[SPOILER] Feedback for Places of Interest

After a few months of playing A8 Enkord Team needs testers' feedback about Places of Interest. 

Which of them are worthy and which of them are not? Any details, suggestions and opinions (including constructive criticism) would be much appreciated.

I really like the Places of Interest.  It makes scouting less boring.  And who doesn't like surprises?  

My favorites are Plague Village for the exp points and Precursor Lab and Lighthouse(?) for science points.  

I have not visited County Fair because I'm usually low on food, so Fish Market is useful in that regard.

I also like Blacksmith in the beginning for units that aren't upgradeable normally.  (Or Kung Fu.  Can't remember which one does what).  But they are both useful.  

I was disappointed with the Auction House.  Seemed like a useless item for the number of resources sent.  

Those are all I can recall off the top of my head at the moment.  I'm still discovering new ones.  I just found Black Widow today and haven't tried it yet :D.  All in all, I like them.

I have many left to visit yet such as the ones requiring ships.  I've also been waiting until my hero is a higher level as well to visit some.

I would love a key list like our quest locations!  I can't find all the stuff I previously scouted because the updated reports tab does not include them. 

As far as the new POI's go, I loved the precursor lab, I did not like any of the places that gave hero experience, can do that in dens and is much more fun, I think the country fairs, (for example I just cleared 215 cells and found 5 country fairs) razed villages, and plague villages appear way too often, I do like the desolate villages, but when you go they tell you that have plundered way more resources then the traders can bring home so I have been waiting to have more traders. I went to a few survivors, but I do not like that it gives units I do not want and then they will take up space when I upgrade a building. I like the druid's also but they do not seem to come often enough. I went to the kung Fu guy and the blacksmith early on but was disappointed to only get level 1 upgrades from the blacksmith and while I liked the kung fu guy in the beginning when my army was small I have not been to one in a long time. The other thing is with a whole alliance scouting, I have forgotten where some of the POI's I was saving for later are. I did like the lighthouse but have only found three in all my scouting, I do not have any ships to send to the tornados or Kraken's since they require sulphur to have any in higher age and I do not build them in lower. in all the scouting I only found 2 black widows. 

Here's my review of PoI's.

I would really like to have a building or tab implemented, which would list all PoI's, with statistics for all of them, how many fog cells cleared on land/sea/ocean, how many PoI's found/visited, total and by type, and a link to 'find next discovered PoI of selected type on map'. The above would allow me to give a lot more accurate data below, as it is, I'd have to go with approximate numbers.

I'll give each type a rating of 1-10 of it usefulness from my point of view, occurance chance from extremely rare to extremely common, and approx. amount I've found (out of 30-40k cells, bigger half of which are probably ocean cells by now, as all Abenias landmass was cleared by alliance long time ago, and due to very limited PoI's that can be found on other continents, I've not cleared much there yet).

Land places of interest:

1. Desolate Farm - 10/10, extremely rare, found 2-4
2. Desolate Felling - 10/10, extremely rare, found 2-4
3. Desolate Quarry - 10/10, extremely rare, found 2-4
4. Desolate Mine - 10/10, extremely rare, found 2-4
5. Country Fair - 7/10, extremely common, found 150+
6. Auction House 2/10 very common, found 100+
7. General Store 2/10 very common, found 100+
8. Climber Camp 8/10, extremely rare, found 2-4
9. Plague Village 6/10 extremely common, found 150+
10. Kung Fu Master 9/10, moderately rare, found 20+
11. Black Widow - 2/10, moderately rare, found 20+
12. Thieves Guild - 3/10, moderately rare, found 20+
13. Blacksmith Guild - 8/10, very common, found 100+
14. Razed Village - 2/10, very common, found 100+
15. Druid Drove - 5/10, moderately rare, found 20+
16. Caravan - 9/10, moderately rare, found 20+
17. Desecrated Temple - 1/10, extremely rare, found 2-4
18. Artisan Workshop - 2/10, extremely rare, found 2-4
19. Jail - 9/10, moderately rare, found 20+
20. Old Graveyard - 5/10, very common, found 100+
21. Precursors Lab -10/10, common, found 50+

Naval places of interest:

1. Fish Market 9/10, very rare, found 5-10
2. Shipwreck 10/10, extremely rare, found 2-4  
3. Survivors 9/10, common, found 50+
4. Message in a Bottle 5/10, very common, found 100+
5. Treasure Island 5/10, common, found 50+
6. Pirate Ship 3/10, very rare, found 5-10
7. Lighthouse 7/10, moderately rare, found 20+
8. Tornado 9/10, extremely common, found 150+
9. Savage Island 1/10, very common, found 100+
10. Kraken 1/10, very rare, found 5-10

I would've liked to give the reasonings behind ratings too, unfortunately that would take the whole day, and thats just something I can't afford... sorry.

