Elvenar Embassies – Upgrades Preview

Chapter 16 – whaaat, still?! 😉 OK, so let’s wrap up previewing Elvenar Embassies chapter (for now). You may want to start with our Research Preview and Production Preview, but today we will be talking about upgrades that will be unlocked in Elvenar Chapter 16 – Embassies. So let’s take a look at what is known so far – of course, anything you find here is subject to change.

SPOILER ALERT! Now, if the intro above didn’t get the message across 😉 The following post is a one giant spoiler for the upcoming chapter. So if you don’t want to spoil this until it hits actual beta or live servers, you should stop reading just about now. You have been warned!

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Upgrades Summary

Alright, there are quite a few things that can be upgraded after a particular research is unlocked in chapter 16. All follow regular progression in terms of what is expected to be available for upgrade and which buildings are changing dimensions. So pretty much business as usual.

So here is how chapter 16 upgrades situation looks like:

Main Hall and Armory are getting 2 upgrades each, from L35 to L37. Neither change shape in this chapter. You will also get an upgraded street tile with more culture.

A lot of buildings change shape though. Residences and workshops grow quite a bit (gaining 2 levels each), as well as T2/T5 manufactories and the Training Grounds (which gain 4 levels each).

Not only total output from upgraded buildings increases, but their efficiency (per tile output) goes up as well. As you can see, most upgrades increase efficiency by about 20%; Main Hall is slightly less than that. Orc production in armories is underwhelming though – only 14% efficiency increase. And it’s not like armories produced insane amounts of orcs before…

Training Grounds are different as training speed is not a production in itself, and doesn’t follow the same rules, so that 4% is not directly comparable to other numbers.

Main Hall

Let’s look at Main Hall upgrades:

So as we have mentioned already, Main Hall dimensions do not change in this chapter and stay at 8×8. Main Hall upgrades continue to chew up a lot of pop and culture. Two new upgrades require about 7K of extra pop – that’s comparable to chapter 15 upgrades; but these also need almost 18K more culture (which is twice as much as in chapter 15). Main Hall continue to take extremely long time to upgrade, but this is nothing new. Incremental increases here are pretty marginal.

Coin and supply caps continue to grow, with a usual 10:1 ratio. Nothing is particularly unexpected here. Ditto with amounts attached to neighborhood help – probably not very critical in those chapters, unless you sweep the whole neighborhood daily looking to refill coins.

Costs

On the costs side, Main Hall still needs a lot of coins, but increases are not that significant. We still will need mana, and quite a bit more than the last time (up to 2x as much). Likely not a big deal as there is only one Main Hall, and these amounts should be very doable unless your mana production is unusually low for these chapters.

New chapter also drops requirements for sentient goods in Main Hall upgrades, and goes back to regular goods – scrolls, to be exact. At 1mm+ an upgrade, this might be an attempt to scoop up some excess of scrolls, or just general pivot towards requiring more regular goods. Regardless, given all the other requirements on regular goods in chapter 16, it might take some time to accumulate these amounts unless you’re entering with a sizable stash already.

Residences

Let’s look at Residence upgrades – both regular and magic ones:

Residences will grow from 5×3 to 5×4. Residence dimension changes suck, as this often requires significant redesign of the city layout. At least the long side stays the same, so depending on how you stacked your existing residences you may not need to remodel that much. Depending on how many residences you’re running, you will probably want to drop some.

While individual residence pop increases look very impressive, remember that quite a bit of that is because they grow in size. Efficiency still goes up, but not nearly as much. Ditto with coin production – a lot of production increase is due to size increase. Coin cycle stays the same at 22h, and both types will have 3h early collection (chapter 15 Magic Residences have 1.5h early collection).

Residences still have reasonable construction time; the increases there are pretty marginal. Total culture requirements though – while still relatively low – more than doubled (!) between chapter 15 and chapter 16.

Costs

On the costs side, regular residences will still need supplies and mana. And while these requirements jump quite a bit on a relative basis, both are still pretty low in absolute terms. And similar to the Main Hall, T4 sentients are dropped from upgrade requirements, and are replaced with regular T1 goods. But unlike the Main Hall upgrades, absolute amounts here are relatively low. Even taking into consideration the fact that there are usually more than one.

