Tool: Upgrade Basic or Boost Buildings?

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   Here' s a tool (for Excel and compatible) that tells you what the relative gains are, between upgrading Basic resource production, or upgrading their Boost buildings (Carpenter, Foundry, etc).
https://sites.google.com/site/illyriadhelpers/

You tell it the resource (wood, clay, iron, stone, or food), and the levels of your Basic units and your Boost unit, and it will run the figures, and show you the best gains per resource spent and time spent for the build.

It's designed to help you understand relative costs, and to answer that difficult questions like,"should I be upgrading the Foundry now?"

Screenshot:

Of course, it should come with a disclaimer that Illyriad could change at any time, and that I'm using external data, and that I can't give warranties as to its functionality, etc.

Enjoy!
Comments welcome.

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Albatross Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster General Joined: 11 May 2011 Status: Offline Points: 1118	Topic: Tool: Upgrade Basic or Boost Buildings? Posted: 09 Jul 2011 at 23:51
	Here' s a tool (for Excel and compatible) that tells you what the relative gains are, between upgrading Basic resource production, or upgrading their Boost buildings (Carpenter, Foundry, etc). https://sites.google.com/site/illyriadhelpers/ You tell it the resource (wood, clay, iron, stone, or food), and the levels of your Basic units and your Boost unit, and it will run the figures, and show you the best gains per resource spent and time spent for the build. It's designed to help you understand relative costs, and to answer that difficult questions like,"should I be upgrading the Foundry now?" Screenshot: Of course, it should come with a disclaimer that Illyriad could change at any time, and that I'm using external data, and that I can't give warranties as to its functionality, etc. Enjoy! Comments welcome.

Ander Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster General Joined: 24 Apr 2011 Status: Offline Points: 1269	Posted: 10 Jul 2011 at 08:02
	cool tool Albatross! really nice! :)

Aneirin Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Wordsmith Joined: 28 Apr 2011 Status: Offline Points: 186	Posted: 10 Jul 2011 at 14:55
	Yeah. Nice effort

bucky Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Greenhorn Joined: 11 May 2011 Location: geodesia, tejas Status: Offline Points: 40	Posted: 30 Jul 2011 at 03:45
	kudos to alba for deciding to share this outside of mcrow. very very handy little tool. i expect more great things from you soon!
	"If you are the master be sometimes blind, if you are the servant be sometimes deaf." - R. Buckminster Fuller

Rill Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster General Player Council - Geographer Joined: 17 Jun 2011 Location: California Status: Offline Points: 7078	Posted: 02 Sep 2011 at 00:06
	thanks albatross, this is awesome!

Perseverance Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List New Poster Joined: 30 Aug 2011 Location: Minot ND Status: Offline Points: 5	Posted: 02 Sep 2011 at 00:31
	Wow a great tool! Two Thumbs UP!
	~Il Buon Tempo Verra~

Albatross Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster General Joined: 11 May 2011 Status: Offline Points: 1118	Posted: 08 Sep 2011 at 01:49
	I've since had another look at this tool (no updates; don't get too excited!). I thought I'd come forward with the results of my recent analysis of some typical situations: the interim resources gain from using this tool is only about 1% to 2%, with some additional +Res benefits of around 2% to 3% in some cases. Results in other individual cases might improve on this. I don't think this tool is worthwhile for players at higher levels, when other considerations like "I'll be away for 12 hours, so I'll upgrade a high-level resource" would produce bigger gains than using this tool. However, I'll leave the tool available, because it helps people understand the cost of upgrades, with more relevance at lower levels, and it can help players get to higher levels of production with a net benefit of around 3% to 5% for all primary res types: about the same value as the first two tiers of +Res% spells (which can only be applied to one res type, remember). Detail follows, which I don't expect readers to get though; it's provided for those who might be interested. I ran a few scenarios, adding up relevant stats from various upgrade paths from a start point (say L11, L13, L13, L13, L18 Res, and L5 building) to an endpoint. For example, three scenarios from the same start point would be as follows: Arbitrary order, like a typical player might do: S, S, S, S, P, P, P, P (where P is the primary resource unit, and S is the specialized bonus building like a Stonemason). Scenario 3 spanned a little more time, so to be fair, the resources produced in that extra time were added in to this scenario. Optimized by Build Res Cost: S, S, P, S, P, P, P, S produces +1.0% (3.5k more) res in the interim when compared against scenario 1. Optimized by Build Time Cost: S, S, P, P, P, S, P, P produces +1.6% (5.6k more) res in the interim when compared against scenario 1, generates a higher +Res rate (up 2.4%, or +99/hr) at the endpoint, but burns up 36k more res in building costs (net 30.5k). Overall, this gives a ROI on the net Res loss of about 13 days (after which a real benefit of +99/hr is enjoyed). This last scenario has a different end-point, which took +4h. The other scenarios have been normalized to account for this by 'leaving them running to accumulate extra res' until that time was up. Note that the above test was realistic, rather than being favourable to the tool. The first two upgrade steps are the same in all three scenarios, so there are more optimal situations than the one tested above.

HonoredMule Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster General Joined: 05 Mar 2010 Location: Canada Status: Offline Points: 1650	Posted: 08 Sep 2011 at 03:18
	I came to a similar conclusion when considering whether I should make such a tool, but I'm actually a little surprised the difference is that small. Nevertheless, this is very well done indeed. I consider it very worthwhile to have some properly researched analysis as well.
	"Apparently, quoting me is a 'thing' now." - HonoredMule

Albatross Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Postmaster General Joined: 11 May 2011 Status: Offline Points: 1118	Posted: 08 Sep 2011 at 08:43
	Just to qualify that analysis: it might not be fully representative of all situations, so mileage may vary. When I have some time, I'll test a few more scenarios, at high and low levels, to see if there's a sweet spot, or my earlier tests were just unlucky. Illyriad is based on geometric series, so those percentage figures depend on the length of the trial, and could easily be made to look more worthwhile in the long-run - I'll try to find a sensible context to present the findings.