1. Auction House 2/10 very common, found 100+
2. General Store 2/10 very common, found 100+

<...>Artisan Workshop - 2/10, extremely rare, found 2-4

You find prices in auction house and general store too big, is it correct? Since these places are far from being popular among players I consider tweaking them a little bit.

Why do you think that Artisan Workshop is not worthy?

It's not the cost that makes them unappealing, its the result...

General Store, Black Widow, Treasure Island - all have a very distinct similarity - regardless of what i send there (and ive experimented a lot, with different resource and troops amounts), the reward(s) have very little variety - altho there are ~50 different consumables at least in the game, the rewards are ALWAYS a mix of 1-5 items from very specific selection of dozen or so 'lower tier' consumables.

Auction House, Thieves Guild, Pirate Ship have also the same flaw, you might think you'd get a random artifact, but if you retrieve "Educated Rapier" 6 times in a row, always lvl16-20 artifact with -1..-3 age and some other little stats, it surely makes you think otherwise.

As for Artisan Workshop, it is very rare, it can take up to 16 hours to visit one (back and forth), with enourmous food cost...  even if youre lucky to find a few of them nearby, not worth the trip for a single uprade for handful of units...  easier to cook the wanted lvl3 upgrades yourself..:)

Here goes my thoughts on places of interest.

Land places of interest:

1. Desolate Farm / Felling / Quarry / mine - never used but overall pretty fun concept.
2. Country Fair - great.
3. Auction House / General Store - great if you need to somehow use tons of resources but pretty confusing as you not sure how much to send to get what you want. I'm sure one time I got magical equipment from General Store but after that always have bunch of consumables for crazy number of resources and never magical equipment. Some people tell me that they don't want to use General Store before they understand how much to send - I think, some hints about it would be great.
4. Climber Camp - never seen.
5. Kung Fu Master - amazing.
6. Black Widow - keeps forgetting to try this one.
7. Thieves Guild - probably one of the best.
8. Blacksmith Guild - not too great as it gives you only one level of equipment. I will prefer to see it 3 time less often and get random level 3 equipment from it.
9. Razed Village - love it.
10. Druid Drove - great
11. Caravan - not too exciting but free resources are always good.
12. Desecrated Temple - never seen.
13. Artisan Workshop - never used. Guess it's the same as Blacksmith Guild.
14. Jail - never used.
15. Old Graveyard - never had undead.
16. Precursors Lab - lab is love, lab is life.

Naval places of interest:

1. Fish Market, Shipwreck, Pirate Ship, Tornado - never seen.
2. Survivors, Treasure Island, Savage Island, Kraken - never tried.
3. Message in a Bottle - like it.
4. Lighthouse - just awesome.

(I will use Savi's presentation, thanks :-)

Land places : 

1. Desolate Farm - 10/10, extremely rare, found 2-3
2. Desolate Felling - 10/10, extremely rare, found 2-3
3. Desolate Quarry - 10/10, extremely rare, found 2-3
4. Desolate Mine - 10/10, extremely rare, found 1
5. Country Fair - 9/10,  common, found 50+
6. Auction House 1/10 very common, found 100+
7. General Store 1/10 very common, found 100+
8. Climber Camp - found NONE
9. Plague Village 1/10 extremely common, found a lot lol
10. Kung Fu Master 9/10, moderately rare, found less than 10
11. Black Widow - 1/10, moderately rare, found 20+
12. Thieves Guild - 1/10, moderately rare, found 20+
13. Blacksmith Guild - 10/10,  common, found 40/50
14. Razed Village - 1/10, very common, found 100+
15. Druid Drove - 5/10, moderately rare, found 20+
16. Caravan - 9/10, moderately rare, found 10 or less
17. Desecrated Temple - 1/10, extremely rare, found 3
18. Artisan Workshop - 1/10, extremely rare, found 3
19. Jail - 5/10, moderately rare, found 10+
20. Old Graveyard - 1/10, common, found 20+
21. Precursors Lab -10/10, common, found 30/40

Naval places:

1. Fish Market 10/10, extremely rare, found 2
2. Shipwreck 10/10, extremely rare, found 3 or 4  
3. Survivors 9/10, rare, found less than 10
4. Message in a Bottle 9/10,  common, found 50+ 
5. Treasure Island 5/10, common, found 50+
6. Pirate Ship 3/10, very rare, found 2
7. Lighthouse 9/10,  rare, found 5+
8. Tornado 10/10, common, found more than 50 I think
9. Savage Island 1/10, very common, found 100+
10. Kraken ?/10, extremely rare, found 1 - not tested yet

I prefere the places where I can upgrade units, get ressources, science points or new units. I am getting experience for my hero from dens in general, but I've found useful the lightouse when I was missing few hundreds of exp points to meditate. 

Places where we can get experience by sending settlers or priests : in low ages, when we need experience, we cant afford to loose such kind of quite expensive units. And later, when we can afford to train them and loose them, we dont need experience anymore ( or we still still need but the amount of experience brought by those units is very small) . I would suggest to get some settlers or priests from Jails.  

