Welcome back! Last time around, I was not able to give much information about my guild, so this time, I am going to dive a bit more into a few of the logistics of my guild (including our new guild expedition!). I am also going to touch on the pace of Forge of Empires as compared to other similar games I have played. I will then, of course, wrap up with a quick progress report. Let’s jump in!

Guild

My guild is named “Fresh Start”. I really did not have a clue as to what I was doing, looking for, or going to gain out of my guild when I chose it. When in doubt, follow what others are doing; a lot of times, it will either work out well or teach you what not to do. Following this advice, I chose my guild based on the fact that it had multiple people of multiple ranks: there are currently 79 people in my guild, ranging from 724 points all the way to 5,733,309. For reference, I am ranked #57 with 9,558 points. Please do not ask me where this number comes from, I have absolutely no clue. Whatever it is, I have 9,558 of that, and the number one person in Noarsil (my world) has 316,906,193 points. Only a few more hundred million to go to catch up to him.

Anyways, back to the guild. They are a quite nice group; I have added many of them as friends and they motivate my buildings as well as sit in my tavern. I just recently discovered that there is a guild chat, which I think is really rather cool. I logged on not too long ago and one of my guild members needs to trade for dye: I have a large supply of dye, but I am in great need of marble and stone. I think we are going to be able to work something out. Here is the really cool thing: when I set up the marketplace trade, I can mark the trade for individuals within my guild only! This means that my guildmate, RictorBoon, will not have to worry about someone else coming in to snatch his trade. I think this is a very thoughtful and incredibly useful option for those who want a secure way to trade to the exact people they wish.

On to the guild expeditions! Turns out I was on the right track with my last blog: expeditions are independent quests by each guild member, but as I progress, points are added towards a total guild score. I can choose to either negotiate or attack; if you remember from last blog, I am definitely a negotiator. Negotiations/attacks in a particular stage take a single attempt coin to begin. This means that whether you win or lose, you must pay (an attempt) to play. Attempt coins refill one per hour. So far, I have progressed through five expedition levels, each one getting a bit more complicated than the one before. I am currently using my strategies from Mastermind and they seem to be working; hopefully, my luck will continue as the negotiations get harder. My one complaint is this: the negotiations cost you actual coins, supplies, and goods. This means that if coins, supplies, and dye are the item being assigned to each character, these materials are coming out of my storage. I think that this is the trade-off for negotiating, especially since it costs time and resources to retrain more battle units lost in war, but I still think it is a bit harsh. This is especially true as negotiations get more difficult: as I have seen throughout the various story objectives and whatnot, there are times that you cannot complete a negotiation simply because you do not have enough of, or cannot produce, a certain good.

Overall, guilds are intriguing; I look forward to experimenting and learning more.

Game Pace

This is definitely a…slower game than I am used to. It is incredibly methodical and paced; I think that the multitude of options, demands, and overall facets of the game almost require a slower pace. Plus, the game addresses the development of civilization from the literal Stone Age. Things did not happen in the span of just a few years. I think that this is why the game designers created the laundry list of expensive items needing to be researched, why some goods buildings yield five or ten goods (due to bonuses) and others only yield one or two. Without having to work and struggle through it, just like the unlocking of the reconstruction mode, players would not appreciate the amount of detail nor coordination that the game and topic both require.

I think the game has the ability to consume a lot of time even though the overall progress is slow. You could have a production finish every five minutes, every 15 minutes, upwards to every day or two days. If you elected for the former option, you could probably spend multiple hours producing, spending, trading, fighting, etc. Going back to what I just said, this could play into why the game designers created so many expensive (Forge Points, resources, etc.) elements in the game. Forge Points especially: these only renew once an hour, so without buying them, it will take actual days to research a single item. This forces player to either pay to progress (which is cheating in my book), or slow down, respect, and understand the progression of human civilization through extended time. On top of that, slow down and appreciate the amount of effort and detail that surrounds this game.  

Progress Report

After all of the change that came about last time, things have been a bit stagnant. I replaced two of my triumphant arches with a public bath; a new cultural building from the Early Middle Ages, the public bath gives me 570 happiness instead of a summative 380 from the two arches. Eventually, I will replace the other arches with another bath, or maybe a new cultural building I unlock later in this age. I also got rid of my two taverns and replaced one slot with an Early Middle Age marketplace. This gives me 430 happiness, and leaves a 3×3 box open for possibly more cultural buildings or a new production building. I currently have 780 additional happiness over the 120% barrier, so I am not too worried. Stay tuned for more!