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Maximizing elf return

That is an interesting strategy. I'll be curious to see how it works out. I'm cannon level 8 I think and I'm just firing as soon as I can, pretty soon I'll have no elf reserve but I really just want to be done with this asap.
I'm averaging about 1200 bells a day but somehow I got over 2000 yesterday.
Just be careful, as you say, that you don't run out of time while waiting to surplus your elves!
I like routine!

Replies

  • nissa762
    1950 posts Member
    edited December 2014
    I think this is a good idea. Saving means we'll get more bells per elf. I haven't run out yet, but I'm pretty close and expect to either today or tomorrow. With almost 13 days left, doesn't hurt to try for a couple days.
  • anaquarind
    1496 posts Member
    edited December 2014
    The other thing that could burn you is if EA decides to up increase the number of elves available - then we may be stuck with too many elves. But as has been pointed out, there is a lot of time to the end so you can adopt a wait-and-see strategy at least for a few days.
    I like routine!
  • neuroheart
    8132 posts Member
    edited December 2014
    I think my next upgrade costs 340 cogs, and it's to decrease cooldown. The next upgrade will cost even more, so waiting for that might drive me nuts. It's probably a good idea, but I'm well ahead of the daily bell chart, so I won't worry about it.
  • GeminiTina
    330 posts Member
    edited January 2015
    I also thought of the op's idea a little too late. I'm choosing to fire occasionally and stockpile. I'm too lazy to do the math, but I don't want to get stuck with a pile of elves and not enough cannon time to fire them.
  • kellyfennig
    13 posts Member
    edited January 2015
    I've been tracking "elf production" over the last few days. I ensured that every elf was collected until I got the "no more" message (this involved turning off all buildings, props and ground textures so the eleves hidden behind buildings, and there are a lot of them, are visible).

    The current rate is 3 elves / 15 min or 12 elves/hr. Plus there are the additional 4 elves every 4 hrs. So that works out to 52 elves every 4 hours. (Which also happens to be the max cap, since when I left the game alone for more than 12 hours, that is what the max was). This can be as much as 312/d.

    So here's the math:

    Assume a player is diligent/obsessive compulsive/has no life and hits the cannon as soon as cool down expires and doesn't sleep (so over a 24h period)
    - At level 1, they get 6 firings a day, consuming 162 elves with 150 leftover. Total daily bell earning = 324/day
    - at level 20, they get 12 firings a day, consuming 540 elves, a deficit of 228; this is impossible so earning caps out at 312*(bells per elf)=2496 Bells/day

    At this Rate, the magic level one would assume to halt (where elf consumption exceeds production) is level 13.

    But my assumptions are unrealistic so let's make some realistic assumptions.
    1) people like 8 hours of sleep
    So instead of a 24h window, it is 16. Elf production maxes out at 260 (because when you stop playing, the world will accumulate to the max allotment, so you get 20 hours of production vs 16 hours of consumption)

    With this assumption, The magic tipping point actually gets pushed out to level 17.

    Now let's look at rate of Returns, not just elf availability.
    If you stopped at level 13 (as per the original formula) for every day you do not upgrade, you are losing 312-624 bells (the daily elf max production * bells earned per elf difference). If this is your strategy, you are better off stopping at level 15 instead, The next bell/elf upgrade point) and take your losses.

    If you stopped at level 17, you are only losing out at 260 bells/day. By this level, you will only Have a couple days left in the event, so it would be silly to stop upgrading.

    Honestly, the math is more complex than I'm presenting and my spreadsheet I've been working with takes more variables into account. I just wanted to make the point that stopping Cannon upgrades is an unwise tactic. In addition, The reduction of elf production is a fallacy; currently they are being produced at a constant rate regardless of level. I toI originally thought that elves were not being produced consistently and were decreasing in rate. It wasn't until I searched until completion that I discovered they are being produced consistently in volume, just that they were hiding from sight due to the environment I created in my city.

