Return to "The West" [Archive] - Front Office Football Central

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 07:38 PM

So a few years back we had a long thread on OT about this game:
The West (a western themed browser based RPG) - Front Office Football Central (http://www.operationsports.com/fofc/showthread.php?t=71756&highlight=west)

I believe I'm the last man standing from FOFC playing this game. The world we all played on, World 8, was closed a couple of years ago. I currently have characters going on World 11 (my second world, which I joined on day it opened) and Colorado. As you may have noticed, the World naming standard changed from numbers to names such as Colorado.

There have been a ton of changes to the game since our group last played. I'll use this dynasty to detail some of the changes, as well as narrate my start as a worker on the most recent (but somewhat mature, as it has been out for months) world for The West.

This is an interactive dynasty insofar as I would love to see people following this thread jump in and create a character to play alongside me. I'll be starting this character with the idea of having an FOFC only town, similar to what we did in 2009.

So, with that, time to create my 3rd character!

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 07:48 PM

The name of the world is "Fairbank" and it was started on 3/17/2015.

I'll be starting as "hoopsguy" which is the same as my username on other worlds.

The intro to the game has been changed. But I remain a "greenhorn" at the outset, and keep the speed bonus until Level 15.

First part of intro involves a quest, provided by Barkeeper Henry Walker, to defeat Ben Higgs. This ne'er-do-well has the town - very general term since I'm not in a town - under his control and is shaking down residents like Henry for protection.

The game prompts me to launch directly into a duel, but I check inventory first. I've got some pimp starting gear: Grey Rags (+1 Toughness) and Grey Ragged Shoes (+1 Reflex). So that should be more than enough for the tutorial :) It concludes with a resounding 10-0 KO victory, with 5 punches laying out the town bully. 20XP is about halfway to Level 2.

Next up is a duel against an NPC. This is a new feature, as you can pick up some XP and cash against non-players whenever the mood strikes. In theory, it gives an opportunity to test your builds against a non-player foe. In practice, at 5 energy per battle, it isn't terribly interesting except for helping collect daily bonds. That is a topic I'll cover in a future post.

15-0 win over NPC (they all have names, but I forgot to record this one) and I've got another 20XP as well as a bonus skill point. For those who played the first game, you might notice that the early leveling process is MUCH more rapid than it was six years ago. In fact, with those two quests I've progressed to Level 2.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 07:54 PM

The next quest in the tutorial, offering 10XP, is to allocate one of my skill points to health. Easy enough. I've got 1 attribute point and 4 skill points, thanks to the bonus one for the last quest. Since I'm going to be making my own town from scratch, I'll be going worker and pure construction at the outset. So attribute point to strength, three points to construction, and one to health to keep advancing the tutorial. Actually, not possible since the tutorial blocks me from spending the other points. Probably a good idea for first time players, but a little annoying in my specific case.

So, onto my first job quest ... Chase away Highwaymen. This is a new job, introduced maybe two years ago. Also, there is an option to do 15 second jobs. Since this is a 0/1 job, it means I can satisfy the requirement with a 15 second job costing 1 energy. Other options are 10 minutes (cost 5) or an hour, which runs 12 energy. In the spirit of powering through job quests, it always makes sense to take the 15 second job. Unless of course, it is a job where you are short labor points and it is going to hurt you. I'll get more into jobs in a little while, once I'm out of the tutorial.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 08:01 PM

The quest actually restricts you to a 15 second job; they really do have this starting routine on some tight rails. 10 more XP.

Herding lambs is next. 0/2 for this one, so it will take a little longer. As in, about 15 seconds longer. There is virtually no travel between these jobs, which are right next to the character spawning spot. By the time I'm done with the job, my cash is up to $9. Drinks on hoopsguy!

Another level upon finishing the lambs, and onto Level 3. The next quest asks to move Strength up to 2. This is one of the four attributes (Strength, Dexterity, Mobility, and Charisma) in the game, and neither the attributes or the 20 skills have changed since 2009.

Time to catch a speared fish. Which is the first example of a product drop for a job, which is not coincidentally "Spear Fishing." Another one of the new jobs. Done, and next quest involves the citizens presenting me with a "Starter Bandana" for my great success removing Ben Higgs from town. And a chance to learn about inventories. That is by far the best item up to this point, as it provides +5 Stamina. I also notice that I've collected a pair of lamb wool and one knocked out tooth from earlier jobs.

One of the concepts that was discussed thoroughly in the 2009 thread was turning over inventory to help buy the next big product. I'm a total hoarder, and this is appropriate with the introduction of crafting in the game. Drink every time you hear this: I'll discuss this concept more in an upcoming post.

DavidCorperial

09-05-2015, 08:11 PM

I think I at one point actually played this game, but I think it was like a decade ago.

PilotMan

09-05-2015, 08:16 PM

I still get emails to come back.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 08:49 PM

Next quest is equipping the Starter Bandana. One step ahead of our erstwhile bartender on that one. Another 10 XP.

10 more XP for Grinding Coffee, yet another new job for starter characters.

And with that, the next quest involves getting some more gear from Henry. The "travel bag" includes items for greenhorns. He also throws in $100 and 20 bonds.

So, time to chat about bonds. They are kind of a "nuggets-Lite" in The West, although that explanation would make more sense if I had defined what nuggets do. Bonds can be cashed in for items that are not available in town shops. This includes some special gear, rare crafting items, and potentially enhancements for energy, health, etc. You earn them from fort fights, by completing daily tasks, and every once in awhile doing a job or duel. You can have up to a maximum of 2,000 bonds. A good fort battle will get you double digit bonds; a good week with bond collecting will get you 50-100 bonds once you are an established West veteran.

Anyway, at this point the map is now open to hoopsguy. Towns become available at Level 10, as well as the ability to declare a profession. So I'm going to be looking to accelerate from my current Level 3 to Level 10 ASAP.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 09:05 PM

So Henry is the only one of the four guys in the Saloon and he has a pair of quests for me to work on. I can either do quests or regular jobs at this point. My MO is going to be to level as fast as possible, and that will likely include quests at this point.

- New bandits (Save the saloon, part 1)
- Quests (One hand washes the other)

The old limit for max concurrent quests was either 10 or 15. This was moved to 50 recently, so there are really no reasons not to grab every quest you see. I'll take them both on.

New bandits - defeat Gary's henchmen (new gang in town)
Quests - first one basically gives me $10, second involves opening the mini-map.

Mini-map: the map is different than 2009. There are now 14 sectors in the world, in a 2x7 grid, as well as a fifteenth in the middle. That middle grid includes a bunch of higher level jobs that I won't be able to touch for ages.

The "One hand washes other" quests are basically a continuation of the tutorial, exposing different buttons on the screen to new players while accelerating the XP up towards Level 10. At the conclusion of this quest line, I pick up a pair of Greenhorn Shoes (+1 Dex, +3 Fine Motor Skills, +6 Reflex) that is the first of nine items in this set.

I'm on the verge of Level 4, have $193 to my name, and 25 bonds. Life is good.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 09:18 PM

For the Save the Saloon quest line, I'm at an advantage against the bandits because they are using fists while I picked up a Broken clay jug (1-7 damage) to use for my battle. 20-0 KO. Fear me!

Up next: Tobacco, then Scaring Birds off Field. These should be familiar jobs for veteran players. Downside to these is that I actually have to walk a bit to these jobs. It was a whole 50 seconds for Birds, which was the longest travel time yet. That changes a ton later in the game when the greenhorn bonus goes away and all the quests are not set up to make leveling this easy.

Stream fishing up next. Note that my labor points for this are -3. I can do the job, but run greater risk of injury when having negative labor points. That risk is low on this particular job, but it worth noting for later on in the game as there can be some pretty severe job-related injuries.

That job moves the needle to Level 5.

There is another job that requires I pay $40, but receive the Starter Headband, yielding +3 Dodge. Finishing that job gets Level 6. Guys who played this game years ago will be astonished at how quickly leveling happens now compared to then. Totally one of those "in my day, we walked uphill through snow both ways" type moments.

Sugar cane (0/2) is another layup. While waiting for this to finish, I notice that there are a couple of players chatting in the Saloon chat. There are several potential chat channels in the game, but right now "Saloon" is the only one available. It is a seemingly random compilation of players. Other channels include town chat, alliance chat, and fort chat. None of those come into play at this point in the game.

Shining shoes is the next job. That one is near the large fort in my sector. Each sector has three forts: large/medium/small. The large one here is named Valhall and is owned by a town named Wikings Unite. They have 29 members and are affiliated with "The Claw v2" alliance. Highest level player in this town is Level 123. Lowest is Level 27.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 09:21 PM

OK, time to take down "Nasty Gary" ... wonder if I'll actually get to a quest bad guy who puts up a fight? The answer is "yes" as I score the only hit in 8th and final shot to earn a 5-0 triumph. Still facing guys with fists. Poor sucker.

50 more bonds for confirming my email address. Up to 75 of those and $214 in cash. I'm now done with Henry quests for now and it is time to talk with a new character in the Saloon, Maya Roalstad. She is a dancer, and has a female picture. Other than that, the experience is pretty much the same as Henry.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 09:28 PM

Two questlines from Maya:
- Cleanup efforts
- The big performance

One of the continuing tutorial items that Maya presents involves the mobile trader. This is new since 2009. The mobile trader is associated with your inventory. Every day, you will get a listing of 8 items provided by the mobile trader. Every day, as in the timer turns over 24 hours after you open the window. The most interesting thing I see here is the Pony, which would help me move faster but he costs $500 and that is 2x what I currently own. I'll grab the Green Bandana for $35, as I know I'll need it at some point later in the year for a quest.

