A few more thoughts here on the spire:
My dear sweet funny
@silvia I’m one of those bored players. If I’m not having fun, well no duckets from me. I represent the players who aren’t in a fellowship. We basically have nothing to do if there isn’t an event going on. Except to refill our factories and thank goodness I have lots of them to fill.
@Loki Blue – same to you, you may have tons of usage for your troops but I just switched to negotiating my map and nothing to do with my troops. (which could change again) While I applaud you for coming up with something for a 3rd option, googling an answer isn’t really challenging. Keep brainstorming.
And since this is pve and not pvp, I don’t really find this to be all slash and kill stuff. Just protecting Elvenar from the baddies stalking our cities. But yes, I agree there should also be more “gentle” things to do in the game. Besides WoW, my other most favorite game is a farming game.
@Jaxom – Because of how I built my city, will actually have lots of room for the new buildings in chapter 5. Sadly, I can’t get to encounter 8 on the first map.
@UlyssesBlue – I didn’t use my fire phoenix for the first 8 encounters. (I’m chapter 4) I may have lost a few less units using it but it’s partially doable without it.
This is Inno’s game and if they firmly believe in what they are doing, they aren’t going to change much of this.
But with the small change they just made (and when I rebuild my units) I might try again when I have my needles upgraded and then maybe again when I have my monastery upgraded. It was a bit disheartening to know I spent so much time making sure I had wonders at level 2,3, and 4 only to find out my city isn’t very good, made me question why I even bothered with wonders.
Soggy once said to me that wonders have no level requirement. And he asked what I thought they should be at, I didn’t answer him but will answer now: My rule of thumb, your wonders should be no less than the chapter you’re on. If you’re chapter 4 then get the first 4 wonders to level 4 (which I’m doing now and might be a factor in why I didn’t get past level 8) Maybe a top chapter it’s twice your level, since there isn’t much to do if you’re finished with the quest line and building. But if you’re not leveling from the very beginning, don’t think you’ll have much luck with the spire.
If there are only 15 chapters in the game and then it starts to go horizontal versus vertical, then theoretically I should have been able to get a little further. Maybe not quite 16 encounters but a few more than 7. My needles was at 2 when I tried, now it’s at 3 and when I try again maybe 4 possibly 5.
The only things, I think Inno could have done better with this, is give us a few squads to test the first round, (I kinda think they were being naughty since they knew a good majority of us but Dony would demolish our army) or made it spire only units, manual fight immediately, and rolled it out with another activity or two. I kinda think the spire is supposed to be used in conjunction with events and other activities not really a stand-alone activity. Ie if one needs 5 combining catalysts for an event, then you use the spire for it. Or if you’re low on coin and supplies do the first encounter for an instant. That is what I think they mean by play at your own pace. Or I’m just full of it.
But bottom line, for me, I don’t think my city was quite up to par for this challenge.