    So the only tactic I truly would recommend is:
    1) turn off the textures Of everything but characters when hunting for elves.
    2) grab elves from the cave as soon as possible
    3) hunt until completion (notified the town is empty)
    4) once town is empty then fire Cannon (once above level 13, there will be times you won't get 3 firings)
    5) go to friends towns and only tap on their cannon and/or cave. If either isn't available, skip their town this time around this is significant, as it can earn around 400-600+ bells per day alone. Just following this rule alone for the duration of the event would gain you 10000-12000 bells!)
    6) wait for the next cool down period and repeat steps 1-5.

    Following this tactic should get all the rewards with 2-3 days to spare.
  • thatdonald845
    1609 posts Member
    edited January 2015
    Thank you for explaining this so clearly. It would be great if this could be added to one of the stickies at the top of the Game Discussion page as it will help a lot of players. :-)
  • suetopia
    4239 posts Member
    edited January 2015
    EDIT: reread cannon guide. Info I gave was incorrect, thus post obsolete.
  • thatdonald845
    1609 posts Member
    edited January 2015
    Has anybody been able to work out if it is better to leave firing your cannon until near the very end of its cooldown period - thus leaving the floating icon there for visiting neighbours to tap - and for you to wait and collect on?

    Or even only firing two shots so that the icon is still there?

    Just curious if this would help.
  • Mirality
    251 posts
    edited January 2015
    Has anybody been able to work out if it is better to leave firing your cannon until near the very end of its cooldown period - thus leaving the floating icon there for visiting neighbours to tap - and for you to wait and collect on?

    Or even only firing two shots so that the icon is still there?
    No, don't do that. Neighbours can tap your cannon regardless of whether it is in cooldown or not -- the only limit is that they can't tap it if it already has a handshake. So your goal is to clear the handshake as fast as possible regardless of when it appears. (This is where the "X has visited your Springfield" push notifications are actually useful.)


    Personally, I've never had a problem keeping a surplus of elves -- it's been slowly growing in fact, and I'm now at ~250 extra. I'm probably not firing the cannon as often as I could, but I'm still maintaining a bell income ahead of the daily chart. So unless you're desperate to get to the free donuts at the end (assuming they do that again) I wouldn't worry about it too much unless you're behind the chart.
  • kellyfennig
    13 posts Member
    edited January 2015
    Agreed. Clear the handshakes as fast as possible. Each clearing of the combined Cave/cannon nets 10-15 bells. If you have 100 friends and they all followed the same tactic, it would net you 1000-1500 Bells per day just for clearing the cannon/cave alone (so technically, you could get all prizes without firing a single shot if that was done since day 1)

    It's a bit of big numbers theorem an a bit of a pyramid scheme. So when people panic that they won't get everything, they just aren't looking at all the logical opportunities to maximize bell return (remember, it doesn't Matter how many elves you get rid of, unless you want bragging rights on the leaderboards; bell accumulation is the only currency that matters)
  • leeana69
    170 posts
    edited January 2015
    I've been tracking "elf production" over the last few days. I ensured that every elf was collected until I got the "no more" message (this involved turning off all buildings, props and ground textures so the eleves hidden behind buildings, and there are a lot of them, are visible).

    The current rate is 3 elves / 15 min or 12 elves/hr. Plus there are the additional 4 elves every 4 hrs. So that works out to 52 elves every 4 hours. (Which also happens to be the max cap, since when I left the game alone for more than 12 hours, that is what the max was). This can be as much as 312/d.

    If this is the rate you're getting, consider yourself lucky. Most people are getting only 6 elves/hour, as indicated in a number of other threads on this forum.
  • GeminiTina
    330 posts Member
    edited January 2015
    So here's the math:
    Well done. Thanks!
    latest?cb=20120108011903
  • dcacooper
    402 posts Member
    edited January 2015
    leeana69 wrote:
    I've been tracking "elf production" over the last few days. I ensured that every elf was collected until I got the "no more" message (this involved turning off all buildings, props and ground textures so the eleves hidden behind buildings, and there are a lot of them, are visible).

