I figured it out!? Strategy for upgrade/expansion

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December 1st, 2012
Milkyway

I figured it out!? Strategy for upgrade/expansion

You often say, that you miss one special item for barn and silo or land expansion - same with me. I am always short on planks and nails - and get tons of duct and wood panels. One week ago i was lucky and bought 2 x 10 planks after i upgraded my barn - so i had nothing then the 20 planks. From this time i allways get planks from toolboxes, harvesting, etc. but no more tape...

So for the silo i get rid of all my screws and panels and - i get nails, nails nails - but no more panels/screws.

So mayby it is not supercells one and only idea to force us into diamonds - they just want us not to pile up the items?

Mayby its a good strategy - to have a balance in your barn/silo, because now i usually get all items - Same with land expansion.

Or its just a big coincidence.
December 2nd, 2012
Paul1888

Its just a coincidence, if you get constant screws one week you most likely get constant something else the next week, its the way the games designed so as the newspaper is used and to force you to sell and tempt you to use diamonds, piling up on the items can help if you wanted to do that but i dont because it takes up valuable barn space and so forces you into selling or trading, the best strategy for expanding i have found is the trading because you can get what you need almost when you need it and at the same time someone else gets what they need so everyones a winner
December 2nd, 2012
Milkyway

Hm... Playing since weeks - level 39 and was always short on the same items.
December 2nd, 2012
carenasc

just trade with someone else to get the balance of what you need.
December 2nd, 2012
imconnected

I have to agree somewhat with milkyway. The logic is messed up when it comes to getting random items as well as when greg and crew's requests when the visit the stand. the AI's trend seems to give you items you either have the least of or the most of.

IMO
December 2nd, 2012
Tinkerbell

The visitors definitely request items I have an abundance of. That, at least, is not random. So maybe there is something in this theory?
December 2nd, 2012
Kaptain Kat

The imbalance has a purpose. It creates the need to sell and look for items in the newspaper or some people will spend diamonds on it eventually.
December 2nd, 2012
Milkyway

Yes, but the question is - can we influence the imbalance or is it set up in the beginning, when we start playing the first time.
December 2nd, 2012
Kaptain Kat

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milkyway

Yes, but the question is - can we influence the imbalance or is it set up in the beginning, when we start playing the first time.

Don't know exactly. If there is an algorithm I haven't discovered it yet. Because like Paul said..

Quote:

Originally Posted by Paul1888

Its just a coincidence, if you get constant screws one week you most likely get constant something else the next week, ...

You could substitute the word "week" with te word "day". Some days I find planks all over the place and other days I find nails. But it is always difficult to get those last few items you need.
December 2nd, 2012
Redrumm3r

Quote:

Originally Posted by Kolonistje1

The imbalance has a purpose. It creates the need to sell and look for items in the newspaper or some people will spend diamonds on it eventually.

This! It's definitely a strategy to make you spend diamonds and it works. On numerous occasions I have spend diamonds to get the 1 or 2 items I was missing.

One that doesn't work for me is spending for vouchers. " If you want this dog it will cost 605 diamonds"... yeah right!
December 2nd, 2012
alcibiades

It's hard to make out the exact algorithm. I always had the impression that each person was assigned either randomly or within a group probabilities for the different items to appear. For instance, I seem to to always run low on Nails and Planks (and Land Deeds) compared to the other items within the groups. I hear other people who complain about always being low on something else which will also explain why I do come across Planks in the shop (obviously, if everybody were running low on Planks, they would be very hard to find in shop). (Bolt generally seems to be the most frequent from what I heard, though.)

Some of this might be an artifact of people running low on one item and never selling off the others and therefore always needing this item even if they get a truely random distribution - i.e. if you receive 33 % on each Bolt, Tape and Plank, once you've come behind on one of them you'll remain behind on this one if you keep all items you receive of the others. However, I tend myself to only keep the number of Bolts and Tape I just need for the next upgrade and sell surplus off for money, meaning I start on 0/0/0 after each upgrade, and I seem to be running always low on Planks, with Tape being somewhat more abundant and Bolts being very abundant. And since I'm now saving up for my 22nd upgrade, I think this trade is fairly well confirmed for me now.
December 2nd, 2012
Ozan

Quote:

Originally Posted by Milkyway

You often say, that you miss one special item for barn and silo or land expansion - same with me. I am always short on planks and nails - and get tons of duct and wood panels. One week ago i was lucky and bought 2 x 10 planks after i upgraded my barn - so i had nothing then the 20 planks. From this time i allways get planks from toolboxes, harvesting, etc. but no more tape...