I'm actually at a point where I'm not just equipping every item that I find, but instead having to make decisions between trivial gear. Still no horse, pants (think those are new from 2009), fort weapon, or whatever the name is for the miscellaneous item slot.

Buying that item from the mobile trader was worth another 50 bonds. Getting 125 bonds in a span of an hour never ever happens in this game outside of the starting tutorial. Whee!

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 09:36 PM

So 25 of those bonds disappear in order to purchase "Beginner's Bag" for a quest. It contained a Black Cap, which offers +4 Toughness, +4 Setting Traps, and +4 Leadership. Won't be able to use until Level 8. Will be short-term useful, but I strongly doubt I'll ever spend 20 bonds on a Beginner's Bag ever again.

Another quest gives Premium Income, which offers +50% income from jobs. This is one of the premium benefits, which can be purchase by nuggets. That is the "pay for play" element of this otherwise free game. I've never purchased a nugget in 6 years of playing, but can still accumulate 15 every five days as a by-product of logging in every day. There is a daily login bonus that goes like this:
1st day: 1% of total XP
2nd day: 2% of total XP
3rd day: 3% of total XP
4th day: 4% of total XP
5th day: 15 nuggets (or 15 bonds, if you have a character on another world who already got the 15 nuggets)

This is yet another way to help drastically accelerate the speed for levels. But it is pretty much the key to advancing in levels at the highest points. The level cap has increased from 99 back in 2009 to 150; there was an intermediate cap at 120, but 150 has been the standard for maybe 18-24 months.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 09:46 PM

Got my pants before hitting Level 7, thanks to another one of Maya's quests. Wool pants are part of the Greenhorn Set, and offer +3 Swimming and +3 Horseback Riding. Having two items in that set offer a bonus +10 labor points for Picking Sugar Cane. I'll be outgrowing the utility of this gear pretty quickly.

Up to Level 7. Each level offers 1 attribute point, 3 skill points, and unlocks jobs. The unlocking of jobs is semi-interesting, insofar as if you don't have labor points to do a job then it appears and you are allowed to have a go at it. I'm normally not too tempted to try jobs where I'm short labor points and will hurt myself. But I'm calling it out because this model is a little different than what existed in 2009.

Time to take a quick look around the world.
Rankings show me in 4700 for XP rankings at Level 6 (this updates about once/hour). The top ranked person in the world is saydemir from a town named ANADOLU. He is Level 140, two levels ahead of #2 and #3. I'm mildly surprised to be this high in the rankings, as I expected to be closer to 10,000 or so.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 10:00 PM

More quests = more items. Starter shirt yields +5 Horseback Riding. I learn that there is not a "Starter Set" per se, just a collection of disconnected items with a common "Starter" name.

New guy in Saloon = Sheriff John Fitzburn. Saloon is starting to get more crowded. He also has two questlines:
- Manhunt
- The six banditos

The first quest yields a weapon upgrade, with the broken wine bottle bringing the thunder for 2-10 damage via pure melee rage. Previous broken jug was only good for 1-7. That gets put to good use in a duel, a 13-1 triumph that included one hit for 9 damage.

The Manhunt quests conclude with another duel win. I was advised to tweak my stances to help earn a victory, but haven't needed to do so just yet. I'm sure that day is coming, especially with me not having used any of my points just yet. I'll do that now, at least for the attribute points. I don't know that the Construction skill is helping with any of these jobs, but the STR will apply to most jobs in some small fashion.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 10:08 PM

I'm not as excited about dueling quests at the moment, as I'm up to $576 and think I would lose some of that money in a quest duel loss. I know an NPC loss would result in lost cash, but not positive on quest losses. There are numerous bandits in the "six banditos" series, and each of them falls 10-0 to a single hit. That added STR is showing up in the dueling box scores.

That questline yields the third item in the Greenhorn set: Wool poncho. +3 Toughness, +3 Appearance. With three set items, an additional bonus of +40 labor points for Felling Trees is in play.

Next up is Waupee, who completes the "Core Four" that you'll encounter in the Saloon throughout the game.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 10:24 PM

Two more quest collections from Waupee:
- Fire heart
- Education

One of the item quests involves retrieving a raven feather. That was tough in 2009, but is quite a bit easier today. There are not 2% jobs like Handcuffs at this point, although there are still a few jobs where the product drop is more challenging. But in general, if you have labor points you've got a reasonable chance to get a drop in the one hour job.

Picking beans, with -6 labor points, is a tougher drop. Only 26% and it is the first quest where I've not been rewarded in 15 seconds. This one took 30 seconds. And it is good for Level 9.

Waupee gives a buff that gives 50 points towards turkey for one hour. I'm very tempted to do a series of 15 second jobs on that for as long as my health holds out. With that buff, I've got 15 labor points and the Danger rating for the job is 13%. 14xp for every 15 seconds, 330xp required to get to Level 10. I'm almost certainly going to bang away on that job for awhile and forego quests for a little while.

This is one of the few times where a buff is more useful now than later. That amount of XP will never be more valuable in terms of levels than it is right now. I'm envisioning getting to Level 11 on this job, even if the motivation falling below 75% (each time doing 15 sec job takes 1 motivation from base 100) dings my 14XP reward.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 10:32 PM

While banging out Turkey jobs, I find my first recipe: Mix fine dubbin (500)

So that recipe requires crafting level 500. Not sure if I'll pick the Master Saddler crafting tree anyway. Even if I did, I'm months away from being able to use this. And this item has just about zero resale ability. I'll talk more about crafting later on; it is a portion of the game I normally do not deeply explore.

As expected, the turkey jobs lead to Level 10 in pretty short order. Which means that I can start on a town. I've got 1,099 cash now, which should be enough to found one. I'll need $300 and 80 energy. Given the current buff, I'll likely ride out the turkey to Level 11 and then spend 20 energy before forming a town. But if levels are coming before I can spend 20 energy, then I may just keep pushing for a little while longer tonight. I want to have the town build process (8 hours) take place overnight.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 10:42 PM

So the rewards for turkey slip to 11XP/$11 when motivation dips to 75% and stay there through 51%. That is enough to get to Level 11.

Utilization is at 57% - do 6 more jobs of turkey? Maybe after a couple of quests, when I'm closer to leveling.

The Fire Heart quest concludes with offering "Premium Energy" for 4 days. Which means that I'm not going to be hitting 80 energy for awhile, since Premium bumps me to 150. Hmm, that town will get built tonight but I've got some more leveling to do first ...

Also, hitting Level 10 appears to have opened some new quests from Henry and Maya. So three of the four folks in the Saloon are putting me to work.

Greyfriars Bobby

09-05-2015, 10:47 PM

This looks like it might be interesting. I might see what I can find out about it and give it a try.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 11:04 PM

Probably worth mentioning that after this first bit the levels do not come this fast and furious. When they do slow down, I'll take a bit more time to write about what is going on with the character as levels are achieved.

Also, the jobs will shift from 15 sec jobs to 1 hour jobs. You can't do 1 hour jobs until Level 20, but given the startup process, that barely registers. Just know that you'll be a little more engaged for the first couple of hours while clearing through the tutorials, but the remainder of the game can be played at the same kind of leisurely pace found in 2009, if so desired.

Also, just got the following Achievement: Veteran Adventurer
Completed 50 quests, receive bonus 300xp. Considering that I need 537 xp total to hit Level 13, that is pretty meaningful. There have been a flurry of achievements along the way, although very few have any kind of meaningful payoff like the one above.

Normally, I would want to create my town right at Level 10. But with levels moving so quickly, especially with prem energy and money, the new threshold is 14.9. I would prefer to have my town created prior to hitting Level 15 and losing my Greenhorn speed bonus. But even that is a soft deadline, assuming that I want to go somewhat local with my town. Because I don't see a huge difference between the 8 hours to build vs 10 hours to have a 2 hour walk + 8 hours to build. Either way, I'm going to be sleeping while the majority of this time passes.

A good resource, for pretty much all things The West, is this URL: TW-DB.info - Fan site for browser game The West. Calculators, inventory, jobs, forts.. (http://tw-db.info/)

Waupee sends me to another indian, who is in my sector. And he provides a flurry of quests that grant additional skill points. It culminates with another item in the Greenhorn Set: Leather Belt. +3 Shooting, +2 Leadership, +3 Construction. And +25 labor points for Tanning Deer skin.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 11:07 PM

This looks like it might be interesting. I might see what I can find out about it and give it a try.

Would love some company in the game. I'll have a town name to post tomorrow morning, which is probably the best way for us to collaborate early on if you want to give it a go.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 11:14 PM

Another look around the world, just to see if I recognize some familiar faces from other worlds:

Last XP rating shows me at Level 8, good for #4018 in the world.
#2 XP guy in the world, napole, is a name I think I've encountered before. But that is only name on Top 9 (first page) that I even sort of recognize.

#5 on list of duelers is a guy named Artem124. I see him regularly on World 11. And I've shared worlds with #6, infiniti99 a couple of times. Duelers can be a weird list, as many of the players engage in "zero motivation dueling" ... basically, they want to suppress their dueling level in order to have a longer run of hitting less experienced players. When your dueling level gets too high, you have a relatively narrow range of players you can duel. This was an issue back in 2009 as well, but there have been a slew of changes. I don't envision dueling much in the near future, but I'm sure I'll riff on this at some point in the near future. Also happy to help provide guidance for anyone who comes onboard and would like to duel.

