New people will never have any clue how to net gain. The process is almost entirely opaque, and the only reason the current veterans know is that they were here for the game's evolution.

From an outsider's perspective, everyone sits at low networth then jumps 20-30 mil in the last hours of a set. They do this through actions that aren't visible. Thus, there is no possible way for new people to join this game. I know, because I'm a new/returning player, and this is the exact experience I've had. Now that I've made extensive threads requesting info and joined a clan to get advice (new people will not do either of these things 90% of the time), I see that this game's population can't grow because the barriers to entry are enormous.

this post brought to you by my need for bonus points.

Express is definitely straining under its own weight. All day today and yesterday every single bot had DR in the double digits. It's basically become a game of 'Have you been lucky enough to log on first? If so, go apefluff on the bots!'

I also had to leave 350 turns unplayed on my techer this round. Tech crashes to nothing in the last 24 hours of Express, what do other techers do with those turns??

I was Test Country Do Not Attack, and fortunately few did. However, this being my best set so far in express, I have no idea how anyone can get 50 mil+ networth. I literally have no idea what people are doing to achieve what - 10-20 billion dollars worth of military?.

g

Same, set hasn't started. Others in this thread = cheaters? How are they starting with hundreds of missiles? Is it some sort of rollover from last set?

edit: NM I checked my countries and I also have ~500 missiles in my starting set. Thanks mods!

Would bots solve the small field issue? I've noticed in Express that the person who wins is usually the one who just goes totally crazy on the bots, attacking dozens of times before anyone else.

-_- which is it lol -_-

Does a Defenses Held (aka failed) attack count as your one attack on a country?

asf

Wait can someone clarify the exact rules for login bonus turns? Do I get bonus turns even if I log in all the time, or should I consistently wait 18 hrs?

Who is this KILLME clan tag dude? Can he please be banned from Team? I have not been attacked by him, but the news is always filled with this guy going off on people, and it seems he's trying to die on purpose based on posts he makes here. Privately, I was told he is a certain clan's alt and he's basically violating the rules and having a second country that exists solely to harass other clans (note who he doesn't attack)...

Where can this be reported?

1: Is within 48 hours some kind of rule?

2: What's EoSS?

When people say 'just enough defense to keep the land you have', I genuinely don't understand.

I've gone literally all turrets. Maxed it out. 30%+ defense bonus from bonus points, 140% weapons.

And random people can still just Planned Strike me no problem. It makes me feel as if defense is actually impossible in this game, and the only way to excel is to just be enormously larger than your opponents.

How do players 'defend themselves' in a serious manner?

Casher dead in the water because of food prices

I think the veterans probably change nick constantly because if you're not top 10, you're nothing, so everyone not in the top 10 more or less just screws around getting in pointless wars (at least on Express). Every set also seems to have a % chance to simply run into one of the crazies who suicides on you the whole time. If you keep the same name, they'll just attack you again out of the blue, since they're pissed off and not thinking with spreadsheets.

That's super helpful. Now I understand. Early in a set I feel as if everyone else is doing horribly - aka I'm in the #1 spot and nobody's networth is rising.

But that's because they're accumulating huge amounts of cash and bushels. Their networth is 'hidden'. Can't be attacked, can't be seen on score, because it's on the public market to preserve it.

People build up millions of bushels, then at the end of a set, sell it to private market and then cash in, buying military off the public market.

I had no idea this was going on.

It seems as if this is not a game of making decisions in an evolving set. It's actually a game of making linear equations intersect on private spreadsheets. AKA, I grow linearly in a hidden manner for X hundred turns, destock at the end, hope I'm at a higher networth than other guys all secretly doing the same thing.

Ahhh! Thank you!

3 questions:

1: Doesn't this tactic leave you open to attacks by random people?

2: By selling bushels, do you mean to your private market, or to the public market? If to the public, who buys them if everybody else is trying to sell bushels too?

3: Is selling at the end what people mean by 'destocking'?

"Purchase excess bushels to save money for end game"

I think this is what I'm after. Can you detail this process more thoroughly?

I'm reaching a point with, for example, a Republic Casher where my expenses are undermining my cash generation. I'm advancing in a linear manner while other countries are skyrocketing in networth. This bushel purchasing thing, is that some way to avoid that problem?

Ok, market spy, what am I looking for? Huge numbers of bushels? How and why is he acquiring huge numbers of bushels? Is it a proxy for value to avoid paying expenses on military? Personally I have never made a single round of market sales that doubles my networth - is this something to do with the word 'stocking'? What exactly is stocking and why do people do it?

What I mean is -

I'm 2 mil networth.

Joe Bob is 1 mil networth.

I spy him. He's used up most of his turns, has half my military, nothing much going on.

I log on in the morning, I've been attacked successfully and he's got 3-4 mil networth.

This is a typical experience for Earth Empires - people jumping networth massively out of nowhere.

What am I missing? This isn't a complaint thread. I'm saying this game has some sort of higher level strategy that is completely opaque to new players. What is the exact specific process behind veteran players' ability to massively jump networth and military with no resources apparent on basic spy?

yo

What strats finish well without selling a single item on the market? Casher?

As a player who has returned multiple times over the decades, the thing I always find most off-putting is the public market.

As a mid-level player who can rank in the top ten without too much trouble, but never in first place, I know that there are shenanigans going on in the public market I will never be able to understand. I simply don't have the information. The forums hint that there are all sorts of complicated math-model manipulations involving stocking and late-game tricks that take what was otherwise a fun play experience and turn it into demoralizing "What? How the heck did that guy just quadruple his networth in one day? WTF is going on? Seriously, what even is this?"

For that reason, I'd like to play a version of Earth Empires that does not have a public market. Feel free to come up with some other mechanism or modification to the private market - but I'd just like all players to be on an even footing.

Right now, what I believe happens - there's an element of randomness. The less people going your strategy, the better you do, since you can charge higher prices for your research if you're a techer, your military if you're indy, your bushels if you're a farmer etc - but there's no way to know that information. You simply have to get lucky. Or maybe waste 50 turns spying on every single person in the game? IDK. I honestly don't know. So I can do the exact same thing in two sets of EE and in one set I'm on top of the world, and in the other me and ten other jerks are stepping on each other's toes.

It's honestly the reason I keep losing interest. My actions are minor compared to the overwhelming effect of the public market.

nobody will ever see this

woot

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