[Feedback] Dev Diary: Island Expansion

[Mannerheim]

That is true...
But at 50 per it takes a lot of crystals to get to the necessary 3500 for an expansion, assuming you have no other use for crystals.

It's certainly achievable with only gems and with 100% free gems. It's a matter of time. But at the given prices, it's a LOT of time. I think the main thing I'm hearing in the thread is not that there is a gem price for them, but that is the only price. There are no options.

That's what I think should be reconsidered.

It's less than two months and at higher level can do it even in a month. The islands are for 50+ so there are daily shop mini quests for shards and later the Pathfinder crystals. Weekly 1d prem doubles the daily crystals. BB has the game analytics about everything so they probably decided this based on all the info there is. A lot of people have gotten their gem pits just by spamming short letters. I'ts up to the player to decide where to use the crystals.

I also forgot the gifted gems or event gems which Alex mentioned here: https://forum.tsotesting.com/threads...ll=1#post49162
Previous Crisis was over 1k gems at least for me IIRC.

[Norton_C]

Except it isn't - if you already have a granite mason on the isolated island in the north, the new deposit can also be mined by him.

Think of it as a backup resource to keep him busy when his primary deposit depletes in the middle of the night. Yeh, he'll have more walking to do, but that's better than him doing nothing for several hours.

Cool, two in a pool is better then one. I should have assumed that these two could be reachable from one place. Still, what I wanted was for the island miner to have access to archipelago mines and vice versa.

[JoeShmoe]

How many Mag Res can we get on these new islands?

[SnowBlizz]

At least 3. Maaybe 4th, but got stuff on it on test.

There are big open space onyl on one island.

[Xibor]

It's less than two months and at higher level can do it even in a month. The islands are for 50+ so there are daily shop mini quests for shards and later the Pathfinder crystals. Weekly 1d prem doubles the daily crystals. BB has the game analytics about everything so they probably decided this based on all the info there is. A lot of people have gotten their gem pits just by spamming short letters. I'ts up to the player to decide where to use the crystals.

I also forgot the gifted gems or event gems which Alex mentioned here: https://forum.tsotesting.com/threads...ll=1#post49162
Previous Crisis was over 1k gems at least for me IIRC.

All very fair points.

Enjoying devoting your crystals and spending your gems. Cheers

[cliff60]

u can get 50 gems by doing the long letters quest chains. if u have the manuscript recipe u will get 50 gems instead. Prob is those quest chains can be very expensive on res and take awhile to complete. U can also pick up gems from achievements. the arabian nights 1 will give 1001 gems once u do all the arabian nights addy once each.
So there is a few ways to get gems without having to buy too many. But its nice to buy gems when u can afford it to help pay the running costs of the game.

For us its just fun but someone has to pay the wages of the staff to keep bringing us new things and deal with any probs that might come up.

[geezer123]

Will we have to send explorers out to find these islands?

[royavatar]

shame , only gems, so that's me out, of the expansion.

[Areop-Enap]

Will we have to send explorers out to find these islands?

Not sure how this is an issue since it only takes 2-3 mins of an explorer's time to uncover a fog covered island, but yes, you'll likely be expected to send out an explorer to find the new islands.

I am more concerned about the islands with additional deposits. It seems the BB logic is that it's additional spawn locations, not a raised cap of mines according to this post over on testserver. A clarification would be nice. Since it's a gem purchase only, I would much prefer a raised cap of mines able to be built, than a new spawn location...

[Ozzymandeus]

I am more concerned about the islands with additional deposits. It seems the BB logic is that it's additional spawn locations, not a raised cap of mines according to this post over on testserver. A clarification would be nice. Since it's a gem purchase only, I would much prefer a raised cap of mines able to be built, than a new spawn location...

I play on two different servers.

On one account I have bought the 3 gem islands we got originally and I have two additional gold deposits as well as one each of iron and granite deposits.

I also have additional saltpetre and titanium spawn locations compared to the account where I have not bought any of those 3 islands, but am only able to find four (each) of titanium and saltpeter at any given time on both accounts.

I would expect the new islands to follow suit.

CORRECTION:
A friend pointed out an error in my statement concerning titanium deposits:

While getting the original three gem islands does not increase the number of saltpetre deposits you can have simultaneously beyond the four you can have available without them, it does increase the number of simultaneous titanium ore deposits to six.

However, the number of places that salt and titanium deposits can be found are both increased (to five and seven respectively), so when you deplete a mine you don't necessarily get a deposit back in the same place from a subsequent geologist search. This can get somewhat annoying and is certainly a minor disadvantage of spending gems to unlock these islands.