Towns - couple of town names register from other worlds. #3 Blazing Saddles was once a force on W11. #9 Dos Lagos has been on other worlds. #1 town is Legends, who have 43 members and an average player level of 97.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 11:26 PM

There is a quest series that shifts from Henry to Maya, and along the way I get my 5th item in the Greenhorn Set. Dust rag, +2 Stamina, +1 Hiding. +25 to Hunting Turkey is the bonus for having 5 items in set. If only my turkey motivation was not already shot! :)

That quest also loops over to the Sheriff, and I hit Level 13. Cruising right along. The Sheriff sells us the horse in the Greenhorn Set, who offers Speed +15% and +25 labor points to Cowboy with 6 items equipped.

While going to finish off another "job quest" I notice that one of the jobs has a gold ring around it. So, that is pretty rare. You'll find only a couple of those at a time on all 15 sectors of the map. Gold gives 2x the rewards that you would normally see for money and XP, while Silver jobs (rare, but probably 5x more common, can find 1-2 per sector) give 50% the normal rewards. Normally, I would do hour jobs to max out the value but in this case I can only do 10 minutes. But even that is not interesting in this specific scenario since I'm in turbo-level mode before calling it a night. So I'll do the job in 15 sec increments. Also worth noting that gold status disappears after a couple of uses, so it is first come, first serve. 15xp, $19 for each 15sec of scaring birds. I got to do this 10x before the job reverted to normal status.

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 11:41 PM

Got my first item drop from a job: Red Indian Necklace. +3 Stamina, +5 Animal Instinct. At this point, the inventory is getting a little more busy. There are 12 sections in the inventory, and each section has 20 items per page. I'm closing in on a 2nd page in the "Product" page, with 16 individual entries. From a gear standpoint, I have 4 neckbands to choose between with the addition of the Red Indian Necklace.

Just as a comparison to the earlier Birds job, I'm now doing Tobacco. 5XP, $20 for each 15 seconds. Keep in mind, these values include premium income. I'll soon be at a stage in the game where I'm carefully selecting my jobs to enhance my XP or cash, but for now I'm doing what the quests direct me to do.

So my starting sector was in the very bottom/right. There are very few ghost towns here, so I've tried to drift one sector to the left. However, I've twice been yanked back to the original sector to do Waupee quests at the Indian grounds (not burial, as far as I can tell) in the starting sector. Definitely do not like as Level 15 is looming.

Current Level: 13 (397/618 to next level)
Current $$$: 2,051
Current Bonds: 110
Current Weapon: Broken Wine Bottle (2-10)
Current XP Rank: 3,592 (based on Level 12)
Current Dueling Rank: 6,117
Current Dueling Record: 0-0
Current Town Rank: n/a
"Best" Item: Black Cap (+4 each for Toughness, Setting Traps, Leadership)
Set Collections: Greenhorn (6/9)

hoopsguy

09-05-2015, 11:44 PM

Need two wood for a quest. Not awesome, as drop percentage is low for Felling Trees. Later, there will be better jobs for getting wood but for now, this is what I can do.

This is also a job that puts me at some risk. I received this report with one of my job recaps:
"A big branch falls on you. You hurt your shoulder.You lose 75 health points."

Given that I only have 360 health, and that I would lose all of my cash if I were to be KO'd, I need to tread somewhat lightly here.

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 12:06 AM

Danger % for this job is only 9%, so hopefully can grind out enough instances. Also, all health and energy is restored to full with a new level. Since I'm closing on 14, the chances are slight that I would get KO'd here. Still, if I see health below 150 (was 250 after that branch incident) then time to find a safer job.

I take another injury from this job, but only sustain 9 points of damage. Hit the level, finally get 2nd wood after 47 total tries. Not much fun; better gear will help eventually with stuff like this. But putting all points in construction mean that there will be a lot of jobs that require some grinding like this one. Still, this is far better than the 30+ hours I heard for some of the worst job/quests back in the old days.

On a related note, the "Save the Saloon, part 2" is a pretty long quest line. Goes across all 4 folks, as well as Waupee's indian friend, and I'm not sure if I'll finish it before hitting level 15.

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 12:13 AM

And another Greenhorn item - get to pick between a blade and a ranged weapon. Since I'm all STR, I choose the Scout's Axe, which deals 6-14 damage and gives +1 Vigor. +25 labor points (assume that is all jobs) and +20% speed to complete the set. Much appreciated with the greenhorn bonus going away.

Remember when I mentioned earlier that I could not afford the Pony from the Mobile Trader? Well, with $3,000+ to my name, that is no longer an issue. Pony gives +50% speed, compared to the other horse +15% and the 20% Greenhorn bonus. Think that is still a win, but I'll likely be looking at faster horses when they become available. So the Pony should not get too comfortable being my noble stead.

So, one issue that used to be around in 2009 that isn't anymore ... if you want to bank your cash when not in a town, you can do that at any town. You pay a 20% fee, but that beats the scenario where I form my town tomorrow, then try to build a bank in time to bank cash before being dueled. If I lost a duel, I would surrender 33% of on-hand cash. However, if the money is in the bank, there is no risk. This whole banking issue led to a lot of maneuvering in the FOFC towns in 2009, as you would see if you feel like digesting that 4,700+ post thread :)

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 12:28 AM

Sigh - another Quest line that will keep me rooted to this sector. Not going to be all that much fun when Greenhorn goes away. There is a larger "story quest" that actually covers a series of quests that was introduced last year. The Outpost is the first group of quests that represent the larger plot for the game. And the first location for those Outpost quests is right here in the SE sector I'm trying to escape for building my town.

The first quest involves finding a flag. That item was the bane of folks who played in 2009. It isn't great for me as a pure STR build either. 2% for a 15sec job, 5% for a 10min job. And the XP/$$$ isn't very good. But again, 2% for 15sec is so much better than 2% for 2 hours. So glad to be separated from that kind of grind.

No dice in 16 tries, and on the verge of Level 15 I think it is time to call it a night and start building our city. Eight hours from now, Troutville will make its appearance within Olympian County on Fairbanks.

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 08:38 AM

And Troutville has been founded! We are right next to a large fort by the name of "The Throne of Zeus" ... will see shortly if this was a good or bad decision.

Immediately declare for the Builder class (not Worker?) and put all points into Construction. That is 58 points right now and at some point down the line I'll have a few points that I can recover to move into Construction and further elevate that skill.

Travel time is so morbid now, compared to what it was before dinging Level 15. The job next to town was six seconds away with the Greenhorn bonus, but is now about five minutes to travel back to town on my Pony.

Starting town building levels:
Bank - 1
Church - 1
Town Hall - 1
Saloon - 1
Cinema - 1

I've got about $3,000 in cash, and will immediately move $960 into the town treasury. That will give me four hours of construction. I'm looking to invest in the Bank right away, so I'm not giving away as high a percentage of my cash. Right now, the Level 1 bank costs me 13% instead of the 20% that I get from banks in other towns. Better, but a Level 5 bank will be 4%. I like having most of my money available to me.

Second investment will be in a hotel to begin recovering energy. It isn't a super immediate need with 150 energy and quick leveling, but when I do need to rest then I want to be able to recover energy efficiently.

I've also heard forever about the idea that you need to pray before building. I scoff in the direction of praying having any impact on results. I will utter no prayers before I build and let the results fall as they will.

JAG

09-06-2015, 09:24 AM

JAGfofc is level 7, strength / construction at the moment. Not a ton of time to figure things out at the moment.

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 10:42 AM

JAG, if you have questions please ask here and I'll try to address them. I've also sent you a friend request in the game. If you accept it, then I'll be able to see when you are online in the game. I'll also send town invites to both you and mrkilla22. I believe we can hold 5 people in the town with our Residences at Level 1.

First hour of work on the bank gets it 45% of the way done.
First hour of work on the hotel gets it 47% of the way done.

I also am dueled for the first time. Alexrobert01 tunes me up, and I'm 0-1 after a 66-0 loss. Alex is from the town Swedish Vikings, which is not part of any alliance. There are 3 people in his town, and he has a record of 4-2. Main difference that I see in gear is that he has a Blue Shirt, which gives +10 Aim and +9 Appearance. I suspect that I'll have opportunities to humble him at some later point, if he sticks around this game for awhile.

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 11:37 AM

There is a new person in the Saloon, Kiki. She is part of the Drama Queens quest series. Now that movement is so slow, I'm going to try and find jobs that are local and meet a quest rather than plowing through each quest line consecutively.

I find one quest, requiring a hammer, that is in the 5-pack of jobs next to town. That is a five minute walk with my current gear (including Pony) which means other jobs are going to take more investment. Particularly when trying to bang out 15 sec jobs, 5 minutes seems like a long walk. I've got an 8% chance to find a hammer on a 15sec job, and 41% on 10 minutes. Going to give it a couple shots at 15sec first ... and after 16 tries it is done.

Back to town with $244 cash. And a quest to equip a donkey ... the animal I skipped while moving directly to Pony. Bah, that is kind of annoying.

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 12:30 PM

Grave digging is going to be a regular job for me over the next couple of days. It isn't related to any quests, but it offers decent XP/$$$ (14/31) and a nice luck range for drops. The value item for drops can be up to $1312. I had a nice run of luck over my 25 15s jobs:
Yellow Buckled Belt (Level 20): +1 STR, +6 Stamina, +7 Repairing
Plain Yellow Pants (Level 13): +1 DEX, +1MOB, +5 Reflex, +6 Hiding
2 Grey Studded Belts (Level 27): +10 Health, +4 Reflex

Also hit Level 16. Will be out for awhile this afternoon, so time to pick up some building. Another hour each for the Bank and Hotel, and holding out hope one of them will be done at the end of this work.

Finally, welcome to Troutville, JAG! Looking forward to working together to build out this town.

Travis

09-06-2015, 01:23 PM

Not sure if I'll get back into playing or not, but definitely looking forward to following along. Good luck!

