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Feeding the Corruption

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Freyja View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Freyja Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2016 at 16:33
I thought about blockades, but then I thought about the purpose of the task and we're supposed to get our friends to help us defend our towns. I don't see a blockade as something that we do to defend our towns. We don't normally get our friends to blockade us for defensive reasons. A blockade would have to be sent from a town that is not in the same alliance or in an alliance with a confed or NAP, so it would have to come from someone who is not an ally.

So if your friends can't blockade your town and you're supposed to get your friends to help, it doesn't seem like a blockade is what we're supposed to do.

My plan is to surround my town on all 8 squares and have thief and sab support in the town. But we don't know if it will work or not since it only happened that one time and they had no idea that the tentacles were going to escape when they did.

Yes, any units can be sent to the Heart of Corruption or any of the corrupted squares around it. The message is the same - units get consumed and the corruption spreads as a result. With trade units, although there is a limit on the number a city can have, you can start making new units as soon as they are eaten by the HoC. And you can send out new diplo missions when the others get eaten. You don't have to wait for anything to come back home.



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dungshoveleux Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2016 at 17:07
The only time I heard when the tentacles escaped was when the town was NOT fully surrounded with 8 squares occupied.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Dungshoveleux Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2016 at 17:15
The HoC activation thresh-hold has never been satisfactorily understood, only that no-one really knows how many troops it takes to corrupt a square.  There is a square limit which I forget, but once reached, the HoC will beat (possibly from a particular moon phase?).  Most of us used to spam the HoC with scouts when it was active, and it almost broke the server which was why the diplo mission limit was implemented.  The tentacle drop rate is very low - its also on the forum somewhere. I used to send 1,000's of missions and have got around 200 tentacles (before the diplo limit was brought in.)
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Brandmeister Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 29 Dec 2016 at 22:36
Originally posted by Dungshoveleux Dungshoveleux wrote:

The HoC activation thresh-hold has never been satisfactorily understood, only that no-one really knows how many troops it takes to corrupt a square.  There is a square limit which I forget, but once reached, the HoC will beat (possibly from a particular moon phase?).  Most of us used to spam the HoC with scouts when it was active, and it almost broke the server which was why the diplo mission limit was implemented.  The tentacle drop rate is very low - its also on the forum somewhere. I used to send 1,000's of missions and have got around 200 tentacles (before the diplo limit was brought in.)

I thought the prevailing theory was that the HoC corrupting squares was related to the total points of the units consumed, not necsssarily the amount of units.

People were sending a thousand individual scouts because the tentacle drop rate on a mission is the same whether you send 1 or 10,000 troops. They could have also easily fixed the problem by just rolling the drop rate on every unit in your mission.

I have a city with the 20 tentacles locked in place, waiting for the heart to beat again. I plan on surrounding all 8 squares, and also trying some additional experiments.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Freyja Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Dec 2016 at 02:09
There was only one time when tentacles escaped from players' towns in September 2014, and they didn't know what was about to happen. They were expecting an attack and were reinforcing with armies, but did not try anything to keep the tentacles from escaping. No one knew yet.

As far as how much and what it takes to corrupt a square, we don't know. One player said it takes 250K of attack to corrupt a square, but some of us don't agree. I've sent more than that and nothing happened, and so have others. And that's why some of us think it is possible that there are some other factors involved, like moon phase, number of players sending and not just a total number of units, or a certain number of units within a specific time period. I can see a complex algorithm for this, just like other complicated stuff in this game.

The drop ratio was calculated to be about 1 corrupted tentacle for every 20 attacks. But I don't think it matters so much anymore since the duration was extended from only 3 days to 2-3 weeks. We have plenty of time to send more missions and get more attacks and tentacles.

And just a reminder - wait to send a messenger to Duraz Karag until the heart is beating, even if you have all 20 tentacles. All of the players who had tentacles escape in 2014 sent the messengers to DK while the heart was beating. You don't have to wait to get the tentacles though.





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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote tremon Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 30 Dec 2016 at 02:28
I'm nowhere near participating in this, but common sense suggests that corruption isn't triggered by a huge amount of troops: it is fed by power and opportunity. It seems much more likely to me that squares can be corrupted by a specific unit type, or combination of units. Maybe just high-ranking commanders from multiple players?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Freyja Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 04 Jan 2017 at 15:30

I have to disagree about being able to participate. I got a few IGMs from people saying they only have cotter towns and don't want to waste good commanders, and from new players who are interested but don't know what they can do.

