My cooldown is already lowered to 3h, but I still have 200 elves to shoot. If you get 3 elves every 15m that's 12 per hour, and 36 in 3h. I shoot 10 or 11 elves three times, that makes 33 in 3h. I don't see how your elves supply is draining so quickly, mine is actually increasing, at least until next cannon upgrade.
Also I have a great glitch that makes the timer for the elf tunnel complete upon sync, so every time I login I have 4 more elves. I don't have the patience to spend the day logging in and out to farm elves, but I'm already happy getting 4 more elves every 3h (cannon login) instead of 8h. Also when I visit my friends I randomly get bart screen or crashes so I have to login (and get 4 elves) a couple times more.
Well, this glitch you have is the reason you're ahead and have so many elves stockpiled. My cannon now is pretty much useless now because I've not had enough elves to shoot. I think someone else figured out 6 elves per hour? Even this seems generous to what I've been getting.
I know for sure that elves come in batches of 3. It happens that when I'm doing stuff in my town, after clearing all the elves (got the popup), I randomly hear three crashing sounds, if I look around I can find three new elves and the clear popup comes again. So, be it 10, 15 or 100 minutes, elves come in batches of three. When I tap the tunnel I hear four crashes and I find four elves.
when I'm logged in, actively playing the game (ie, going through friends lists) I do get batches of 3 each 15 minutes but when my game is shut down for 7 hours (ie device turned off) I don't come back to a maximum number of elves (I chose 7 hours because I thought that surely the max would be reached by 8 hours but even in 7 hours, I didn't hit the max) If the 7 hour cool down occurred with 3 every 15 minutes I should have 12 per hour (or perhaps the max is 48 and I just didn't get a you've reached max elves popup although I've seen one before (on the 26th?)
New trial -- clearing all elves from my town, waiting 2 hours, leaving that town logged in, keeping the app running in the background, let's see what I wind up with (currently at 46 elves, if the 3 every 15 works then I should have 46+24... will update
eta: when I said 1 elf every 10 minutes, it's probably better to say 3 elves every 30 minutes (as they do come in 3s)
Well, this glitch you have is the reason you're ahead and have so many elves stockpiled.
I surely have a higher stock of elves, but what i said is that it doesn't get lower not counting the glitch. If the 3elves per 15min is true, every 3 hours I get 36 elves (excluding the tunnel) and I shoot 33 at my current cannon level, so, my stock isn't draining even without counting the elf tunnel.
I get very inconsistent spawning rates. Normally I have to sync to get them to show up as well.
Usually it's 3 every 15 minutes
Sometimes it's 6 every 30 minutes
Today it's 3 every 30 minutes.
EDIT: just waited in my town for 15 minutes, nothing. After a few more minutes, did a friend visit and back. Three elves showed up, so just got 3 for 19 minutes... If these rely on the server to spawn (which I highly suspect as a sync with server corrects missing elves), I think there is a delay/server issue with the spawning or a backlog of requests issue that is causing inconsistent spawn rates or fulfilling of requests on time. (spelling corrected as well)
EDIT 2: Seems like I'm still 3 every 15 minutes, I just have to manually sync with the server to get them to show up. Reproduced the above edit for a second time. Also seems like if I don't sync in time, I don't get the missing elves and get 3 every 30 minutes.
My rate seems to be fairly consistent at 3 elves per 30 minutes. I am always at zero after firing my cannons and fire off 24-2 cannons full and 1 with 2. It sometimes takes me another half hour until I can get elves for the third cannon.
I'm kinda bummed about my spawn rate. I've been firing my cannon as soon as it cools down pretty much every time during phase two (give or take a couple times when I was a half hr late) and I'm finally about out of extra elves. I wish they spawned more quickly to keep up with my cannon and its upgrades.
In my town that didn't have the XMAS glitch lockout, I have around 100 buffer elves (but I was playing fairly frequently on XMAS) The other 2 towns are right now very close to the maximum cannon fire (ie I can shoot 30 in an hour and I have 27 plus whatever I gain in that hour) . I made sure last night before I did my 7 hour cooldown test that I saw the synchronizing text (a couple of times I went to and from KrustyLand and then to and from my friends list and got the 7 hours equals 42-45 elves (which is 6 per hour)
I find clearing the elves tedious (they are small) and wanted there to be some buffer (so when I log in during the day I can just fire the cannon, clear the super visible elves and leave, I mean I would be willing to search for all at first log in and the last login but not every time) but if I need to hunt for all of them "every" cycle in order to guarantee full cannons... I'm thinking that like Clash of Castles, I'll probably stop upgrading the cannon once it hits the reduce cooldown time.