Greyfriars Bobby

09-06-2015, 01:58 PM

I decided to give this a try. I've registered, and I've just begun the tutorial. The game hung up when I was trying to accept the travel bag from Henry, so I had to refresh it. I'm not sure if that will screw things up for me or not.

Anyway, I'm registered as Greyfriars Bobby. You might see me wandering around Fairbank like a clueles noob.

JAG

09-06-2015, 02:15 PM

I'm going to have trouble doing 15s jobs for a little while, so if you want to give a priority build order to the town buildings that would be handy. Our bank is L2 now. I started work on the hotel since you had also.

JAG

09-06-2015, 02:17 PM

Also, should we be regularly banking money or is there some point to keeping it in inventory?

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 04:16 PM

Money - bank it. If you have it on your person, you can lose it in a duel. Or by getting KO'd on a job, although that is something that you can more or less control.

Priority buildings - I would suggest that you keep an eye on your motivation while building and try to avoid doing construction when you are starting the job with less than 80% motivation. That motivation acts as a multiplier on your overall productivity, and the cost of construction remains the same whether you have 100% motivation or 1% motivation.

That said, I would suggest starting with buildings that are already in progress as a starting point. If you are in position to finish them off, that is great. If you are going to just be advancing them along, that is fine too.

I think we'll want to get newer players some faster transport, so lets get moving on the General Store. Level 1 of that should yield the donkey, which we need both for a quest and potentially for your first ride once the Greenhorn bonus goes away.

Greyfriars, I'll be sending both a friend invite and a town invite your way. Hopefully we can help address some of the clueless noob learning curve ;)

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 04:22 PM

OK, so something else that is very different than the 2009 edition. We can now very easily trade between players, both within our own town and outside as well without having to switch towns. There is a new town building, called Market, that we can construct that allows people to post items out of their inventories.

With that in mind, wondering if anyone can use this duplicate Red Indian Necklace that I've got?
Level 9, +3 Stamina, +5 Animal Instinct

We can also use this as a way to trade some of the products that might be challenging to find. For example, I've currently got 6 spades and would be happy to post a couple if someone runs across a need for that item for a quest or crafting.

JAG

09-06-2015, 04:27 PM

How does one recover motivation?

I've queue'd up 2x working on the general store

Greyfriars Bobby

09-06-2015, 04:34 PM

Greyfriars, I'll be sending both a friend invite and a town invite your way. Hopefully we can help address some of the clueless noob learning curve ;)

Thank you! That sounds good. As I understand it, if I'm part of a town, I can deposit my meager amount of money in the Troutville bank.

If I'm not part of a town, I don't run the risk of being waylaid by a newbie-stomper who wants to take advantage of my very limited dueling ability. Still, I think I'm better off as part of Troutville, aren't I?

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 05:40 PM

Having to travel a little further out for jobs at this point, as the Berries I need for a quest require about 16 minutes of travel. Boo! Given that amount of travel, I would prefer to do a couple of jobs before heading back to town. But that also increases the risk of being dueled and losing some of the cash. So this is a bit of a work in progress figuring out how much dueling to expect in this world, or specifically this little part of the world.

Level 17, now jumping about 20 minutes out of town to take a crack at a couple of quest/jobs.

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 05:42 PM

How does one recover motivation?

I've queue'd up 2x working on the general store

Time; you'll recover a part of it per day. Clock resets somewhere around 3AM server time, which is about 8PM CST.

There are also some items you could buy on the market or bond shop that would help, but I don't think those are too feasible at this point in the game. Especially since we do not yet have a market ...

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 05:43 PM

Thank you! That sounds good. As I understand it, if I'm part of a town, I can deposit my meager amount of money in the Troutville bank.

If I'm not part of a town, I don't run the risk of being waylaid by a newbie-stomper who wants to take advantage of my very limited dueling ability. Still, I think I'm better off as part of Troutville, aren't I?

Yep, once you join a town you can be dueled. At lower levels, there probably are not too many people who could dial you up. But you run that risk.

However, you can use our bank and only sacrifice 10% of your cash on the deposit instead of 20%. And you can sleep in our hotel for free. So I'm guessing that is a good trade-off now, and it gets better with every passing level.

ntndeacon

09-06-2015, 05:55 PM

ntndeacon is level 8

collegesportsfanms

09-06-2015, 06:03 PM

This sounds like a blast. Where would I go to get into this game?

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 06:11 PM

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 06:58 PM

Up to Level 18 now. Looking to find a couple new jobs, that are a little further out from town, that I think can get me up to Level 19. From there, I think it will be time to sink 3 hours into building the town overnight.

Next up for construction is:
- Residences (want to be able to support new players joining)
- Market (want to be able to trade with players in town and beyond)

Coffee Warlord

09-06-2015, 07:12 PM

Oh god, are you gonna suck me into this again?

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 07:26 PM

Sixth guy in the Saloon - someone named Nathan, with a quest called "The farm." Kind of fun to see stuff that I don't expect in the game every once in awhile. Currently sitting with 17 quests in my queue.

Bumping the level up to 19 before beginning the building will definitely help with accelerating building efforts. Similarly, starting after Motivation resets around 8PM CST will also help. I'm excited to see where we sit tomorrow morning. I'm planning to put two hours into Residences and one hour into Market overnight, with my fourth action (max of four actions at a time, assuming no premium benefit to get extra activity) being set to sleep in our hotel.

Probably worth a quick update on character development:
Current Level: 18 (80/1113 to next level)
Current $$$: 4,588 in bank
Current Bonds: 113
Current Weapon: Scout's Axe (6-14 damage)
Current XP Rank: 3,154 (based on Level 18)
Current Dueling Rank: 12,461
Current Dueling Record: 0-1
Current Town Rank: 561
"Best" Item: Plain Yellow Pants (+1 DEX +1 MOB +5 Reflex +6 Hiding)
Set Collections: Greenhorn (complete)
Achievements: 32/690
Completed quests: 90
Used construction points: 455
Contributed to town treasury: $2,564

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 07:27 PM

Oh god, are you gonna suck me into this again?

You tell me :D

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 08:23 PM

So I'm sure I'll spend a bunch of time on here talking about fort battles soon enough, but here is a quick glimpse into some of the world politics.

Looking at the top 9 XP players, 5 of them are in the alliance "League of Legends," two are not affiliated with any alliance, and #8 and #9 on the list are with "The Claw v2." This suggests to me that the alliances may not be super equal.

Fort battles came into being within The West somewhere in the back half of 2009. I don't believe that our FOFC town was terribly active in the World 8 fort fighting scene. I'm not sure how involved we would be here ... probably depends on the size of our town and how active our players are. Forts represent a chance for a communal experience over 60-90 minutes, contesting a scarce resource. The forts offer an opportunity to gain XP and bonds to win a optimal sleeping spot for your alliance. You can recover health faster in a medium or large fort faster than you can at a max hotel in a hometown. You can win bonds and XP in fort battles, but if you are KO'd in a fort battle then you will lose all of your energy.

I don't have the ability to see the fort battle screen until hitting Level 25. However, in theory if I wanted to join a battle I could find one on the map and walk to it, hope that the active alliances accepted me to fight on their side, and participate. I would be poorly served to do so at this point, since I don't have much health, nor a fort weapon, or any other fort fighting skills since all points are in construction. But fort fighting is a big part of the communal experience in this game and likely something to explore for people who want to stick around longer than a couple of weeks. At some point, the quests and crafting tend to get a little old and forts offer one way to create relationships while advancing your character levels and bonds.

OK, very wordy explanation here. At some point I'm hoping we have players who are participating and can take a first-hand look at the fort battle process.

hoopsguy

09-06-2015, 09:39 PM

Level 20 brings a choice for crafting. I choose Master Saddler, since I have not done this on other worlds before. The net result of this is that I'll be collecting leather to help me move this along for another 50 levels.

So there are a series of daily quests. Five different categories, and if you get three of them per day, you are setting yourself up to get some bonus bonds (5) at the end of the week. For each of the categories you meet in a given day, you get a bonus bond.
- Daily quests (four required)
- Duals vs players (two required)
- NPC duels (three required)
- Crafted products (three required)
- Total job time (hour required)

I got two yesterday, and now that I'm crafting I'll move to three per day. If you get 3+ per day for 5 out of 7 days, you'll get 5 bonus bonds at the end of the week.

JAG

09-07-2015, 07:16 AM

Made it to level 15. I'm trying to bang out quests but I have a few that require low probability items (hammer, Union Jack). I am not sure if it's better to bypass them and do better higher paying / higher exp jobs, but after trying for a while, I gave up and went for more $ + exp. I learned motivation is job-specific which I didn't realize.

Stupid question: how do you see what benefits an item gives you? If it's incredibly obvious, I will assume there's no way to see on mobile.

hoopsguy

09-07-2015, 09:51 AM

I can probably help with some of the quests now that we have a market. Please let me know if there are items you are chasing and if I have one I can post it on the market rather than you spending time chasing after it.

Benefits - if you hover over the item within your inventory then you'll see the stats associated with it.

We now have Residence Level 2 (can support 10 people in town) and Market Level 1. I don't have super strong feelings on what to finish next, but figure that we generally work on getting one of everything at this point and slowly building them all up. With the exception of church; leave leveling the church until everything else is built.

Traveling merchant had a fun item last night:
Brown Slouch Hat (Level 20): +6 Vigor, +6 Dodging, +11 Setting Traps
It is also part of the Farmers Set, which is probably useful in the Level 20-30 range.