I would like to find a place of interest where we can get something special that we cant get in another way in the game, maybe some animals not available in the current climat - white and brown bears, penguins, elephants...animals that can be used as explorers or as units / weapons.  Another druid asking you bones, rotten or fresh meat, cabbages, roots, flowers from garden for those animals?  Or a new place where you can get some units from the highest era available in the game - un UFO Jail lol ? 

Consumables and artefacts are not enough incentive to make me sending my units/ animals/ressources ...

Can we have an item to destroy the Poi on the map? Same concept of destroying chests in towns.

I agree that not having the option to archivate reports older than 7 days is very annoying. It's imposible now to found all of the Poi scattered all around the map

Artisan workshop could be interesting but the siege / destructive weapons are very slow and too much food is required to send them there. And getting 1 level by 1 level is way too tedious. They are rare, so, maybe in 1 trip of 10-15h we can directly get a level 3 weapon? or level 3 armor?  Blacksmith is ok, cause some units are fast , so I dont mind to send them there during the night.

Overall, I have some that I like a lot ( 9 or 10/10 )  and some that I am not using at all (1/10) . But all of them are a good adition for the game, each player can use the ones who suits to his/her game style.

The Poi message in a botlle is the most interest of all imo, can we have the same concept for 1 land Poi?  I am looking forward with interest :-) 

Got Paton's hammer and a crystal from Black Widow for 23 units. Pretty bad reward in my opinion.

I would love a key list like our quest locations!  I can't find all the stuff I previously scouted because the updated reports tab does not include them. 

I agree with River on this one, plus if your in a large alliance then there is nothing left to explore to find new spots.  

Little fix to my post - I love Plague Village but never tested Razed one :)

I have used several of the poi's and like other comments find it hard to find them when I want to use them.The one I am having trouble with is the Old Graveyard. I have never done the necromancer quest and thought it might be something to try this alpha. I have given troops to him only to have him say they were to weak and received nothing and with the few I have been able to amass when I send to Old Graveyard they bring nothing home.  I have uncovered at least 15 graveyards,  so hoping I will get the number of skeletons needed soon.

I really like the pois, but some are just too far away. Artisan workshop: takes my siege almost 8 hours to get there, so a 16 hour round trip.that is a bit much. can that be changed, maybe we can use a carpet on the way home and we find more carpets in dens etc?

Maybe the places we found pois, could be indicated on the big world map by a red X or something. maybe not each individually, but the general area that was explored.

I like the PoIs too but, like others, I can never remember where they are. My favourites are the Precursers' Lab and the Thieves Guild. The Country Fair was very handy in the early stages of the game,General Store, Plague Village and the Auction House were disappointing in their returns and I haven't succeeded with the Black Widow yet - it's a work in progress!I don't like having to send expensive troops on long expensive journeys on the off chance I will gain something small so have not sent Settlers so far. There are a few PoIs I haven't tried yet, like the Caravan, but I'm saving them for when I need them.It would be good to have more explicit information about them before we commit to sending units. Now I can see a limit on how many units to send for maximum benefit from some PoIs - not sure if that is because of an upgrade or my hero level.Overall I like them as an addition to the game - just wish I could remember where they are on the map!

I have 31 places where i can go to on the map. I've visited all and made a spreadsheat for myself where i made short notes what i still can do in that particular place, when i am ready with something i delete it from the notes. It's hard to keep on otherwise what i still have or can do in all these 31 places. Perhaps an idea for others also, it is a greap help for me, preventing to go to a place where you allready have done all there was to do.

I have 31 places where i can go to on the map. I've visited all and made a spreadsheat for myself where i made short notes what i still can do in that particular place, when i am ready with something i delete it from the notes. It's hard to keep on otherwise what i still have or can do in all these 31 places. Perhaps an idea for others also, it is a greap help for me, preventing to go to a place where you allready have done all there was to do.

yes that is what I think most of us do for caves and dens etc, but this thread is about places of interest, not quest locations.

Too many fish, needs more high value fish, for large amount of resources sent.  The inventory closes after each fish you use.  83 fish is just silly.

Favourite interest place, percussors lab.  Playing republic gives a lot of resources, so didn't visit many county fairs.  Reward for auction houses and general stores, also disappointing, easier to get this stuff in town chests and dens.  Artisan place will upgrade chariots, I bought a couple off slaver, after blacksmith was obsolete, so used them then.  Playing 2 heroes doesn't give me enough time to do everything.  Blacksmith and Artisan would be better, if they gave full weapon and armour upgrades, for each troop.  You aren't likely to find enough to do even one troop full upgrades, otherwise.  P.o.i.'s do add interest to the game, fun to do early on, but once you get the full map explored, hard to find the ones you weren't ready to do, when you found them.

Could you at least consider adding a possibility to use multiple fish (of the same species) at the same time? cos many would rather use 50-100 in a single go, rather than a fish here and there... dropping those 283 carps out of my inventory would be so repetitive and boring, id rather let them rotten there...