I get very inconsistent spawning rates. Normally I have to sync to get them to show up as well.
Usually it's 3 every 15 minutes
Sometimes it's 6 every 30 minutes
Today it's 3 every 30 minutes.
EDIT: just waited in my town for 15 minutes, nothing. After a few more minutes, did a friend visit and back. Three elves showed up, so just got 3 for 19 minutes... If these rely on the server to spawn (which I highly suspect as a sync with server corrects missing elves), I think there is a delay/server issue with the spawning or a backlog of requests issue that is causing inconsistent spawn rates or fulfilling of requests on time. (spelling corrected as well)
EDIT 2: Seems like I'm still 3 every 15 minutes, I just have to manually sync with the server to get them to show up. Reproduced the above edit for a second time. Also seems like if I don't sync in time, I don't get the missing elves and get 3 every 30 minutes.
I'm not willing to synch every 15 minutes. That's just nope. Thanks for the detailed info (spawning rates are weird)
When the event started I got a lot of elves and it didn't take long to have about 170 spare elves. Then the span rate somehow went down. I cleaned my town earlier until I got the message that there's no elves left. Forty minutes later I logged in again and there were five elves all around my cannon. Again I waited forty minutes and this time I had three elves around my cannon. I didn't even have to look through my town. The timer for my cannon will be done in fifty minutes and it will probably be the last time that I can shoot the full amount of elves. After this it's probably going down to one, sometimes two shots per refresh time.
I am really disappointed with this development and would love to have the spawn rate from the first days back.
Edit: after 19 minutes I logged in again to see if it has to do with the syncing and there were no elves at all.
I'm also very disappointed at the spawn rate for elves, after I shot my cannon this morning I have 0, an hour later I checked I have 6 elves so I still have 2 hour for my next shoot, at this speed I will only have 18 elves to shoot when I supposed to shoot 33 elves, this sucks...... logging a ticket now with EA.....
When the event started I got a lot of elves and it didn't take long to have about 170 spare elves. Then the span rate somehow went down. I cleaned my town earlier until I got the message that there's no elves left. Forty minutes later I logged in again and there were five elves all around my cannon. Again I waited forty minutes and this time I had three elves around my cannon. I didn't even have to look through my town. The timer for my cannon will be done in fifty minutes and it will probably be the last time that I can shoot the full amount of elves. After this it's probably going down to one, sometimes two shots per refresh time.
I am really disappointed with this development and would love to have the spawn rate from the first days back.
Edit: after 19 minutes I logged in again to see if it has to do with the syncing and there were no elves at all.
According to elsewhere on the internet, the spawn rate on XMAS was supposed to be twice the rate of the post XMAS spawn rate (ie this sucks for those of us locked out)... I tried leaving the app logged in for a little over 2 hours and 15 was the resulting number of elves ( which I guess is 12 from the 2 hours and a set of 3 from the overage time). (I synched numerous times and went from the "your town has no more elves"at 9am to "your town has no more elves" at 1130am
whatever, it looks like a full cannon will require 4 hours and so I'm not going to sweat the every 3 hour login (my town won't reach the maximum number of elves in 4 hours since that's more than 48 (from my 7 hour, didn't get a warning test last night)
So I've had my games open here while I peruse the forums and stop to do little chores (wash dishes, etc) and a couple of times I heard double tinkle-crashes - one from each game. Elves in both games. After the last tinkle-crash on my iPod there was none on my Nexus. So I thought to start a timer...
7 minutes later I got the tinkle-crash on my Nexus.
I've been to Krustyland and my neighborhood on both games while waiting and got no new elves when returning.
It just took 27 minutes for the elves to tinkle-crash into my iPad again. Still no elves on the Nexus...
"You've caught all the elves in your town! But how long till more arrive? HOW LONG?!"
"How long?" indeed. I think it was meant to be random. Perhaps 15 minutes is the minimum time for the randomizer routine and it wasn't working correctly at first - it was 'paying out' at the minimum time every time. Which is where some sites got 15 minutes as the time limit (that's also where I got it). Now they've fixed it, which is why we're not getting as many or as often as the first few hours.
Remember that the Present Depot (big metal tree) was paying out every time you entered the game or returned from Krustyland or the Neighborhood at first... Then they fixed it. I think they fixed the random timer on elves also.
In my game I can clear all the elves, got to KL come right back and there's 3 new ones right around the canon. Click on the friends icon, come right back and there's 3 around the canon. If I had the patience I could build up a pretty big reservoir that way.