Coffee Warlord

09-07-2015, 10:10 AM

Coffee Warlord has returned. God help us.

hoopsguy

09-07-2015, 10:31 AM

For my inventory, here is a list of item drops that I can potentially post for others in town:
Ham - 3
Grain - 2
Tobacco - 3
Cotton - 2 (I can use this currently for crafting)
Trout - 9 (FOFC favorite)
Berries - 1 (have had to use at least 6 of these so far in quests)
Turkey - 6
Spade - 7
Barbed Wire - 6
Poster - 2
Newspaper - 3
Beans - 4
Raven Feather - 8
Glass of Water - 6
Oranges - 2
Tomato - 6
Corn - 1

I'm also looking for the following products for crafting:
Horn of a Cow
Beaver Skin
Sickle
Wood (save some for yourself, lots of quests need this)
Wool
Leather .... lots of leather

hoopsguy

09-07-2015, 10:35 AM

Coffee Warlord has returned. God help us.

And you are a step ahead of me already, with a fort weapon in hand.
Friend and town invites sent.

JAG

09-07-2015, 12:44 PM

Is there merit in cranking through the town hall as quickly as possible to make all future builds require less time and effort? At least assuming we don't need a specific building such as residence if we need more room for people or upgraded general store for specific purchases that are needed?

hoopsguy

09-07-2015, 01:01 PM

JAG, there are definite long-term benefits on the Town Hall for the exact reasons you outline. But I'm not sure it is a straight shot to build it, while ignoring General Store (I want faster horses!) or Hotel (recover energy/health) or Bank (save more money) etc ... all a bit of a balancing act.

ntndeacon

09-07-2015, 01:42 PM

I decided that adventurer was the way to go

hoopsguy

09-07-2015, 02:29 PM

Sounds good.

So, current town makeup:
Builder - hoopsguy, JAGfofc
Adventurer - Coffee Warlord, ntndeacon
Undeclared - Greyfriars Bobby

And waiting to see if mrkilla22 is going to join the town.

We've currently got room for 10 in the town, so can extend 4 more invites if people are interested in jumping in.

hoopsguy

09-07-2015, 02:57 PM

So, as people make the move towards level 20 they will have an option to choose one of four tracks for crafting.

Sifting through crafting, you'll see three different color codes next to recipes. A yellow recipe means that for each item you craft, you can expect to gain a crafting point. If the recipe is green, it means that you will sometimes (maybe 1 in 3?) get a crafting point for each item. A white item will not yield a crafting point.

As your crafting points ascend, you can learn additional recipes. You can get recipes through job drops, although the market is often an easier place to find the ones you will need at a specific level.

The items you craft can provide different buffs, apply towards collections, or act as parts for higher level crafting recipes. For example, a Blacksmith can create Bayonets that offer enhanced damage in fort fights. A Tonic Peddler can create Amulets, which add health and dodge bonuses for fort fights.

Some recipes are common, while others are more rare. As a general rule, recipes in the 550 or 600 categories are pretty rare. With that in mind, the first person who wants to go Tonic Peddler should look me up to get one of those 550 recipes that I found earlier this afternoon: Tinker a Health Puppet.

Greyfriars Bobby

09-07-2015, 05:17 PM

I'm also looking for the following products for crafting:
Horn of a Cow
Beaver Skin
Sickle
Wood (save some for yourself, lots of quests need this)
Wool
Leather .... lots of leather

I've got some leather I could give you. I'd be happy to post them in the Market for you, if I can figure out how it's done. :)

I'm currently hunting for MORE turkeys, and if I don't get them on this hunt, I could use four turkeys--if you can spare them.

hoopsguy

09-07-2015, 06:08 PM

A busy day of grinding 15sec jobs has me at Level 26. From here on out, I'll almost certainly be doing hour jobs while offline during the day and then trying to sneak in a few 15sec in the evening. But that will be hard to do without being able to travel faster. So that is the new conundrum heading into the remaining four day work week.

Three more hours of town build set for now, and will likely have another 3 overnight. In short term, working on General Store and Tailor. Hope to see a couple levels of buildings as a result.

Current Level: 26 (633/2217 to next level)
Current $$$: 13,437 in bank
Current Bonds: 119
Current Weapon: Scout's Axe (6-14 damage)
Current XP Rank: 2,659 (based on Level 26)
Current Dueling Rank: 12,432
Current Dueling Record: 0-1
Current Town Rank: 462 (up 99 spots from yesterday!)
"Best" Item: Brown Slouch Hat (+6 Vigor, +6 Dodging, +11 Setting Traps)
Set Collections: Greenhorn (complete), Farmers Set (1/7)
Achievements: 43/690
Completed quests: 102
Used construction points: 781
Contributed to town treasury: $6,655

hoopsguy

09-08-2015, 05:28 AM

Slowly but surely the town is going up. Got a Sheriff and Gunsmith posted, and our General Store is now Level 1.

With the start of the work week, along with the impending end of the premium bonus for income + energy, the rate of growth will likely slow. I'll queue up three hours of work before leaving in the morning, then getting some work in after dinner, and finally setting up 3 hours of building at night.

The town treasury current sits around $6,000, which is enough to fun 24+ separate construction efforts. That is likely enough to see JAG and I through the next three days of building. Definitely a good start on the town.

Current town roster:
Hoopsguy (Level 28)
Coffee Warlord (Level 22)
ntndeacon (Level 21)
JAGfofc (Level 18)
Greyfriars Bobby (Level 14)

mrkilla22 is Level 15, and like Caine from "Kung Fu" is walking from town to town, meeting people, getting in adventurers. As in, he has not yet accepted the Troutville town invite :)

JAG

09-08-2015, 06:21 AM

collegesportsfanms

09-08-2015, 10:36 AM

The URL is the-west.net.

And if we've got more folks signing up, then time for me to start working on Residences in town. We can currently support 5, but I'll get cracking on this now so we can scale to 10 by end of day tomorrow.

NTN, invite on the way now.

I am getting ready to sign up for this today, to get it out of the way, but I honestly don't know how much time I'll have to devote to it every day, especially with so much other stuff going on. My plan is to at least give it a look every day, even if I don't spend an amazing amount of time on it. Without really having a clue what exactly it is and if there's time limits or time frames or what not, I'm going into it blind and clueless for sure. I'm signing up now

collegesportsfanms

09-08-2015, 10:38 AM

the-west.net appears to be down right now, either that or it's on my end. I'll try again later.

mrkilla22

09-08-2015, 11:43 AM

collegesportsfanms

09-08-2015, 11:56 AM

ok, I'm signed up as collegesportsfanms, I think. Whenever I tried to go into any of the worlds, all I got was a blank screen. So, I'm not sure what's going on

collegesportsfanms

09-08-2015, 11:57 AM

wait, scratch that, I've just gotten into World1, I'm looking at the tutorial now.

collegesportsfanms

09-08-2015, 12:11 PM

ok, so I did the tutorial in World1, then I decided to try my luck at getting into Fairbanks again. It took a while to load, but I'm in, so now I guess I have to do the tutorial in Fairbanks. I'm totally confused.

Brian Swartz

09-08-2015, 12:26 PM

Sounds very interesting. Unfortunately I have less than no time, so I'll just have to read along here.

mrkilla22

09-08-2015, 12:40 PM

Sorry, I haven't been able to check the game this weekend other than on my phone once or twice. Where do I find the town invite?

Nevermind, I found it! It was buried in my messages.

ntndeacon

09-08-2015, 12:53 PM

I went Blacksmith , so there is at least one craft type amongst us now.

hoopsguy

09-08-2015, 07:44 PM

OK, back to work on Troutville.
collegesportsfanms, welcome to the-west. Friend and town invite on the way.
mrkilla, glad to have you with us in town.
Brian, hope that we give you a fun read.

We're closing in on a Level 2 hotel. Probably one more hour of work for me to move that along. Hoping to advance my character another level or two this evening to be more confident that the next hour on the hotel will get the job done.

So, now that I have access to the fort fighting views after hitting Level 25 I've come to a realization: the fort fighting participation on this world is not particularly good. Medium fort battles (100 attackers vs 84 defenders) do not regularly fill, and large fort battles (140 attackers vs 120 defenders) do not must 200 total participants. Which means that if/when our players want to start fort fighting, the option is pretty wide open to do so.

PackerFanatic

09-08-2015, 08:32 PM

Back in the saddle (pun fully intended). Definitely looks like it has changed quite a bit since last go-round. Let me know what we are needing for jobs and such. I need to do some reading up on things.

hoopsguy

09-08-2015, 08:55 PM

Welcome, Packer. At this point, I would encourage you to do something different than what you did in 2009 just to create a different experience.

Town and friend invites on the way.
Hmm, what name did you use for sign-up? Not seeing PackerFanatic, but if you registered in last hour or so it might not be updated just yet.

PackerFanatic

09-08-2015, 09:01 PM

Yeah, I used PackerFanatic (same account was still open actually)

And truthfully, I cannot remember at all what I did then, so it will all be new to me, more or less! Cruising through the opening tutorials and such - up to level 7!

hoopsguy

09-08-2015, 09:55 PM

And things are looking up, as I've now picked up a much faster horse from the mobile trader: Quarter Horse, speed +150%

With that in mind, does anyone want my White Horse? Speed 100%? Happy to list to help someone else move around at a better clip.
Also have a push dagger, doing 13-23 damage, that is a dupe. Found one literally 2 minutes after buying that item from trader.

Pushing for Level 31 tonight before calling it a wrap. Then will get to work on building for a few hours tonight. Finished a quest line that provided Automation, which means that I can queue 8 jobs instead of 4. So will likely do 5 hours of construction this evening instead of 3.

Finally, if someone has a chance to complete "Clothes Make the Man" quest from Maya, the reward at end is pretty nice for lower levels. Yellow Checkered Shirt, +12 Vigor, +13 Tactics.

hoopsguy

09-08-2015, 11:12 PM

And that is a wrap for Monday night. Pushed to Level 31, and about 60% of way to next level. That may be my last time getting multiple levels in a day, as I believe my prem energy will disappear.