So for the silo i get rid of all my screws and panels and - i get nails, nails nails - but no more panels/screws.

So mayby it is not supercells one and only idea to force us into diamonds - they just want us not to pile up the items?

Mayby its a good strategy - to have a balance in your barn/silo, because now i usually get all items - Same with land expansion.

Or its just a big coincidence.

you are completely right
December 2nd, 2012
Natelygidget

Expansion items imbalance also?

Obviously the barn and silo imbalance is super annoying, but you can overcome that slowly... Even without the forums (I am never on here, just the game). My question is... there is a HUGE imbalance in the expansion items and it does not look like it is easily to overcome. I am of course talking about mallets. Since spikes are rarely on sale they are probably a problem as well, although, they are eh... ok... but seriously... 16 land deeds, 12 spikes and 1 mallet (that I managed to buy somehow). Where in the world are people getting mallets???
December 2nd, 2012
Gleeful

Quote:

Originally Posted by Natelygidget

Obviously the barn and silo imbalance is super annoying, but you can overcome that slowly... Even without the forums (I am never on here, just the game). My question is... there is a HUGE imbalance in the expansion items and it does not look like it is easily to overcome. I am of course talking about mallets. Since spikes are rarely on sale they are probably a problem as well, although, they are eh... ok... but seriously... 16 land deeds, 12 spikes and 1 mallet (that I managed to buy somehow). Where in the world are people getting mallets???

I think it is the same with the land expansion items actually. All I seem to get are mallets, but I can't seem to find a land deed to save my life. As someone already mentioned, I think it is set that way to force us to sell otherwise there wouldn't be much of a market. My guess though is that land expansion items are getting privately traded more than the barn and silo items, which are probably more abundant than the relatively new and probably more sought-after land expansion items, and that may be a reason why they are so hard to find.
December 2nd, 2012
alcibiades

I'm on the (lucky?) boat where Mallets seem to be in surplus, at least it's been like that almost constantly, although right now I just found a couple of deeds in the shop bringing me slight on top with those (since I just traded a lot of Mallets away). Not long ago, I had like 30 Mallets and 1 Deed. :mad:
December 3rd, 2012
Natelygidget

Understood... But frustrated

It makes sense that the expansion items would be traded here in the forums, since the new release; especially since the players going for the expansion items are higher level players. It just really sucks for those of us trying to play the way the game was intended. I know the game designers know of this problem, I just wonder if they will or really ever can truly fix the issue. It seems way too broken of a system to fix.
December 3rd, 2012
Kaptain Kat

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gleeful

My guess though is that land expansion items are getting privately traded more than the barn and silo items, which are probably more abundant than the relatively new and probably more sought-after land expansion items, and that may be a reason why they are so hard to find.

I don't know if they are traded more then building materials but yes there is a market for it.
December 3rd, 2012
Kaptain Kat

Quote:

Originally Posted by Natelygidget

It makes sense that the expansion items would be traded here in the forums, since the new release; especially since the players going for the expansion items are higher level players. It just really sucks for those of us trying to play the way the game was intended. I know the game designers know of this problem, I just wonder if they will or really ever can truly fix the issue. It seems way too broken of a system to fix.

Trading was discussed extensively in this thread.
http://forum.supercell.net/showthrea...t-a-list/page5?

In short my point of view is that everyone should play the game the way they want to play it. If they really want to stop trading they should delete all possibilities of having GC and fb friends. There are advantagers to trading even for people who don't want to trade. For example I am no longer a competitor for expansion items.
December 7th, 2012
SquawkingHenFarm

I think each player has a "shortage" of one item for the barn and one for the silo by developer design. This "shortage" encourages the social networking of this game. I didn't like that I always ran out of bolts for my barn and screws for my silo. In fact, I stopped playing the game completely for quite a few weeks because my barn was full, animals were full, and I didn't know how to remedy the problem. I was saddened at the thought of not having my farm and thought I had gone as far as I could without spending real money or joining FB. Finally, I broke down (bad word choice?? Supercell developers are great and DO deserve $ for their hard work & excellent game) and bought some diamonds to free up space and later discovered I could buy bolts, etc. via the newspaper by visiting other farms... I was ecstatic to be able to play again. The expansion items are designed the same way, I believe, to encourage networking. I don't plan to do FB, but I'd like to trade on the forums for items... I just don't know how...

On a side note, thank you, Supercell, for developing a game that I've been thoroughly enjoying for numerous hours!