The 100 item limit .... I "think" I get it

[volly]

In looking at everyone's complaints about the limit, I noticed a reoccurring theme - consistency. People are pissed they no longer can be consistent on performing at a high level.

I'm thinking that is the point of the 100 item limit.

A player is now forced to pick and choose what missions to do, what goals to achieve, because no matter what the resources are limited. Beforehand the really high level players figured out ways around this resource problem.
For lower level players like me I'm constantly grappling with resource issues. I'm having fun playing and frankly the 100 item limit doesn't impact me for I'm used to playing with resource limitations. GI (I think) knows players who are used to this and enjoy the game think the 100 item limit is no big deal. I never can play consistently simply because my resources are limited. I'm ok with that.

I'm not saying what GI did was right but I think i get it.

Just my thoughts on it.

 

[M22]

Higher level parts of this game are much more difficult with the limit, our ways around it were saving up items over months from neighbours and flights in order to fly alliance maps etc. If you try these things you'd be very annoyed as well.

 

[volly]

I'm nowhere near the high levels yet. I'm only at 52 and have been playing for 5 months

 

[crescent moon (RIP)]

Wait til you try flying for QL's. You will need about 500 landing lamps with your turboprops. Oops - you can only have 100. That means a new golden dice for each map. (have to use 5 golden dice instead of doing it all with 1) That racks up an extra 16 greenies you have to buy from GI to get those golden dice. This has nothing to do with fairness - it's all a money-maker for GI.

 

[Wired Parrott]

As @M22 mentioned quite often the resources were attained over a period of months. Not even going
into the buildings like flight catering facility which many players built 6 of them then used greenies that cost
money to upgrade their production. If they upgraded 6 of them fully they could gather 48 in one day meaning
without constant flying and speed up on a daily basis the money was wasted on things that are now useless.

Once you hit falcons you need literally thousands of items to complete destinations. The game for the vast majority
is already a long term slog hence why most players here don't have 800+ stars already attained. I see no value
to making the game take 5 years plus longer by imposing this limit. It is already common for players to quit at certain
points when they see how long things are going to take. This limit just ensures that number will rise significantly.

 

[dtaylor1972]

As @M22 mentioned quite often the resources were attained over a period of months. Not even going
into the buildings like flight catering facility which many players built 6 of them then used greenies that cost
money to upgrade their production. If they upgraded 6 of them fully they could gather 48 in one day meaning
without constant flying and speed up on a daily basis the money was wasted on things that are now useless.

Once you hit falcons you need literally thousands of items to complete destinations. The game for the vast majority
is already a long term slog hence why most players here don't have 800+ stars already attained. I see no value
to making the game take 5 years plus longer by imposing this limit. It is already common for players to quit at certain
points when they see how long things are going to take. This limit just ensures that number will rise significantly.

Not to mention the fine new allience tasks... Most of which require more than 100 flights...

AND.., the fact that item drop rates are crap now!!!!

Nothing fair or fun going on here!

 

[diwata]

Flying high level planes take 12 hours compared to flying low level planes which can be 30 minutes to 1 hour. Higher level means tougher tasks. Even drop rates are harder to come by at higher levels.

 

[volly]

Hmmm....I see both sides of the issue now. I wonder if the person who had this idea thought as I did at first. Seeing what you speak of - I get the other side of the issue and I'm quite dismayed. I looked at the weekly alliance missions I have been given. To complete the Baikonur one in 7 days - I have to do 219 flights. Well, lets do the math: (I do NOT have the 100 limit affecting me at the moment)
for each flight you need:
22 fuel
80 passengers
Time: 3 hours.
Speedup is 44 fuel

Lets add some more constants to the formula:
number of hours in a week: 7x24= 168 hours

If we only had one plane flying to Baikonur at a time, we would have to use speedups to make the 219 flights for there are 657 flying hours to make the goal and you only have 167 available.
if we never did speedups we would need to use a minimum of 4 planes and be perfect in timing the landing and refueling of planes. (657 / 168 = 3.934) We all know that isn't possible to perform that unless you use a bot and then with all the landings and refuelings the time window would be missed. So it have to be at least 5 planes and you need multiple runways. Now this calculation ONLY concerns itself with the flight times, not resources. BTW - this does NOT account for planes breaking down and them having to be repaired.

Now lets talk resources:
Passengers:
total number of passengers for this would be 80x219= 17520
if you are flying 5 planes without using speedups you need to be able to generate 400 passengers in 3 hours to keep up. My city can do this for I have 4 villas, 6 stone houses, 5 houses of disturbances, 2 town houses, 1 country house and 6 smart houses. I also have them surrounded by items that increase passenger output. For example one of my villas can kick out and extra 15 passengers every 4 hours.
In my warehouse I have on hand 2910
Fuel:
needed for this mission:22x219=4818
I can do normal max 192 units.
In my warehouse I have on hand 4803.
when I'm under the 192 limit I get 1 unit back per minute which is 60 per hour.
If I use the quickest additional fuel speedup method I get 3 every 10 minutes. That is about 17.8 per hour if I do it perfectly each time the 10 minute timer is up and I can click on the fuel balloon to claim the fuel then reset the timer for 3 more. We all know that is not possible due to human lag.
The third source of fuel is if I land guest planes. At best I can get 30 an hour seeing how one plane is queued per minute and it is a coin flip on if I get passengers or fuel for that plane. Now 30 an hour is not going to happen for you have to take time to land the plane, refuel the plane, and get it airborne again. This also ties up a runway so more time is lost if you are trying to get other flights out.
The MAX fuel you can gather per hour no matter what is 107.8