Did find my first item in the Sleepyhead set, which is great for recovering energy. I'm the proud owner of a pillow.

Going to queue up 5 hours of work tonight:
- Hotel
- Town Hall
- Tailor x2
- Gunsmith

Current Level: 31 (1891/3102 to next level)
Current $$$: 23,752 in bank
Current Bonds: 126
Current Weapon: Push Dagger (13-23 damage)
Current XP Rank: 2,343 (based on Level 30)
Current Dueling Rank: 12,436
Current Dueling Record: 0-1
Current Town Rank: 380 (up 82 spots from yesterday!)
"Best" Item: Quarter Horse (speed +150%)
Set Collections: Greenhorn (complete), Farmers Set (1/7), Mexican Set (2/9), Sleepyhead (1/8)
Achievements: 53/690
Completed quests: 118
Used construction points: 1,589
Contributed to town treasury: $10,339

PackerFanatic

09-09-2015, 10:20 AM

Hit level 15 today and decided to go the route of a solider. Hopefully I can be useful when it comes to fort battles if we get to that point :)

Coffee Warlord

09-09-2015, 10:25 AM

By the way, if anyone is looking to join, send an email address. Everyone gets a quest to invite someone, so we get free shit.

PackerFanatic

09-09-2015, 10:46 AM

hoops - I'd be happy to take that horse off your hands if nobody else needs it.

JAG

09-09-2015, 12:11 PM

I found a 125% horse at the trader today so that helps. Some of these locations are pretty far even with that.

Stupid question: does sleeping in the hotel puts you totally out of commission for 8 hours?

Coffee Warlord

09-09-2015, 12:14 PM

No, you can cancel it like any other job.

Coffee Warlord

09-09-2015, 12:46 PM

Tell you what, no fort has ever been safer than this one I've been guarding for the last century.

PackerFanatic

09-09-2015, 03:03 PM

Man - I really miss that 5000% movement increase perk. Taking 15 minutes just to walk to a job that is not at all that far from town is absurd. And I have to go over 2 hours to turn in a quest now too? Boo-urns...

mrkilla22

09-09-2015, 03:05 PM

What are the best things to buy using Union Pacific Bonds?

hoopsguy

09-09-2015, 07:19 PM

Hit level 15 today and decided to go the route of a solider. Hopefully I can be useful when it comes to fort battles if we get to that point :)

Yep, soldiers get fat better than other builds. And they defend better in dueling. So some nice options for the soldier; mildly surprised more people don't do that class.

hoopsguy

09-09-2015, 07:20 PM

hoops - I'd be happy to take that horse off your hands if nobody else needs it.

Man - I really miss that 5000% movement increase perk. Taking 15 minutes just to walk to a job that is not at all that far from town is absurd. And I have to go over 2 hours to turn in a quest now too? Boo-urns...

I'll post this when I'm back in town tonight. 100% movement, compared to 25% for donkey, is pretty meaningful difference.

hoopsguy

09-09-2015, 07:59 PM

What are the best things to buy using Union Pacific Bonds?

Totally individual decision. For my Level 150 guy, I normally save up to 2,000 bonds and buy that chest for chance to get something super rare. But at earlier levels, stuff like buffs or set items like Confederate or Prairie set might be more appealing.

hoopsguy

09-09-2015, 10:23 PM

Town is now up to 7 participants, with a couple of potential spots remaining with our current Residences. If there were more people who wanted to take a look, we would just prioritize building residences. A town can hold a max of 50, so I'm not exactly quaking over running out of spots.

Speaking of town building, the work from last night resulted in bumps for our Tailor and Gunsmith. I'm looking to sink another 3 hours in this evening, with hopes that we can keep moving the needle on our buildings. Thrilled to see JAG picking up a few levels, as that should dramatically help with his building results. And I see he has 5 hours of building queued up as well ...

Expected building:
- Mortician
- Tailor
- Gunsmith

Would hope to move the Tailor level up to 3, as well as get the Mortician (only one level) up and operational. Plus whatever JAGs building contributes ... we should see some decent movement by tomorrow morning.

That said, it is going to start costing more and more to finish levels on buildings. I'm hoping to start finding some items with construction bonuses. So far, have not had much luck with getting that kind of gear. Premium cash expired earlier this evening, and my premium energy will be gone tomorrow morning. So the grind is on ...

Current Level: 33 (2634/3498 to next level)
Current $$$: 28,870 in bank
Current Bonds: 144
Current Weapon: Push Dagger (13-23 damage)
Current XP Rank: 2,195 (based on Level 33)
Current Dueling Rank: 12,385
Current Dueling Record: 0-1
Current Town Rank: 338 (up 42 spots from yesterday!)
"Best" Item: Quarter Horse (speed +150%)
Set Collections: Greenhorn (complete), Farmers Set (1/7), Mexican Set (2/9), Sleepyhead (1/8)
Achievements: 57/690
Completed quests: 122
Used construction points: 2,289
Contributed to town treasury: $11,833

collegesportsfanms

09-09-2015, 10:41 PM

pleased to be a part of this game, and the new town of Troutville. Unfortunately this is just another fun thing to take away some of my time. Don't know how much I'll be able to be devote to this, first priority as far as FOFC goes is still my FBCB interactive dynasties and my WIS NCAA Tournament. BTW hoopsguy, did you sign up for a coach in my FBCB Interactive Coaches Dynasty? If not, I need to get you involved in it.

hoopsguy

09-10-2015, 05:14 AM

Nice to see all the buildings that were completed in morning reports:
- Tailor (L3)
- Mortician (done)
- Market (L2)
- Gunsmith (L3)

Thanks to JAG for some serious building efforts last night.

Coffee Warlord

09-10-2015, 05:38 PM

2 hours away from Troutville, and carrying over 4k. But, I'm not donating 20% to some non Trout town!

JAG

09-10-2015, 06:47 PM

Not sure I'll be able to build as much tonight do to energy woes. I'm planning on staying at the hotel for a little while soon to see if I can't squeeze in 1-2 more tasks.

For the vets, how worth it is it to travel over the different map quadrants / counties to meet up with quest givers? I'm a little put off by the distance required in some cases, but if the rewards are worthwhile I will put up with the otherwise wasted travel time or wait until energy has been depleted first.

PackerFanatic

09-10-2015, 06:50 PM

I have been wondering the same, JAG. Just got a couple quests that are quite a ways away - what is worse is the ones that make you come back to them to turn them in.

ntndeacon

09-10-2015, 08:13 PM

I am dealing with some of my backlog of quests, the Adventurer's starting quest to the other side of the map sucked
I am walking back now. About to hit up the indian village where I started from

hoopsguy

09-10-2015, 08:51 PM

My plan is to wait until I have a set that allows for faster travel. I would prefer not to have one-way travel take more than 3 hours. I know there is one involving the Ghost Town that is about as far away as you can get from our town.

Brian Swartz

09-10-2015, 10:30 PM

By the way, if anyone is looking to join, send an email address. Everyone gets a quest to invite someone, so we get free shit.

Well, it looks like I have an unexpected break in my schedule coming up next week, and quite possibly longer than that if things go well(which they almost never do). Decided to sign up and at least see the game for myself, so ...

how do I go about doing the above, Coffee?(or whomever)

Coffee Warlord

09-11-2015, 09:04 AM

PM me your email addy, assuming you don't wanna post it in public.

FrogMan

09-11-2015, 11:18 AM

Oh man, how many hours have I sucked into this thing... You guys know if this thing is playable on an iPad? I rarely sit down on my computer but always have my iPad near me in the living room. Could be cool to reconnect on another FOFC effort in The West. I too have been getting emails about coming back to the game and was tempted but just never made a move for it...

If anybody wants to shoot me an invite, you can do it at
steve.gougeon

at

gmail.com

If not playable on the iPad, I might toy with it on my laptop but will definitely not be as present...

FM

Coffee Warlord

09-11-2015, 12:58 PM

We can't invite you, you're already a real person. :)

PackerFanatic

09-11-2015, 01:39 PM

Anyone have a black headband? Need one for a quest - and the closest one I can find is 4 hours away.

FrogMan

09-11-2015, 02:03 PM

We can't invite you, you're already a real person. :)

well, ok. I'll try logging in with my iPad then ;)

FM

mrkilla22

09-11-2015, 03:12 PM

Anyone have a black headband? Need one for a quest - and the closest one I can find is 4 hours away.

Yeah, I need a black headband too.

Coffee Warlord

09-11-2015, 03:14 PM

Actionville sells them - n/nw from us, very close.

collegesportsfanms

09-11-2015, 03:28 PM

ok, since I'm fairly new to this game, and still learning what the heck is going on, I have a couple questions.

First, when I started and was trying to figure out how to get to Troutville, I actually opened 3 game worlds, World 1, Colorado, and Fairbanks. Now I get emails from Colorado and World 1 because I'm inactive in those worlds, as I've been doing most of my gaming in Fairbanks. Is there any way to prevent this? Or is it sometimes good to go into different worlds? I dunno, I'm just curious.

Also, in Fairbanks, I have no quests for the Saloon other than kill Gary, which I'm not strong enough to do yet. So I guess I'm just supposed to go around and explore Fairbanks and all the towns, looking for jobs and etc? Is there an easy way for me to figure out what jobs I can do? Like I said, I'm basically a complete rookie to "The West" and could use all the help I can get.

mrkilla22

09-11-2015, 04:03 PM

Actionville sells them - n/nw from us, very close.

Thanks!

ntndeacon

09-11-2015, 04:55 PM

Brian Swartz

09-11-2015, 05:02 PM

We can't invite you, you're already a real person.

