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General Building Cost vrs Efficiency

FlyingFalcon

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Let me just say from the beginning that I really enjoy playing AC and I know that we are just supposed to play the game the way it was designed and not fuss over the different nuisances. I'm not trying to change the game but rather understand it better. Having side that, there is a trend I've noticed and I'm trying to figure it out and am looking for some insight from some of you seasoned flyers.

So, my question is, why are the more expensive buildings less efficient? For example: a Manor cost 350 coins and puts out 9 passengers every 15 minutes while a Tower Building cost 4900 coins but only gives 63 passengers every 2 days. Another example, the more you upgrade the fuel station the less efficient it becomes. Can anyone shed some light on the reasoning behind this? Are there some hidden perks to these more expensive buildings that I'm not aware of or is the game just designed this way to make it more challenging the further you go?

Thanks in advance for the input.
 

PhactorPhil

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You're not alone bud. I have some of the same questions. I'll tell you up front, I haven't figured out why the fuel station costs are the way they are.

For some of the other buildings, I suspect it is due to the collectible items it produces. I also suspect that some players want buildings that give out more PAX per click vs number of clicks taken. A daily player may only want to click once to receive passengers each time s/he logs in, whereas someone who plays multiple times a day is willing to click multiple times.
 

Wasted Eagle

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You're right, @FlyingFalcon . If you just look at the numbers you're 100% correct: the tower building puts out crap numbers and the 3 fuel units is by far the best bargain. But @PhactorPhil makes a good point. If I open my game twice a day, the 15 fuel units are better for my game, regardless the cost.
Also the 9 pax from your manor have nothing on the 60-ish pax from the tower building should I use an Alarm Clock bonus (which I often do).

In this game you should never factor in the coin cost. It's only the (often very steep) purchase price, but after that it's down to output/hour (maybe even per tile if you're really crazy :) ). And coins are relatively easy to come by.

Efficiency changes from player to player. Efficiency for an hourly player on a mobile phone flying turboprops is different from efficiency for a desktop player who plays twice a day flying giants.
e.g. I have lots of 6, 8 and 12 hour passenger buildings in my city because of my playing routine (normally twice a day) and because all my flights take between 6 and 9 hours.

It all has to do with your needs. Your game should evolve regularly to fit your needs and playing style.
e.g. You and your neighbours could be doing the same quests, be the same level and fly the same planes but still your games could be completely different. If one is patient and waits for the planes to land, the duration of flights and regen time will be more important. If the other chooses to speed them up only the output numbers will matter.

That's why you won't find a 'How to play AC' guide on the forum. Only the goals are the same, the ways to get there are just a matter of opinion...
 
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Wasted Eagle

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Can anyone shed some light on the reasoning behind this? Are there some hidden perks to these more expensive buildings that I'm not aware of or is the game just designed this way to make it more challenging the further you go?

Thanks in advance for the input.
Oh, no hidden perks. The numbers are what they are.
The game has evolved as well. Level 30 used to be one of the first max levels. So your Tower Building used to be one of the top buildings. At a higher cost you had a building with great pax output, good tiles with a 2x2 but at the cost of very poor duration.
The game evolved and better buildings came making the tower building one of the crap ones... :)
 
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Consistency is the key of this game.
New players always get shorter ones.
Than you can choose hourly, 4 hourly or longer.
Put alarm on your phone depend on your style.
As flights higher levels are longer anyway....
 

Fencat

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Priorities also change while you get further into the game.
At the start of the game everything goes by faster with shorter flight times and faster levels so most of us probably played more constantly during the day in early levels and for that kind of play the buildings with shorter times fits well.
But as said above once your flights start taking longer and longer there comes a point where it might be more beneficial to change out some of those for buildings with times that fit your flights better as there currently isn't much to do while you wait for flights to land.

And a big one is money, alot of the higher producing buildings cost Alot of money so while saving up to get them a bunch of lower yielding buildings is better then none :D
 
Because of the limit of 6 buildings you need those inefficient ones to help with map runs. I'm to a point now where I can run 100 turboprop flights (3800 passengers) just off the buildings in my town without bonuses. Those tower buildings that refresh every 2 days give enough passengers to help with that.

I'm getting to the point where I'll need to begin saving up for the more expensive buildings so I can do the same for the jet runs. I just have a lot of other needs first before that.
 

FlyingFalcon

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Thanks for the input guys. Right now my game seems to be at that turning point from where it could be played continuously to now just sending off flights and then coming back a few hours later to gather passengers and coins and send out the next wave of planes. I'm seeing the value of having bigger buildings with a large amount of passengers to pick up when I open the game back up. It was just a bit of a shock when I pay big bucks to upgrade or buy a building and then the building produces less. You'd think it would be the other way around - i.e. the more you pay the more you get.

I get what you mean about more important needs @Davescharf. I just got to level 51 and was all excited about getting a level 6 runaway. Level 5 cost 100000 coins so I figured a 6 would be 200-250K. I sure wasn't expecting it to jump to 800000! :wtf: Now everything else is on hold while I save up some coinage. :(:mad:
 

Kesh

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LOL @FlyingFalcon. I'm in the same boat... saving up for L6 runway.
Do you need l6 runway at your stage of gameplay? l5 is enough for red launch and i assume you are far away from flying falcons. Not sure that landing falcons guest plane will give you mush. I'd consider to invest that in your upgrade of main buildings - terminal, control tower (as according to your sig you are at level 5 on those).
Same for @FlyingFalcon
 

FlyingFalcon

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Do you need l6 runway at your stage of gameplay? l5 is enough for red launch and i assume you are far away from flying falcons. Not sure that landing falcons guest plane will give you mush. I'd consider to invest that in your upgrade of main buildings - terminal, control tower (as according to your sig you are at level 5 on those).
Same for @FlyingFalcon

I've just about completed the tower upgrade to level 11 and can add another hangar and plane. I haven't upgraded the terminal because with all the buildings I have I never need to hold a plane back because I need passengers. As far as the town hall goes I haven't needed to upgrade it because I have a lot of buildings that provide me additional population. I think I'm at the point where I could fly falcons but I need to build the sweets factory. My plan was to get a L6 runway then build the sweets factory but not start flying falcons for a while so I can get more stars filled in on my jumbo and giant flights.