    The current rate is 3 elves / 15 min or 12 elves/hr. Plus there are the additional 4 elves every 4 hrs. So that works out to 52 elves every 4 hours. (Which also happens to be the max cap, since when I left the game alone for more than 12 hours, that is what the max was). This can be as much as 312/d.

    If this is the rate you're getting, consider yourself lucky. Most people are getting only 6 elves/hour, as indicated in a number of other threads on this forum.

    Yup, definitely only 6 elves/hour for me. Had five left over when I went to bed last night. Logged on again this morning, 7 hours later and had exactly 42 to collect. Fired off 36, leaving me with 11. Went out this morning, logged in when I got home 5 hours later, collected 34 (including 4 from the elf cave) giving me 45 in total. Fired off another 36 and have 9 left over.

    6 per hour, like clockwork.

    That said. I am getting 5 bells per elf fired, so assuming 2 elf cave bonuses per day (mine definitely only "pays out" every 8 hours, not every 4) that is a total of 152 elves per day. At 5 bells per elf that is 760 bells in total, plus a minimum of 330 from visiting neighbours give 1,090. As I am a couple of days ahead of the chart, I am not worried about not reaching the final prize (just got to Little Helper Ralph) as it still looks well doable from here.

    However, it does seem odd that EA have given us a cannon that can be updated so much further than (a) is required to complete the event and (b) makes any sense whatsoever. Mine is level 11 and, apart from getting more bells per elf, updating any further is utterly pointless as a quicker cooldown time or firing more elves per shot gives me no benefit whatsoever.
  • Solartron
    138 posts
    edited January 2015
    I only log into the game 1-2 times a day, plenty of elves.
  • EldarOfSuburbia
    307 posts
    edited January 2015
    I have a healthy elf surplus. I probably fire the cannon 4 times a day (currently level 11, so 5 elves/shot), and I got Robot Present Man this morning and appear to be ahead of the curve.
  • anaquarind
    1496 posts Member
    edited January 2015
    Well, for the record I'm going for it. Holding all elf firings and aiming for cannon upgrade 13 to allow 6 bells/elf. I figure that I should be able to fire the cannon about 6 times/day when the time comes. This should allow me to fire 6X3 firings X 12 elves per shot = about 200/day. Once I hit level 13, or hit the point where I have more than 200 elves per number of event days left, I'll start firing them off.

    Come to think of it, with the number of network outages EA has been having, I'd better budget one extra day to fire elves off just in case.
    I like routine!
  • pguittar78639
    25 posts
    edited January 2015
    neuroheart wrote:
    I think my next upgrade costs 340 cogs, and it's to decrease cooldown. The next upgrade will cost even more, so waiting for that might drive me nuts. It's probably a good idea, but I'm well ahead of the daily bell chart, so I won't worry about it.

    That's my boat too. I want to save elves, but I don't want to get stuck with them in the end. I seem to be getting a better cog ratio recently. Love the avatar.
  • Rosshk
    729 posts Member
    edited January 2015
    I've noticed on my leaderboards that my other friends have been consistently passing me. It makes me wonder if this is just happening to some/most people, while others don't have shortages.
  • shawn59736
    540 posts Member
    edited January 2015
    suetopia wrote:
    EDIT: reread cannon guide. Info I gave was incorrect, thus post obsolete.


    Howdy neighbor!! I wanted to post, saw your name here ans only quoted you to say thanks for being such a good neighbor.


    Now for this elf/bell issue. ????? ****??? Are you people actually sitting down with a calculator and spending actual time in your day trying to figure out how many elves you get per hour divided by bells, times shots fired over the root of all evil???? .....all I can do is shake my head and laugh. That is all.

  • Raven_Darkstorm
    418 posts Member
    edited January 2015
    shawn59736 wrote:
    Are you people actually sitting down with a calculator and spending actual time in your day trying to figure out how many elves you get per hour divided by bells, <snip>

    If they're like me I've education through calculus 2 and this kind of math takes place as a secondary thought process on a daily basis. My analytical mind is always analysing mathematical and technical things. Sometimes it can be overly distracting if I need a certain level of concentration for the current task at hand.
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