So am I, guess I screwed that up then. Gradually becoming less incompetent at the game, level 10 at the moment. I'm using the name I used to use on a few forums, zorromorph.

PackerFanatic

09-11-2015, 10:32 PM

Actionville sells them - n/nw from us, very close.

Would help if I looked at the tailor instead of the general store. No wonder I couldn't find any! Thanks CW!

PackerFanatic

09-11-2015, 10:35 PM

hoopsguy

09-12-2015, 11:26 AM

Think I might use my first bonds today.
I've been banging away on some of the 30 minute quests today, and will likely see my energy dip to zero before getting another level. Which is 100% fine during the week, and most of the time on weekends, but I'm home alone this afternoon with my wife and daughter visiting family. So I would like to see if I can really get some work done on my character and Troutville today when not watching college football or the Cubs.

Enter the 36 bond purchase of Mate tea. 100% energy bonus, 20% motivation bump. If that applies for my construction motivation, then I should be primed to get some real work done on town this evening after seeing my motivation dip to 72% last night. Add in 1-2 levels, maybe a bow tie or another item to give another 10 points of Construction skill, and I'm betting I can do >200 on my 100% build later today.

PackerFanatic

09-12-2015, 01:30 PM

I am making the long trek (3+ hours) over to the south of the country to start my blacksmith mastery. Figure I might as well clean up some of the quests I have over there at the same time. So I won't be home for a while, boys :)

hoopsguy

09-12-2015, 08:53 PM

Good thing that we bumped the Residences yesterday, as we're up to 12 people now and I believe we have 1-2 outstanding invites out there.

Welcome Professor58, dragonspellx, and thejuggler3!

Managed to grind up to Level 37 today, although I lost about $1200 in cash while pushing for that level. Had about 195 health left, 5 15sec jobs doing a job with 28% danger, and about 66 damage from the job. Got hurt on first one, then nothing for next 3. Final job landed a 132 point blow, kicking me back to town minus my cash. The crowd boos.

Also took part in my first fort fight. Probably worth noting that for your first battle, you'll be restored with 100% health and 100% energy at the end of the battle. That little perk does not continue for subsequent battles. Participation was pretty full, with 97 attacks routing the 84 defenders. The defenders were the former Legends alliance, who appear to have re-branded as "Battlecry." I sided with that group since they own the large fort next to our town. I wasn't super encouraged by what I saw in terms of fort battle leadership today. The team was overmatched, but still was pretty odd lead by a guy from WARRIOR TOWN.

As our town is getting bigger, if we have some people who have an interest in joining fort battles, I suspect we'll have some offers to join alliances. Open to any feedback that others have about what makes sense in terms of alliance.

In other news, I bumped JAG and Coffee Warlord up to Counselor status. That will allow them to be able to extend town invites to others when I'm not around. Figured we were getting big enough where it made sense to distribute some of the management stuff ...

Town building: have 4 hours queued, with intent to get us Level 4 Gunsmith and Level 4 Hotel by end of the evening. It seems like more of us are running into energy challenges now, and having the max hotel (Level 5) goes a long way towards reducing that pain.

JAG

09-12-2015, 09:57 PM

I'm open to joining an alliance if doing so can be to our advantage in some way. Politically I don't know these guys as you appear to so I don't know if there would be some reason to be wary on that front.

I am definitely one running into energy problems as a reasonable bit of my day is spent in the hotel recovering, so I'll add a couple hours to the hotel as well. I'm finding the cinema to be useful too to restore some motivation for building in the town, though I think the energy replenishment will be more useful.

EDIT: Also putting in an hour in residence so we can expand if needed as it seems like we've been gaining quite a few of late.

PackerFanatic

09-13-2015, 12:09 AM

My energy bonus ended tonight, so I won't be able to queue up nearly as many hour long jobs as I did today while out. I still got a few days of automation left that I got from a quest (giving me the ability to queue up to 9 jobs) which will definitely come in handy.

Either way, was able to hit 25 today and made my way over to do some blacksmithing quests to work on my crafting a bit. Glad to see our town growing nicely!

hoopsguy

09-13-2015, 11:04 PM

I'm assuming that JAG is going to finish the Hotel; no sense putting extra points in it when points beyond Level 5 are wasted. If it isn't finished when I wake up in the morning, I'll take responsibility for finishing it tomorrow.

3 hours going into General Store, with the hope/expectation that I'll be bring that to Level 5.

If anyone gets a Construction item, besides a Neckband, that is more than +10 in the mobile trader I would ask that you purchase that and I'll buy it off you. In particular, my jacket and belt are particularly hideous. Pants are no prize either.

PackerFanatic

09-14-2015, 03:40 PM

Anyone have some spare wood or iron rods they could donate? Looking to work on my blacksmithing a bit.

PackerFanatic

09-14-2015, 03:55 PM

dola - I have a few pieces of leather and a whole plethora of other consumables to trade. Also have a few recipes for other professions. Is the market the only place to really put them? How can I give you guys first crack at them without allowing others to purchase?

Coffee Warlord

09-14-2015, 07:30 PM

That dueler over in Swedish Vikings seems to be preying more and more on our people. Somebody needs Killin' methinks.

hoopsguy

09-14-2015, 08:23 PM

That dueler over in Swedish Vikings seems to be preying more and more on our people. Somebody needs Killin' methinks.

Same guy that hit me? That is only duel I've had in my career.
We'll out-level him pretty quickly if we just show up and get login bonuses, work through 100 energy in some way, shape, or form.

But if someone is a dueller and wants to blast all residents of that city, I wouldn't try to hold them back.

Coffee Warlord

09-14-2015, 09:07 PM

For an Adventurer, I've got a halfway decent dueling build. I can't duel the one guy who actually attacked us, but there's a couple of their non builder guys I intend to make bleed when they're around.

hoopsguy

09-14-2015, 11:33 PM

It is kind of amusing that our town is 0-10 in duels.
I don't plan to go looking for a duel until town in done, barring our town going to war with someone and trying to run some raids.

If we are looking to tune some folks up, we can prioritize our Gunsmith. Up to this point, it has been a little less of a priority for me than the Tailor and General Store.

JAG

09-15-2015, 06:07 AM

My travel set is up to 17mph, so I'm going to work on some of the far west stuff today. Sadly today is also the day automation runs out. We seem to be making pretty good progress on the town.

Brian Swartz

09-15-2015, 06:08 AM

That supposed 'work break' thing has largely gone away with a crazy weekend, but I got some time to play last night -- and current quest needs corn. Queued up a bunch of 10 min. jobs while doing other things. At the moment, it's been six or seven of them in a row with a 57% drop rate ... and haven't gotten a single thing. Must be the game's day to hate me. Just about to finally hit level 15 so while I don't think I'll be able to contribute a ton, I'm depositing some money here or there and taking up space like a boss :P

Coffee Warlord

09-15-2015, 09:04 AM

I shot up that alexroberts dude for ya'll.

FOR THE WATCH.

hoopsguy

09-15-2015, 09:19 PM

My travel set is up to 17mph, so I'm going to work on some of the far west stuff today. Sadly today is also the day automation runs out. We seem to be making pretty good progress on the town.

That is because you've done nice work putting together your Mexican set. I'm jealous.

Cap Ologist

09-16-2015, 10:39 AM

What county is Troutville located in?

mrkilla22

09-16-2015, 10:48 AM

Olympian County

mrkilla22

09-16-2015, 11:07 AM

Hellstorm77 just killed me. Ouch.

hoopsguy

09-16-2015, 11:56 AM

Hellstorm77 just killed me. Ouch.

Funny timing on that, as he just reached out to me about joining his alliance. Posting the telegram below, looking for feedback on it over the next 24 hours. I'll hold my thoughts/history for a little while to allow others to react to this first.

Hello Hoopsguy how are you doing?

I have seen you around on Colorado. I have shoot at you a few time in FF but i think i missed lol thats my luck.

Anyways yesterday i was getting a little bored of being in a large alliance where they had NAP's more than half of the towns on this world, so i thought i would start my own town and a small alliance, which is dedicated to help each other.

We plan to have NO NAP's with any other alliance which will make FF fun on here.
People in the alliance can pick which side to be on.

If towns want to own forts we would help them in anyway we can.

I would have to talk with the other alliances on here eg if we attack one alliance would the other came and help or visa versa.

Our forts would stay in our alliance only so the other alliances could attack, this way for don't get involved in the Politics.

What do you think of this idea?
Would you like to join the MC?

Regards
Hellstorm77

hoopsguy

09-16-2015, 11:58 AM

What county is Troutville located in?

Olympian County

If you are looking to quickly locate any town, a good way to do this is use the "Ranking" button that sits just to right of your picture (top-left corner, 2nd button from bottom) and go to the Towns tab. Just to the left of the town name is a brown/white square; click on that and the map view will center on the town. You can then open the town, click on the sign post (bottom middle of town, between buildings) to walk to the town.

PackerFanatic

09-16-2015, 12:43 PM

I don't know much about alliances or the politics, so I will defer to the group on this one.

hoopsguy

09-16-2015, 03:20 PM

Cap Ologist, have you signed up for this one? I wasn't able to find your name on the rankings list when I looked earlier this afternoon.

JAG

09-16-2015, 04:46 PM

Cap Ologist, have you signed up for this one? I wasn't able to find your name on the rankings list when I looked earlier this afternoon.

I've got an invite to him (presumably), usual nick is Tooleman.

Will have something to say later about the alliance offer.

Cap Ologist

09-16-2015, 04:57 PM

That'd be me.

JAG

09-16-2015, 09:01 PM

Anyways yesterday i was getting a little bored of being in a large alliance where they had NAP's more than half of the towns on this world, so i thought i would start my own town and a small alliance, which is dedicated to help each other.