I really appreciate the advice @Kesh . If my plan makes no sense or needs changed I'll gladly take the input from you more experienced fliers.
 

Kesh

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I've just about completed the tower upgrade to level 11 and can add another hangar and plane. I haven't upgraded the terminal because with all the buildings I have I never need to hold a plane back because I need passengers. As far as the town hall goes I haven't needed to upgrade it because I have a lot of buildings that provide me additional population. I think I'm at the point where I could fly falcons but I need to build the sweets factory. My plan was to get a L6 runway then build the sweets factory but not start flying falcons for a while so I can get more stars filled in on my jumbo and giant flights.

I really appreciate the advice @Kesh . If my plan makes no sense or needs changed I'll gladly take the input from you more experienced fliers.
ok, your upgrades are far above your current level. Maybe in your case is better to invest in sweet factories then l6 runway. If the coins is not a problem (since you already have few mill to upgrade main buildings, 800k should not be an issue). I'm trying to give advice based on your current level and 99% of level 53 players don't even consider upgrading buildings to levels you already have.
At the time I was level 53 using 1 mill coins was almost science fiction to me to use it on 1 item/1 upgrade.
 

FlyingFalcon

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ok, your upgrades are far above your current level. Maybe in your case is better to invest in sweet factories then l6 runway. If the coins is not a problem (since you already have few mill to upgrade main buildings, 800k should not be an issue). I'm trying to give advice based on your current level and 99% of level 53 players don't even consider upgrading buildings to levels you already have.
At the time I was level 53 using 1 mill coins was almost science fiction to me to use it on 1 item/1 upgrade.

I really appreciate the advice. I have been very aggressive and also have spent some real $$'s to speed things up a bit. AC has been somewhat of a therapy thing for me as I recover from a nervous breakdown so I've had a little more time to spend on it than normal. Sweets factory is under construction.
 

Jega001

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I get what you mean about more important needs @Davescharf. I just got to level 51 and was all excited about getting a level 6 runaway. Level 5 cost 100000 coins so I figured a 6 would be 200-250K. I sure wasn't expecting it to jump to 800000! :wtf: Now everything else is on hold while I save up some coinage. :(:mad:

I'm one of those players that lands guest planes continuously so as I was leveling up when I knew a new runway was coming up I always saved for a couple of levels before to attempt to get it immediately. I ended up getting one at 61 and for my playing style I don't regret it. When you turn 71 though it jumps to 1500000 for the lvl7 runway! I'm at 73 now, soon to be 74 and I still didn't get the lvl7 runway. It was a good decision and it still is. I'll go for Terminal upgrades, Falcons, and Tower upgrades for a bit. Plus to be honest at higher levels coins becomes far less of an issue.

You always need to be reassessing what is best for your current situation.
 

FlyingFalcon

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I'm one of those players that lands guest planes continuously so as I was leveling up when I knew a new runway was coming up I always saved for a couple of levels before to attempt to get it immediately. I ended up getting one at 61 and for my playing style I don't regret it. When you turn 71 though it jumps to 1500000 for the lvl7 runway! I'm at 73 now, soon to be 74 and I still didn't get the lvl7 runway. It was a good decision and it still is. I'll go for Terminal upgrades, Falcons, and Tower upgrades for a bit. Plus to be honest at higher levels coins becomes far less of an issue.

You always need to be reassessing what is best for your current situation.

Thanks for the advice @Jega001. I too am one of those players who lands everything I can. I figure if fuel and passengers are the two great needs of the game then why pass them up by not landing guest planes. It's been driving get me crazy not to land the guest Falcons. I took the advice of @Kesh and built my sweets factory but now I'm saving up for the L6 runway.
 

Jega001

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To also add a point, the advice @Kesh gave you was solid. Boiled down to it's simplest forum you always need to build flight item buildings as soon as possible. I found it ideal to have at least 100 of the required flight item before I ever got the plane to fly it. Except with catering that you need bundles of. Eventually you will go though your stockpile and have to decide on how you will get more. My point short and sweet is you need to collect flight items as soon as you possibly can.
 

Navigata07

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LOL @FlyingFalcon. I'm in the same boat... saving up for L6 runway.
Saving for my lv 6 runway as well, and though I have buildings that have the most per hour payouts, collection is painfully slow :banghead:. I know flying lunar missions should help, but thats only if you have the resources...and if you succeed in being first come launchtime. There has to be a faster way to earn coins (n)
 
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Phyllo Game Over
Saving for my lv 6 runway as well, and though I have buildings that have the most per hour payouts, collection is painfully slow :banghead:. I know flying lunar missions should help, but thats only if you have the resources...and if you succeed in being first come launchtime. There has to be a faster way to earn coins (n)

That's exactly why I plan to skip runway 6 and then head for runway 7 instead. By the time I'll have the 800.000, it will be pretty late in the level 50s and so I can just go on saving until I have the 1.500.000 that I will need for runway 7. Otherwise, I'd invest the 800.000 just for a short time to then end up rejecting planes again when I reach level 71 and don't have the money for the runway 7.
 
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