------------------------
Under the following conditions: with no speedups, landing and refueling perfectly, and allowing for a %10 chance the plane breaks down AND you always have parts to fix the plane on hand (30 seconds to fix the plane each time it breaks)
Using 5 planes it should take about 132 hours of constant flying to complete. (657/5) +1 hour to fix planes, for human inattention lag, and staging each new flight)
Using 6 planes it should take about 110 hours of constant flying to complete. (657/6) +1 hour to fix planes, for human inattention lag, and staging each new flight)
Using 7 planes it should take about 95 hours of constant flying to complete. (657/7) +1 hour to fix planes, for human inattention lag, and staging each new flight)
Who would do this like this? Not me. Who do you know who would stay up for several days ( or get up every 3 hours no matter what) just to play a game?

----------------------
So, lets look at if you speedups for the flights
If you used a speedup on each flight the extra fuel used would be 44x219=9636
This is more than I have in my warehouse by far.
Now if I time it just right I can use my max fuel recovery to get me in a day it is 107.8x24=2587.2. Now we know you have to be using a bot to get this number so that is the theoretical daily max.
--------------------
OK, we got all of our numbers figured out so now lets figure out IF this mission is doable with what I have:
I have the possible options to make the goal:
1. Use 5 runways and speedups on every flight. I would need a total of 14,454 units of fuel and 17,520 passengers. Can I get enough fuel to do it in the time frame? Yes for the math says if I handle my fuel management perfectly (a bot runs it) I can generate 18,109 units in 7 days. Can I generate enough passengers? NO for on average I'm currently able to keep my Terminal full of waiting passengers between each set of flights with my current setup IF I DON'T DO SPEEDUPS. I would have to burn through all of my reserves and then I still don't have enough.
Is it realistic in actually making the goal using this method? No way in hell. Who plays the game nonstop for many hours on end? Hardly anyone.
2. Use 6 runways and not do speedups. I need a total 4818 fuel and 17,520 passengers. Every 3 hours I have to run the turnaround for all the planes and any repairs needed.
Is it possible in actually making the goal using this method? Yes BUT you can't do anything else. If you are trying to do for example the UFO thing - forget it. Also you have to get up EVERY 3 hours to do what you need to do to maintain your schedule. Who plays like this? Nobody except a bot. So is it realistic? Again - no way in hell

The way I see it is I would need my terminal to be at least a level 8 or 9 so I can get enough flights in the air to do this and then it would be horrible and NO FUN. Frankly this mission is unrealistic as you can see with the math.

I like to add for all of this you only make a few points that if the cheaters do their thing - you never get any payout for they cheated their way to the top of the list. So - WTF are anyone doing this anyway? It simply isn't worth it in it's current form. The math proves it.

 

[Kesh]

Regarding your fuel math. You added 2 options, i use 3rd, combination of both. To keep my fuel production almost all the time while i'm awake and to put additional fuel for sending planes in batches. Last week i managed to do 525 t-birds flights for alliance, with bonuses turnarond of 13 planes was 2:50h per round. It is 520 fuel per round, 260 from production and 260 from stash. To keep it on, i needed basicaly 300 fuel every 3h extra (you can get them from launches).
Also this game is not purely math and stats, it's about fun and game system works to get you hooked easily, it's full of small accomplishement to push you to your boundaries, then you invest some smaller amount of real money, then you're busted as you want to achieve one more goal and as you already put money in you will not quit right away, so you invest little more and more... This is basicaly neverending game. But as i said, it's fun and that keeps you in.
For cheaters it is simple, one work for the team. They don't care about top 100. 1 account is working for other alliance team members. 1 cheat other reap the reward..

 

[volly]

Here is another question for the high level people - did you spend more real money for greenies leveling up or do you spend more now since you got to the 70s? I'm wondering if GI's wisdom is they want to get rid of the high level players and make it so the players only leveling up are the ones they want to cater to. Thoughts?

 

[crescent moon (RIP)]

Here is another question for the high level people - did you spend more real money for greenies leveling up or do you spend more now since you got to the 70s? I'm wondering if GI's wisdom is they want to get rid of the high level players and make it so the players only leveling up are the ones they want to cater to. Thoughts?

I spent quite a bit leveling up, mostly for land and golden dice. Now that I have cbm's, I won't be spending much any more, but if I didn't have the cbm's, I would be spending a lot for more land. (Costs me 50 greenies on sale right now).

I did buy some (15 greens for $4.49) for the offer they had a week or so ago, I think I got a playground. I know I said I would never spend real $$$ again, but a small amount now and then as long as GI is treating me right.

But back to your original question, I think a higher level player without cbm's will probbly spend more until their land is maxed out, only because land is so expensive.