User blog:Mweed42/Quest to reach level 70

I reached level 50 on Nov. 4th,  I had built only one of each shop as I levelled up, and relied on making all resources I needed for the shops, with the exception of building 3 apple stores. So I started level 50 with only one scooter store... by the time I finished the level, I realized there was no way I could continue to "just play the game" and ever reach level 70.

My village was maxed out on expansions, and filled with houses, resource generators, and low level stores. No room for all the habitats I'd need if I want one of each dino, and no way I'd be able to generate the XP needed to reach level 70. So I began to transform my village to conform to the common practices of building vast fields of scooter stores and switching to market based resources, but really don't want to. So I thought I would document my my progress and decisions as I go to see if there is another way...

Level 50: started Nov. 4th; 68,753,400 XP earned in 23 days (2.98M/day). I built one stargazer for the challenge and reluctantly added 2 additional scooter stores. Don't really like the size or looks of the stargazer store, but I know it is better XP. I have read that most people build the maximum of 5 each of these higher level stores, and build the fields of scooters even though these new stores are better only because there is no limit for scooters like there is for the others.

Level 51: started Nov. 27th; 78,612,400 XP earned in 12 days (6.55M/day, estimated 13 days). I bit the bullet and added 5 more scooter stores (8 total) and built an second stargazer.

Level 52: started Dec.9th; 89,098,400 XP earned in 12 days (7.42M/day, estimated 13 days). Added a third stargazer right away. Went ahead and retired 6 of the low-level stores to make room for more habitats; they only accounted for ~30K in XP and coins/day so no big loss. Resisted adding any more scooter stores and stopped at three of the stargazer stores.

Level 53: started Dec, 21st; 100,092,600 XP earned in 15 days (6.67M/day, estimated 13 days). Hesitant to add more Scooter stores with Crystal ones just around the corner. I had started to downsize resource producers, and had only two wood cutters around when the Holiday Week 2012 challenge came out and I became aware of why I liked having lots of resource generators around. Will have to rethink how many to keep out to deal with the new "collecting resources" steps in the weekly challenges.

Went ahead and cut back a bit on resources (down to 48) but decided to keep 4 of each of the basic resources purely to help with weekly challenges even though it is pretty obvious that. I kept additional advanced resources because I'm still not convinced that they don't generate a reasonable profit/square.

Due to the holidays, I wasn't collecting as often as usual so this level sure took longer than expected. So I went ahead and added 4 more scooter stores to try and help.... but not soon enough to help with this level, and I'd really rather wait to add the crystal stores, rather than scooters.

Level 54: started Jan 5th; 111,442,300 XP earned in 9 days (12.38M/day, estimated 16 days). Built my first crystal store immediately, and started on the second and three days later a third. Things are going faster now that the holidays are over. I like the looks of the crystal store, but not sure about the ROI. It's taking 3-4 days to regain the cost of one store. They are expensive, and sure use a lot of stone, so I started building another scooter store....

Level 55: started Jan 14th; estimating 11 days to complete (Jan 25th, 2013). Debating on when to start the upgrade to the magic rock; 9,000,000 coins is a lot. I have a lot of coins, but not sure I want to spend half of them at one time to upgrade my rock and finish off the crystal stores. Level 58 is at least a month off, but I want to be sure I have a lot of coins available then.