T2 Cotters

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         Cotters are fun and are very good at gathering things like hides and grapes.  But they are also limited by the amount of space you wish give up in your city to build cottages.  So, in the end you probably give up cotters to get to the higher population.  Which is not bad should you get to that point in the game.

Sometimes people don't get to that game because they leave do to the length of time it takes to get up to that point.  If they aren't chat types and/or noticed in GC they might not realize how great a place Illyland is....and leave in frustration at the slow pace.

In an effort to retain them until they get large enough to have more to do and be engaged at a higher level, I propose T2 Cotters and L2 cottages.  Here's how it could work"

You research Cotters as normal.  With that you build L1 Cottages, with 1 cotter per cottage allowed.  You then raise the cottage to L2 and research T2 Cotters.  The advantage is that a T2 cotter can gather more things: grapes, hides, rare gems, rare herbs and animal parts.  The expanded range of gathering means that having T2 cotters allows you to gather things faster AND a wider range of things.  

Why you would not have more than T2 cotters is that they would only take the place of the skinners, herbalists, and miners in the early part of the city's build.  It would not be advantageous to keep them since a single building for the herbalist, miner, or skinner could replace up to 20 or so T2 cotters and thus gather much, much more.  The idea is to give the player more abilities early in the progression of the city.

In the end I think this would help retain some of those players who come on, don't go to GC (and get therefore the specially "Illy Treatment") and leave before they really get started.

Well, that's my idea and some reasons I think it should be done.  What's your take on the matter?

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ajqtrz Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster Joined: 24 May 2014 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 500	Post Options Post Reply Quote ajqtrz Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: T2 Cotters Posted: 04 Dec 2014 at 23:02
	Cotters are fun and are very good at gathering things like hides and grapes. But they are also limited by the amount of space you wish give up in your city to build cottages. So, in the end you probably give up cotters to get to the higher population. Which is not bad should you get to that point in the game. Sometimes people don't get to that game because they leave do to the length of time it takes to get up to that point. If they aren't chat types and/or noticed in GC they might not realize how great a place Illyland is....and leave in frustration at the slow pace. In an effort to retain them until they get large enough to have more to do and be engaged at a higher level, I propose T2 Cotters and L2 cottages. Here's how it could work" You research Cotters as normal. With that you build L1 Cottages, with 1 cotter per cottage allowed. You then raise the cottage to L2 and research T2 Cotters. The advantage is that a T2 cotter can gather more things: grapes, hides, rare gems, rare herbs and animal parts. The expanded range of gathering means that having T2 cotters allows you to gather things faster AND a wider range of things. Why you would not have more than T2 cotters is that they would only take the place of the skinners, herbalists, and miners in the early part of the city's build. It would not be advantageous to keep them since a single building for the herbalist, miner, or skinner could replace up to 20 or so T2 cotters and thus gather much, much more. The idea is to give the player more abilities early in the progression of the city. In the end I think this would help retain some of those players who come on, don't go to GC (and get therefore the specially "Illy Treatment") and leave before they really get started. Well, that's my idea and some reasons I think it should be done. What's your take on the matter?

Brandmeister Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster General Joined: 12 Oct 2012 Location: Laoshin Status: Offline Points: 2396	Post Options Post Reply Quote Brandmeister Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 05 Dec 2014 at 01:36
	Is your proposal that these super cotters be allowed to gather 100 of rare resources? Because it would be very easy to replace my 171 Iceheart miners with 2 "advanced" cotters. I would see this as a great incentive for big alliances to lock up every rare resource in the map, because it would give them the harvesting capacity to capitalize on all of them. If your super cotters would only gather 1 rare resource each, like a current skinner, miner, or herbalist, then I am a little lost on their purpose. Why not just build the guild structure?

Berde Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Forum Warrior Joined: 10 Dec 2011 Status: Offline Points: 380	Post Options Post Reply Quote Berde Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 05 Dec 2014 at 04:00
	I don't agree on having them pick up rare things. I do like the idea of having more cotters per cottage though. I mean, they're poor. When I was financially strapped I shared a house with 4 people! Edited by Berde - 05 Dec 2014 at 04:01

Brandmeister Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster General Joined: 12 Oct 2012 Location: Laoshin Status: Offline Points: 2396	Post Options Post Reply Quote Brandmeister Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 05 Dec 2014 at 04:53
	Cotters are one of the few advantages of new and small players. I say keep cottages at 1 cotter.

ajqtrz Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster Joined: 24 May 2014 Location: USA Status: Offline Points: 500	Post Options Post Reply Quote ajqtrz Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 10 Dec 2014 at 17:59
	The building of guilds is, of course, in the long run, the way to gather. However, the time it takes to get to that point is rather long. My focus is on helping the small and new players be both more competitive and faster go grow, than they are currently. A T2 cotter, with double the gathering power, is not going to excite a player with guilds, but can help a player without them (the new and small players) to grow faster. I agree that we must be careful that big alliances don't use the super-cotters to dominate things. And I agree that perhaps rare herbs and gems could be left out...however, I find that the truly valuable items generally have armies parked on them anyway so I'm not sure the size of the cotters matters and, as stated above, cotters as gatherers is just inefficient when you get big enough for guilds. As for how many resources these cotters could collect I was thinking more like twice as much as a single cotter, not ten times. In addition, the cost of using a space for a cottage, even a L2 cottage would make using the cotter method of gathering wasteful to the larger players who can easily build the targeted guilds anyway. The purpose of T2 cotters would be to "close the gap" between the early players and those who have been around a while and can send out 40 miners at a time. To match that a new player would have to have 40 cottages --- impossible. They could, however, draw much closer with 15 T2 Cotters being equal to 30 miners. My argument is that the cotters, being "one of the few advantages of new and small players" can be even a bigger advantage of those players if we increase them just a bit. AJ

Wartow Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster Joined: 20 May 2014 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 870	Post Options Post Reply Quote Wartow Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 12 Dec 2014 at 21:46
	A bit off of AJ's idea... What if T2 cotters + farmland sov + flourmill could be used to plant and later harvest your own rare herbs? For example... You have to gather a given number of an herb, use the flourmill to make seeds, and then plant the seeds on the square with the farmland sov. A T2 cotter would be assigned to the field. The herb being grown can be harvested as with any other herb (and by any player). The seasons, level of sov, and fertility of the square would all determine how much of the herb can be harvested (and how quickly it regenerates). Once over-harvested the whole process, minus research, would have to start over again. Continuing AJ's idea... A higher-level cotter that can harvest ONE rare herb, mineral, or anatomy would help the new players get in on that game until they get their skinners, miners, and herbalists up and running.