There's one aspect of trading that I
never took part in, and that's cross-tier trades. A cross-tier trade
is when someone is willing to give up a good from one tier, wanting a
good from another tier in return. This is most often done where
someone posts a trade giving up a higher tier good, like tier-3 Magical Goods
(elixir/magic dust/gems), in exchange for a lower tier good such as
tier-1 Basic Goods (marble/steel/planks).
Everyone has their own opinion on it,
and those opinions are usually very strong! But personally, I have
always thought that it was unfair. Especially when someone is giving
up a higher tier good for a lower tier good. And, I think it's extremely bad for a fellowship! I know – at first,
this sounds backwards, maybe even downright crazy, but let me explain
why.
First, we must understand how the game
suggests trades. When making a trade, the game groups the trades
into four categories: 0-star through 3-star trades. 2-star trades
are considered “even”, basically a 1-1 ratio. 0-star trades are
just bad, and I won't even mention them here. 1-star trades are a
little off balance and happen most often when you come across someone
in the trade window that you haven't found on the map yet. Then the
game imposes a 50% penalty. So if the person is really asking for
100 units, the game will tack on another 50 units for a total cost of
150. 3-star trades are good for the “buyer”, and it happens when
you are getting better than a 1-1 ratio. Usually, someone needs
something bad and they are willing to give up more to get it.
Now, when placing a trade, the game
will suggest a 1x4x16 ratio between the tiers to achieve a 2-star, or
balanced, trade. You are allowed to waiver from that ratio some, but
get too far away from it and the game will reject your trade offer.
So that means for every 1 tier-3 good being offered it would be
“worth” 4 tier-2 goods, and 16 tier-1 goods.
So, some examples:
(Tier-1 Basic Goods offers)
You offer 100 steel and the game will
suggest you ask for 25 crystals/scrolls/silk
You offer 100 steel and the game will
suggest you ask for 6 elixir/magic dust/gems
(Tier-2 Crafted Goods offers)
You offer 100 silk and the game will
suggest you ask for 400 marble/steel/planks
You offer 100 silk and the game will
suggest you ask for 25 elixir/magic dust/gems
(Tier-3 Magical Goods offers)
You offer 100 gems and the game will
suggest you ask for 400 crystals/scrolls/silk
You offer 100 gems and the game will
suggest you ask for 1600 marble/steel/planks
So you can see that if you are offering
a good, it will require more lower tier goods to fulfill the offer,
and less higher tier goods. Why does this matter? Because of the
difference between what each tier factory produces. The lower tier
factories yield a lower amount of goods per production run. While
the actual amount depends on which race you are (Elf or Human), and
on your current boost rate based on the number of relics you have –
overall the lower the tier factory, the lower the yield per run.
While the actual production numbers
will be personal, let's use some numbers from the wiki. In chapter
5, you could have max level 15 marble and elixir factories. Their
base productions per day would be 173 for marble, and 571 for elixir.
That is already a big difference in their production amounts. But
that's just base amounts. Let me use my factories on my Elf city as
a real world example (all puns intended):
Factory Factory level Boost
amount 9-hour Production yield
Marble 14 433% 496
Crystal 9 402% 477
Elixir 5 472% 584
That's a noticeable difference between
tier-1 to tier-3 production. But especially when you consider I
could upgrade the elixir factory another 10 levels to level 15! Even
when you take into consideration that tier-3 goods cost more coin and
supplies to run, tier-3 can easily outproduce tier-1 when spending
that same amount of time, coins, and supplies!
Right now, on my server, there is a
trade posted where someone is giving up 300 gems and wants 4000
marble in return. This, by the way, is considered a 3-star or really
good trade by the game. So using my example city above, it would
take me 8 marble factories all running 9-hour productions to produce
3986 marble. Better hope I already have some marble saved up or I
would need a 9th factory to fulfill the offer. Assuming the numbers
for gem factories are somewhere close to my elixir factories, it
would only take that person 1 gems factory to produce the 300 gems
they are giving up. And they would have a surplus amount of leftover
gems for themselves!
This is why, unless it was dire
circumstances, I never take cross-tier trades. They aren't fair and
equitable trades. Now I know people might still need them, and some
people like them. But you usually see the same people posting the
same cross-tier trades over and over. And that's just a drain on the
“economy”. Those people usually cut down or eliminated their
tier-1 factories to save space. But it is very inefficient and
forces others to carry their deficiencies
That's why all it takes
is one fellowship member running their production like this and it
will drain the fellowship of resources. Especially if not everyone in the fellowship is participating in trades. But that is a topic for another post!