Replies
Well, this glitch you have is the reason you're ahead and have so many elves stockpiled. My cannon now is pretty much useless now because I've not had enough elves to shoot. I think someone else figured out 6 elves per hour? Even this seems generous to what I've been getting.
when I'm logged in, actively playing the game (ie, going through friends lists) I do get batches of 3 each 15 minutes but when my game is shut down for 7 hours (ie device turned off) I don't come back to a maximum number of elves (I chose 7 hours because I thought that surely the max would be reached by 8 hours but even in 7 hours, I didn't hit the max) If the 7 hour cool down occurred with 3 every 15 minutes I should have 12 per hour (or perhaps the max is 48 and I just didn't get a you've reached max elves popup although I've seen one before (on the 26th?)
New trial -- clearing all elves from my town, waiting 2 hours, leaving that town logged in, keeping the app running in the background, let's see what I wind up with (currently at 46 elves, if the 3 every 15 works then I should have 46+24... will update
eta: when I said 1 elf every 10 minutes, it's probably better to say 3 elves every 30 minutes (as they do come in 3s)
I surely have a higher stock of elves, but what i said is that it doesn't get lower not counting the glitch. If the 3elves per 15min is true, every 3 hours I get 36 elves (excluding the tunnel) and I shoot 33 at my current cannon level, so, my stock isn't draining even without counting the elf tunnel.
Usually it's 3 every 15 minutes
Sometimes it's 6 every 30 minutes
Today it's 3 every 30 minutes.
EDIT: just waited in my town for 15 minutes, nothing. After a few more minutes, did a friend visit and back. Three elves showed up, so just got 3 for 19 minutes... If these rely on the server to spawn (which I highly suspect as a sync with server corrects missing elves), I think there is a delay/server issue with the spawning or a backlog of requests issue that is causing inconsistent spawn rates or fulfilling of requests on time. (spelling corrected as well)
EDIT 2: Seems like I'm still 3 every 15 minutes, I just have to manually sync with the server to get them to show up. Reproduced the above edit for a second time. Also seems like if I don't sync in time, I don't get the missing elves and get 3 every 30 minutes.
I find clearing the elves tedious (they are small) and wanted there to be some buffer (so when I log in during the day I can just fire the cannon, clear the super visible elves and leave, I mean I would be willing to search for all at first log in and the last login but not every time) but if I need to hunt for all of them "every" cycle in order to guarantee full cannons... I'm thinking that like Clash of Castles, I'll probably stop upgrading the cannon once it hits the reduce cooldown time.
I'm not willing to synch every 15 minutes. That's just nope. Thanks for the detailed info (spawning rates are weird)
Yes, I won't be able to starting tomorrow either...
I am really disappointed with this development and would love to have the spawn rate from the first days back.
Edit: after 19 minutes I logged in again to see if it has to do with the syncing and there were no elves at all.
According to elsewhere on the internet, the spawn rate on XMAS was supposed to be twice the rate of the post XMAS spawn rate (ie this sucks for those of us locked out)... I tried leaving the app logged in for a little over 2 hours and 15 was the resulting number of elves ( which I guess is 12 from the 2 hours and a set of 3 from the overage time). (I synched numerous times and went from the "your town has no more elves"at 9am to "your town has no more elves" at 1130am
whatever, it looks like a full cannon will require 4 hours and so I'm not going to sweat the every 3 hour login (my town won't reach the maximum number of elves in 4 hours since that's more than 48 (from my 7 hour, didn't get a warning test last night)
So I've had my games open here while I peruse the forums and stop to do little chores (wash dishes, etc) and a couple of times I heard double tinkle-crashes - one from each game. Elves in both games. After the last tinkle-crash on my iPod there was none on my Nexus. So I thought to start a timer...
7 minutes later I got the tinkle-crash on my Nexus.
I've been to Krustyland and my neighborhood on both games while waiting and got no new elves when returning.
It just took 27 minutes for the elves to tinkle-crash into my iPad again. Still no elves on the Nexus...
The popup says: "How long?" indeed. I think it was meant to be random. Perhaps 15 minutes is the minimum time for the randomizer routine and it wasn't working correctly at first - it was 'paying out' at the minimum time every time. Which is where some sites got 15 minutes as the time limit (that's also where I got it). Now they've fixed it, which is why we're not getting as many or as often as the first few hours.
Remember that the Present Depot (big metal tree) was paying out every time you entered the game or returned from Krustyland or the Neighborhood at first... Then they fixed it. I think they fixed the random timer on elves also.