But things looks quite interesting on the Magic Residence costs side. Since chapter 8 (Orcs) and up to and including chapter 15 (Elvenar) Magic Residences used to cost 1400 diamonds. Well, that changes – there is a massive jump in costs from 1400 up to 2000 diamonds! So you might be better off stocking up on Magic Residences in chapter 15, and then just upgrade them later on with blueprints. I mean, blueprints are usually equivalent of 300 diamonds as per crafting recipes. Considering that you can get blueprints for free, this sounds like a much better deal than getting Magic Residences in chapter 16!

Workshops

Let’s look at Workshop upgrades – both regular and magic ones:

Workshops will grow from 5×5 to 5×6. Workshop dimension changes may not be as big of an issue as residences as there is simply not as many of them. Usually, that is 😉 On the other hand, workshops are quite a bit bigger, so depending on your layout may be harder to squeeze in. Similar to residences, one side stays the same, so depending on how you stacked your existing workshops you may not need to remodel that much. If you’re already running relatively low number of workshops then you probably won’t be dropping any.

Individual workshop production looks pretty good, but remember that quite a bit of that is because they grow in size. Production efficiency also goes up, but not nearly as much.

Workshops are notorious for having a very long construction times. Well, that didn’t change 😉 L37 upgrade will clock you almost a day and a half – 35 hours. This is especially painful if for whatever reason you need to build one from scratch. This may take a long, long time… Total culture and pop requirements – while still not as high as some other buildings – are almost doubled (!) between chapter 15 and chapter 16. Similar to residences…

Costs

On the costs side, regular workshops will still needs coins and orcs. Interestingly enough, upgrade requirements in chapter 16 are lower by quite bit as far as these resources are concerned. This is especially welcome news for orc requirements. Those were getting out of hand if you run quite a few workshops. Instead, they added regular T3 goods as requirements. Chapter 16 will need regular goods in so many places… Amounts are relatively small though, so shouldn’t be an issue at all.

And just like with Magic Residences, things look quite interesting on the Magic Workshop costs side. Since chapter 9 (Woodelves) and up to and including chapter 15 (Elvenar) Magic Workshops also used to cost 1400 diamonds. Well, that changes – there is a massive jump in costs from 1400 up to 2000 diamonds! So you might be better off stocking up on Magic Workshops in chapter 15, and then just upgrade them later on with blueprints. I mean, blueprints are usually equivalent of 300 diamonds as per crafting recipes. Considering that you can get blueprints for free, this sounds like a much better deal than getting Magic Workshops in chapter 16!

Armories

Let’s continue with our preview up Elvenar Embassies upgrades, and look at the Armories now:

Armories size does not change in this chapter and stays at 7×4. They continue to require relatively modest pop amounts, but massive culture. Maxing out Armories after chapter 16 may need almost double the culture required in chapter 15, and we’re not talking small base amounts either. 5x L37 Armories will consume cool 100K of culture, give or take. Not exactly peanuts…

Construction time is also growing up rapidly. Upgrading armories used to be a very quick process. Upgrading to L34 takes 12h, but upgrading to L37 will take 21h. Again, we’re almost doubling construction time. Still, these numbers are not terrible in the grand scheme of things, and pretty irrelevant if you’re in the end-game.

As far as orcs production, then we do see gradual increases. But veeery gradual… I’d call them stingy. And while we see output time efficiency improvements, there are no improvements in input efficiency. It still takes the same amount of supplies per unit of orc production. Upgrades from L34 and upwards do not change that.

Costs

On the costs side, Armories are getting even more expensive in terms of coins, supplies and seeds. The amounts – as with many things armories – almost double. Production doesn’t double though 😉 They also dropped sentient goods from upgrade requirements, which seems to be a common theme.

Coins and supplies, and probably seeds at that point are not that hard to come by, but it still may slow down the upgrade process a bit. More concerning though is significantly increased culture requirements. This may mean that you’ll have to add non-trivial amounts of culture to maintain the same culture bonus…

Tier 2 Manufactories

Tier 2 Manufactories get 4 more upgrades in this chapter. The last time we upgraded these was in Amuni! So let’s look at these upgrades:

These are very similar, so it makes sense to look at them together. All tier 2 manufactories change size in this chapter. Crystals go from 6×4 to 7×4, while Scrolls and Silk go from 4×6 up to 5×6. And boy do they also ramp up all the requirements! So between L27 and L31 the pop requirements go up by more than 2x, while culture requirements go up by about 3.5x! Manufactories were always population hogs, and this just takes it to another level. At least their culture requirements were always pretty modest, but this is no longer the case. Maxed out tier 2 manufactory will need about 12K worth of culture – each. Ouch!