To do the quest, a player needs a city with all the research finished. But we don't know how to finish the quest yet, and need help to figure it out so we can share how with everyone else. We need help with feeding the heart because it takes so freaking much to feed it until it is satiated, we need help with defending our towns for the attack that is supposed to happen, and we need help figuring things out, like the satiation threshold and what it really takes.

The Windseekers have been suspected of being involved and they have been spotted in Kumala a few times. Looking for them on the map is something anyone can do, and there might be a clue to this quest that we have overlooked in the past.

The Empirium is another faction that might be involved, since they sent the expedition party to Kumala that got lost and it was their journal that was recovered and returned. The Circle of Five is more than likely to be involved. It's also possible that Duraz Karag holds some other clue to the quest.

For players with small towns or cotter towns and don't have armies, those are perfect for sending armies to the heart. We don't want to send our best, high level commanders because they do not come back and cannot be resurrected. Making new, level 0 commanders and a small amount of troops is perfect. It's not too much of a gold hardship and that'll be fixed anyway as soon as they get eaten by the heart. You don't have to pay them if they're dead. I imagine if 100 players made 5 new commanders and 100 units in each town and sent them to the heart, it would add up to 1000s. And it all helps.

The way my alliance decided we would do these monthly feedings is we picked 1 of us (guess who got to go first!) and that 1 member is going to send either 500 to 1K units from each town with the lowest level commanders or T1s OR do a complete change of troop type in 1-2 towns and send all of the units and all 5 commanders from each city. We didn't want doing this to take too much time away from other things or cause too much of a burden or hardship on any 1 member or the alliance as a whole. We want to be able to send a feeding every month and also do the other stuff we do like war games and hunting. Some of us have towns with mixed units or the wrong type and we're going to use the feedings to clean up our towns and get them with the right type of troops. And then I also have a couple of my alt's towns in Kumala that I use solely for feeding the heart all the time, as much as possible.  

I hope lots of people sent lots of troops and/or diplos to the HoC on January 1st, and I'm checking for a newly corrupted square every day. And I also hope that we can keep doing this every month and make it a regular thing. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote anarchaic Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 08 Jan 2017 at 15:15
I have a natural experiment with the escaping tentacles.  One town has had the eight squares occupied by armies since the last time Audrey was beating (sanfran 204/454).  The other town (arkham 496/551) has been left exposed.  Also, I have 17 human, 6 dwarf and 1 orc tentacle extra if anyone is short.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote flatfisher Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jan 2017 at 09:54
Hi, due to holiday I completely forgot about sending troops to the HoC. I do have some charioteers ready to go, can I still send them or should I wait until some other date?
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Freyja Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 09 Jan 2017 at 15:58
Many others are asking similar questions. Some sent and want to send more, but don't know if they should wait or not.

Basically, we feed the heart until it beats. If the heart is not beating, then it needs more food. So send all the units you want to send, and whenever you want to send them.

It takes a lot of units and a long time, which is one reason why I am suggesting a monthly feeding. It is a reminder that we need to keep feeding it. Once is not enough. Feeding the heart is an ongoing, nonstop thing if we want to finish this quest. The monthly feeding day is not a limitation, but I'm hoping it will encourage more people to get involved and keep us motivated to keep sending units. And if we have a group activity, we can motivate and remind each other.  I know some people who wanted something to do that has a little more structure rather than everyone randomly sending units at any time. As new players join, they will learn about the quest and see what we have been doing, and it might the thing that gets them hooked on the game. I would not be surprised if a new player came along with a fresh perspective and solved the quest, since the rest of us have been stuck for a few years now. Personally, I didn't like Illy that much when I first tried it, and I thought it was okay the second time I tried it, and it wasn't until I learned about the mysteries that I fell in love with the game and became addicted.

So feed it until it beats, and don't stop until it does. Feed it any time. Send as many units as you want/can afford/whatever.

We're doing this as a community and if some people miss a month or send at a different time, it's okay. It's all good and it all helps. There are many players who are not interested and are not sending anything ever, and that's okay too. There's something in this game for everyone. If I wasn't doing mysteries, I'd be doing something else, like a war of walls or Thunderdome. Those are important parts of the game too.

And let's keep the conversation going. Brainstorm, share ideas, and talk about the quest and put our heads together to figure this out. There's a link on my profile to an open chat room that anyone can join and we can talk about the quest, mysteries, factions, or whatever. There's no registration or sign-up required. Use any name you want also, but come by and let's talk.
Exploring the Mysteries chat room






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