We plan to have NO NAP's with any other alliance which will make FF fun on here.
People in the alliance can pick which side to be on.

If towns want to own forts we would help them in anyway we can.

I would have to talk with the other alliances on here eg if we attack one alliance would the other came and help or visa versa.

Our forts would stay in our alliance only so the other alliances could attack, this way for don't get involved in the Politics.

I'm not sure what 'FF' is. I also don't understand his last sentence or how a structure could work where part of the alliance might help outside alliance A while another part helps outside alliance B. So I have some ambivalence going with this guy, but clearly he knows you and perhaps you know something of him, maybe he has trouble with English or who knows what.

Not knowing the politics and people here, I don't totally understand what an alliance gets us. I think there are some benefits to owning a fort or being part of an alliance with a fort, but I don't know how significant these are. The fort battles seem interesting though I don't know much about them. It seems like numbers are important in those which may be why these alliances tend towards the huge sprawling type (or people are just bored and want to run jobs all day with minimal combat, who knows?)

In the past, the most fun I've had is with small, powerful, trustworthy groups. If we need numbers to do fort battles effectively, then it seems we'll need to group up at some point. It might be wiser to join with a larger group initially while we're in the building up phase as it seems like there are a good bit of longer time players here with more stats / better equipment / more money, but that does frequently involve a lot of politics and that can often be a headache.

So my initial thought is I'm a little ambivalent accepting this offer as I don't exactly understand what it gets us, don't know much about his new town or any of the players in it or the players he's allied with vs. the existing order.

Coffee Warlord

09-16-2015, 09:53 PM

His town is basically on the entire opposite side of the map from us, including a whole 7 people. Blegh.

Brian Swartz

09-16-2015, 10:54 PM

Wondering from the higher level people when(if?) quest spam slows down. I'm at 10 active right now after clearing a couple short ones out. Seems I get three new ones for every two I complete.

hoopsguy

09-17-2015, 05:48 AM

Brian, I believe I have 40 quests open at the moment. You can have a max of 50.

There are a rotating set of daily quests; those never slow down.

There are a bunch of quests that become available early in the game. You won't see nearly as many new quests 3 months into the game if you work through the early level stuff. However, the relative value of the XP for completing those quests is never higher than it is when you are low level.

Bottom line, you don't need to do the quests. You can do jobs, dueling, fort fighting (screen becomes available at level 25) or whatever else makes the game more interesting for you. Personally, I do a combination of quests and jobs in Fairbanks, while on other worlds I'm more fort driven.

hoopsguy

09-17-2015, 03:13 PM

So, thoughts on the alliance offer ...

Agree that the distance and size of the town doesn't bring a ton to the table. The guy leading the town is a long time, mostly active player. He has a bit of a vendetta against one of the alliances, but I think his bigger motivation is mostly being bored with the overall game ... same basic themes emerge on multiple worlds, and he is trying to do something a little different here to help create more excitement for him.

That said, I would hope that our alliance activity lends itself to getting to sleep in forts. Having our town join that other town doesn't seem likely to land us a sleeping spot in a fort near our town.

Other benefits of alliance are a bigger pool of people to talk with, trade with, engage in tandem dueling with, etc. For most of us who are new to the game, I suspect that bigger is most likely better at this time. Only exception would be is if we want to command a bigger seat at the table in alliance matters. If that is a desired outcome, we might have to look at smaller alliances.

Brian Swartz

09-18-2015, 03:04 AM

Makes sense on the quests. I guess I just thought it was a little more linear than that. I'll have to experiment more.

hoopsguy

09-18-2015, 08:43 PM

Makes sense on the quests. I guess I just thought it was a little more linear than that. I'll have to experiment more.

The only thing that is truly linear is the "main storyline" quest series. The "Outpost" group is the first in the set, which opens up at Level 10. There is another quest group that opens every ten levels, with each of those quest series being in the 10-25 total quest range. I think the last one is at Level 100, although I'm not 100% sure on that.

There are all kinds of other quests that are date driven or level driven, with a few that are location driven.

hoopsguy

09-19-2015, 09:50 AM

So you might see some references in the Saloon chat to "friends for Oktoberfest." That is a 3 week promotion (there is one per quarter) where you accumulate some kind of points for jobs, dueling, fort battles, and "gifts" from friends. You can have a max of 100 friends on the world, so if each of them clicks to send you 20 "points" (not right term, but something like that) you would accumulate 2,000 points. An hour of work is worth something like 350-425 points. Winning a duel is worth 80 or so points. Those points can be converted into prizes, with 4 categories of prizes. Better stuff is on the higher levels, which cost more points.

When the event rolls around, I'll be happy to help field questions about how this works. In the near term, if you see someone that is looking for friends for Oktoberfest, it is probably worth looking to add friends to maximize your success in the event. You can shed those friends again after the event is over.

heybrad

09-21-2015, 11:05 AM

So I would suggest that I have no idea what I'm doing, but I'm up to level 10 and would love to join your town if you want to invite me. I'm on as heybrad.

Brian Swartz

09-21-2015, 05:34 PM

hoopsguy

09-21-2015, 10:07 PM

Reached 25 now so I'm going to be taking my first extended journey away from Troutville and the surrounding area, heading to the southeast for Indian Village, Outpost, and who knows what else stuff. From what I can tell I think I'll be gone for a good while.

If you can, try to load up on the Mexican Set to help make those travels faster. At level 25, you can get some of those items now and will soon be able to get remainder. Seven of eight items are available by Level 30. For travel, I don't equip the donkey but if I have 4 items equipped that speeds up travel by 36%. Throw on your best horseback riding gear for other spots not claimed by Mexican pieces and you can shorten your riding time even further.

Mexican's set - TW-DB.info (http://tw-db.info/?strana=supravy&set=set_mexican)

JAG

09-22-2015, 12:23 PM

hoopsguy

09-22-2015, 09:29 PM

I'm a sucker for the 15s jobs to push towards leveling. But after our math discussion, I suspect I'll settle in on 10 minute jobs for the majority of this event when I'm online, and set up hour jobs for the times offline.

hoopsguy

09-22-2015, 10:30 PM

So hopefully everyone has gotten a chance to check out the Oktoberfest event.

Tip #1: Get as many friends as fast as you can.
- Can have up to 100 friends
- Each friend can send 20 pretzels per 24 hours
- Pretzels are the currency for the next 3 weeks, in terms of obtaining Oktoberfest items
- I like to send friend invites to anyone who is active in the Saloon chat, particularly folks who are asking for friends or pretzels
- If you are not friends with everyone in town, send those invites now

Tip #2: Send your pretzels to people
- There is a pretzel icon on each picture on the friends toolbar (middle of screen, just above bottom)
- You are more likely to get pretzels in return, and remain on friends lists, when you send your pretzels every day

Tip #3: Keep those timers moving
- There are four buckets: Free, 25, 150, and 800 that correspond to the likelihood of getting great loot
- There is plenty of helpful stuff in the "free" bucket, so make sure you pay attention to that one first and foremost
- After collecting your first one, timer moves to 4 hours. Will increment by additional 20 minutes (going from memory) every time you claim a prize
- You can potentially "lose" a showdown; believe that the "bribe" to get 2nd chance is 480 pretzels. Good to keep that amount on hand
- Open up the "25" category when you have 1980 additional pretzels. Category costs 1500, but you'll want to have the 480 in reserve in case you lose
- Every "win" increments your level, and you get bonus items from the Johann set at 5, 10, 20, etc with the last item coming at Level 120. The individual bonuses on these items are valuable right away for us, and they will increase with levels. We want this equipment.

Tip #4 - Keep running jobs
- As JAG notes, the 15s jobs are the least efficient for accumulating pretzels. Each one of those only gets 2-3 pretzels
- 10min are closer to 70 average, while hour are more like 375.
- Dueling wins give you about 70, similar to 10 minute job but costing 12 energy instead of 5 energy for a job
- Consider using bonds or buffs to allow you to run more jobs over the next 3 weeks. Jobs = pretzels = more Oktoberfest items

I'll be happy to trade any dupes I might find with other folks in town. It is pretty hard to land weapons, saddles, or horses without spending nuggets. Pants and clothing are also pretty rare. But I would expect we'll all get hats, neckbands, and a collection of buffs that will be useful in the medium/long run.

If you have any additional questions, I'm happy to address them either here or in town chat. Happy hunting!

hoopsguy

09-23-2015, 10:15 AM

In non-Oktoberfest news, Troutville has moved up to #150 in the town rankings. Seemed like a round-ish number worthy of reporting.

hoopsguy

09-24-2015, 11:39 PM

Got an alliance offer from one of the big guns. Info posted below, as well as in our town forum.

Hello hoopsguy,

I am Chili Mac, the founder of Waters Settle alliance. I noticed your town is not in an alliance and I was wondering if your town might be intersted in joining our alliance?

We have a great team of players who help everyone out and we are active with alot to offer our members.

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Thank you
Chili Mac
Waters Settle Alliance

JAG

09-25-2015, 05:32 AM

I feel pretty good about accepting this offer. They appear to have the second-best array of forts in the game, second to a group that appears to be the real old-timers elite group. So I don't suspect we'll get a better offer than this for us just starting out.

JAG

09-25-2015, 05:45 AM

Dug into it a bit more and it appears they also have some decent alliance partners in The Claw v2 and The Brotherhood, so if for some reason you think either of those alliances would offer more (more The Claw than The Brotherhood from my quick look), I would be ok with that as well.

I guess the other possibility would be the Independent Forts group that's allied with BattleCry. Not knowing any of the folks involved on either side, I'll leave it to you to sort out our path, but I think an alliance with one of them would probably be helpful.