewed as 6x6 sections:
The highlighted 6x6 sections can be either 4 3x3s or 9 2x2s. As the most common sizes of building, this gives you good flexibility to evolve the settlement as it progresses. When it comes to adding 4x3 bakeries, they'll either go side by side in pairs to make 4x6 sections or one atop the other in triples to make 12x3 sections with 4 3x3s beside them for a 12x6 section (i.e. 2 6x6 sections).
Extra expansions can go anywhere in moderate amounts as dedicated 2x2 space (you'll always have some 2x2s).
The Play
Initially build the following:
- 7x Estate House, 1x Mansion, 1x Multistorey House (480 Population)
- 6x Church (960 Euphoria)
- 7x Tannery, 5x Brewery (360 Population Demand)
Production:
- 330 Alloy Production
- 188,750 Coins ((3750 * 7 + 7500 + 12500) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 7 + 0.1) + 50000)
- 320,000 Supplies ((12000 * 7 + 4800 * 5) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 5))
By the 2nd collection you'll have 660 Alloy and can spend 500 Alloy on a Doctor. This can replace all 6 of the Churches and then some. Switch houses to higher population ones providing more population in a better coin production configuration, and use the freed up space on supply buildings. New building list:
- 3x Estate House, 1x Mansion, 5x Multistorey House (560 Population)
- 1x Doctor (1125 Euphoria)
- 8x Tannery, 9x Brewery (510 Population Demand)
Production:
- 405 Alloy Production
- 228,750 Coins ((3750 * 3 + 7500 + 12500 * 5) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 3 + 0.1) + 50000)
- 509,360 Supplies ((12000*8 + 4800 * 9) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 9)) + 50000)
On the 3rd collection you'll have 565 Alloy and can spend 500 Alloy on a 2nd Doctor in order to afford additional coin production and the population for a Ropery. Sell 1 Tannery, and 4 Brewery to make space, and 1 Mansion for a better mix of houses. In the opened space, place 1 Doctor, 1 Ropery, 4 Estate Houses, and 3 Multistorey Houses. New building list:
- 8x Estate House, 8x Multistorey House (960 Population)
- 2x Doctor (2250 Euphoria)
- 7x Tannery, 5x Brewery, 1x Ropery (460 Population Demand)
- 435 Alloy Production
- 453,000 Coins ((3750 * 8 + 12500 * 8) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 8) + 50000)
- 320,000 Supplies ((12000 * 7 + 4800 * 5) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 5) + 50000)
On the 6th collection you'll have 1370 Alloy and can spend 1000 Alloy on a Clapboard House. Buy 2 expansions with goods at this point - any expansions without impediments are acceptable - they're being used to hold some houses to make room for additional supply buildings at the same time. Sell off 2 Multistorey Houses, move 8 houses (or 6 houses + the ropery) to the extra expansions, and build 1 Clapboard House, 4 Breweries in the vacated space. New building list:
- 1x Clapboard House, 8x Estate House, 6x Multistorey House (970 Population)
- 2x Doctor (2250 Euphoria)
- 7x Tannery, 9x Brewery, 1x Ropery (580 Population Demand)
Production (Clapboard House not yet active):
- 465 Alloy Production
- 375,500 Coins ((3750 * 8 + 12500 * 6) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 8) + 50000)
- 469,760 Supplies ((12000 * 7 + 4800 * 9) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 9) + 50000)
On the 7th collection swap out remaining Multistorey Houses for Estate Houses to boost your Clapboard House's production next collection:
- 1x Clapboard House, 14x Estate House (850 Population)
- 2x Doctor (2250 Euphoria)
- 7x Tannery, 9x Brewery, 1x Ropery (580 Population Demand)
Production:
- 840 Alloy Production
- 834,750 Coins ((130000 + 3750 * 14) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 14) + 50000)
- 469,760 Supplies
On the 8th collection you'll now have 1675 Alloy and can build a Bakery. Sell off 4 Tannery in a block and replace them with 1 Bakery. Move over the Ropery. Build 1 Church. Build 4 new estate houses. New building list:
- 1x Clapboard House, 18x Estate House (1050 Population)
- 2x Doctor (2250 Euphoria)
- 1x Bakery, 4x Tannery, 9x Brewery, 1x Ropery (610 Population Demand)
Production:
- 855 Alloy Production
- 1,057,250 Coins ((130000 + 3750 * 18) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 18) + 50000)
- 300,960 Supplies ((12000 * 4 + 4800 * 9) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 9) + 50000)
On the 9th collection you'll now have 1530 Alloy and can build a second Bakery. Sell a Tannery and an Estate House to make room. New building list:
- 1x Clapboard House, 17x Estate House (1000 Population)
- 2x Doctor (2250 Euphoria)
- 2x Bakery, 3x Tannery, 9x Brewery, 1x Ropery (700 Population Demand)
My next production will be (2nd Bakery not yet active):
- 1200 Alloy Production
- 999,375 Coins ((130000 + 3750 * 17) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 17) + 50000)
- 509,360 Supplies ((60000 + 12000 * 3 + 4800 * 9) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 9) + 50000)
On the 10th Collection you'll now have 1730 Alloy. Sell an Estate House and build a 2nd Clapboard House. Switch remaining Tanneries for Breweries. New building list:
- 2x Clapboard House, 16x Estate House (1100 Population)
- 2x Doctor (2250 Euphoria)
- 2x Bakery, 12x Brewery, 1x Ropery (700 Population Demand)
Production (2nd Clapboard not yet active):
- 1560 Alloy Production
- 893,000 Coins ((130000 + 3750 * 16) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 16) + 50000)
- 742,640 Supplies ((60000 * 2 + 4800 * 12) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 12) + 50000)
All further productions with no more modifications will be:
- 1935 Alloy Production
- 1,554,000 Coins ((130,000 * 2 + 3,750 * 16) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 16) + 50,000)
- 742,640 Supplies ((60,000 * 2 + 4,800 * 12) * (1.5 + 0.2 * 12) + 50,000)
This is already more than sufficient to keep up on day 11/12 donation costs at 5,600 AP/hr (where this settlement is currently at with no effect from main city). You could continue to build into higher AP/hr by constructing additional euphoria buildings. This may require additional coin/supply scaling as well if taken far enough.
Further Optimisation
This build order was chosen for specifically lazy play and pure donation to be accessible to even the least developed city without complicated collection procedures. You can relieve strain on coins/supplies by fighting early, especially with support from your main city. This in turn makes optimizing for alloy production more important as it's the core limiter to build up your city further, no matter how much help from your main city you have.
Euphoria, which was upgraded first in this example, is the slowest return on Alloy - often requiring 5 or more collections to repay the Alloy you put into it. Furthermore you can temporarily build T1 houses or supply buildings that you collect at less than full euphoria and then sell and build Churches in their place for additional Alloy while building up to full Euphoria for your main collection. As such, if you want to put more effort into it, euphoria should be postponed. Pillory is also the more space-efficient (both in terms of AP/hr/tile and Culture/tile) and if you've gotten your Alloy production sorted first, you may as well jump straight to that instead of Doctors (which are more Alloy-efficient, but less space-efficient)).
I will write-up a plan for my main city before the feature goes live on Thursday, involving more extreme optimisations.
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