User blog:Scottin/New Ideas for Resources

I started playing TV about 3 months ago. I have made it to level 36, and I am truly enjoying the game. There are so many ways to play the game, and no one “right” way, that it makes this a different game for everyone who plays it. Until I reached level 30 or so, I had only bought resources from the market to build specific building that required more resources that I had on hand at that time. What I liked about the game was the cottage industry feel to it. I had resource makers, and used my own resources to build items in my stores. Self-sufficiency is what I was aiming for.

However, once you reach level 28 or so, it seems that there really is only “one way” to play: stop making your own resources and buy them all from the market. Resource building is (almost) a waste. Most of the resources that I use are bought, since I cannot possibly keep up. As an example, 1 Apple Store, making just the two long recipes per day, requires 2,700 Food. Since the standard Farm creates a food every 108 seconds (or about 800 per day), it requires 4 Farms per Apple Store, just to run it.

Now, suppose, instead, you are sitting around on a Saturday afternoon and have all day to play. So you choose to run short recipes to generate more money and xp. Therefore, you want to run 16 short recipes and 1 long. This requires 9,350 food (500*16 = 8,000 + 1,350 = 9,350). This would require 12 Farms, just to keep up. And that is just one Apple Store.

Now, I try to be one of those that offer solutions instead of complaining about the problem. So, the obvious solution is that we need another level of resources providers. We have levels of Houses, Stores and Storage facilities, so how come there is only 1 level of Resources?

My suggestion is this: Starting a level 27 or so, begin adding better resource providers. There are several levels where nothing new is available to be built beginning at level 29, and levels 27 only offers 1 decoration.

So, what kind of “Better Resource Provider”? The current crystal-bought resource buildings reduce the time to get a resource, but there is a limit to how far that can go. How about we take advantage of synergy? Add more workers, get more resources. My thought is something like this:

Assuming that the times are the same, this “SuperResource” would replace 4 current resource providers, using the same number of workers, and getting nearly 4 times output. Since, as we know, real estate is by far the most expensive resource at higher levels, this seems like a win-win situation. This would also allow for the “crystal cost” versions to improve the way the current ones do, shortening the time required to “harvest” resources.

To show you how this would work, I will return to the Apple Store example from earlier: Since the “SuperFarm” (with full employment) will gather 12000 food per day (24 hrs * 60 min/hr * 60 Sec/min / 108 sec/gather * 15 food/gather), 1 “SuperFarm” will cover 1.25 Apple shops per day, instead of 12 regular Farms. This would allow people a choice. Continue to play the current way, buying all of the resources, leaving more room for stores, or build a very large percentage of the resources needed to provide for your own stores, sacrificing some “Store” space for resources.

Also, this might encourage more housing choices, since the last, Mansions, are available at level 24. Possibly the next step could be Apartment Buildings, holding 6 (for the orange and blue) at level 40? More people, less space. (Once again, real estate is King)