Construction time is also growing up rapidly. Each level in the previous upgrade cycle took about 10 minutes longer to upgrade. This time around these times are growing up by 2h (Crystal) and 3h (Scrolls and Silk) at each level! So each L24-L27 took about 21h give or take, but L31 upgrade will clock you 30-33h. Ouch again…

Production

We’ve already looked at guest race production here, and now is it time to look at regular and sentient goods production upgrades in this Elvenar Embassies preview. Tier 2 manufacturies still produce both regular T2 and sentient T5 goods. We do see gradual increases here, but nothing to write home about. No huge jumps here, just output time efficiency going up.

Interestingly enough, for regular T2 production input efficiency stagnated before even L24. So at least since that time it takes the same amount of coins and supplies to produce a unit of regular T2 good. We get no additional input efficiency here.

For T5 sentient goods production we were actually increasing input efficiency since L24. Meaning that each unit of T5 was using less T2 and seeds with more upgrades. But it seems that these improvements also tapered out. L28 still provides a small increase over L27 here, but from there on input efficiency is exactly the same up to and including L31.

Costs

On the costs side, tier 2 manufactories are dropping goods requirements for upgrades, and go straight coins, supplies and seeds. And coin requirements are going up by about a factor of 100x 😉

This is not completely unexpected, as we’ve seen similar pattern with L28-L31 upgrades for tier 1 manufactories. At least that part is consistent.

Coins and supplies, and probably seeds at that point are not that hard to come by, but it still may slow down the upgrade process a bit. More concerning though is significantly increased culture and pop requirements. You may want to seriously consider running lower level tier 2 manufactories for some time, perhaps just make more of them. Unless you’re swimming in unused pop and culture, that is 😉

Training Grounds

Ah, Training Grounds upgrades we’ve all been waiting for in this Elvenar Embassies preview! I certainly have 😉 This is the slowest military production building, and is heavily used in the end game. And the last time we upgraded was in Constructs! So here is how these upgrades look like:

So Training Grounds change dimensions, and none of the sides stay the same. You’ll likely need to find a new space for it. But on the other hand, it now looks just like an Armory or a Crystal Manufactory, so you may be able to lump these together. Pop and culture requirements also go up quite a bit – about a factor of 2x. But considering there can be only one Training Grounds, this is not as bad as some other buildings. Pop increases are tolerable, but once again, we’re looking at significant increase in culture requirements. You may want to get prepared…

Construction time also jumped up quite a bit. L24 upgrade took 28hrs, but L28 upgrade will take 51hrs. While this is a big jump, it is not entirely unexpected. This is quite in line with Barracks and Mercenary Camp upgrades we’ve seen in chapter 15.

Training speed continues to grow gradually, there are no jumps here. Very pedestrian increase, but very useful nonetheless.

Costs

On the costs side, we will still need coins and supplies – about 6x more than in the previous cycle. And we will also need very sizable amounts of orcs for upgrades – we’re talking more than 300K of orcs for all 4 levels of upgrades. Again, this is not unexpected. Unfortunately, this is quite in line with what we’ve seen with Barracks and Mercenary Camp upgrades in chapter 15. Better crank up that orc production 😉

Streets

Let’s wrap up our Elvenar Embassies upgrades preview with the street tiles. We’re getting a usual street tile improvements:

There is not much to say about it, it’s rather straightforward. Just like with chapter 15 streets, we only need coins and supplies to build these. So no guest race goods (that was an awful setup), and not even slightly more exotic resources like seeds or mana. Just straight up coins and supplies, that’s it.

We’ll need even more than the last time around, and considering how many tiles regular end-game city has, the total requirements might be quite immense. So the street re-tiling project might take quite a while, especially if you’re dropping a ton of coins and supplies in the Spire.

Any extra culture without any space commitment would be very welcome, given significantly increased culture requirements in this chapter. Plus those slackers in the Builders’ Hut have to do something in their free time! 😉

So this is it for now. Let me know what you think about this preview of Elvenar Embassies upgrades in the comments below. Certainly let me know if there are other things that you know about the chapter. But I think this is it for now. We’ll see if more information becomes available, or if any changes will be made.

Stay tuned! 😉