Essence Collector / Crylithium Question

[Kingfisher]

So my collectors all say low energy right now, but they all have 8-10 crylithium stocked. How exactly does this work? Also - do my towers collect ambient essence themselves or is it just the collectors? Thanks a lot!

[Tiberiumkyle]

Collectors pull in loose essence from across the region, and send it to buildings that need it. They also slowly burn crylithium to generate essence, but that's going to change with the next game update (currently being worked on).

[Rayvolution]

Originally posted by Tiberiumkyle:

but that's going to change with the next game update (currently being worked on).

Current plan:
- Essence Collectors no longer can be fueled with Crylithium.
- Essence Collectors can now hold more energy (to buff them a bit because of the above)
- A new "praying" type building (name pending) that you can assign workers to, and they go to the alter/whatever and "pray" generating free essence.

The idea is to remove crylithium as a fuel (because it's always been problematic and annoying for the AI anyway). Now, generating excess energy is more a "labor" cost, because you have to reassign precious workers to "Pray" rather than just chunking crylithium into a collector. Gives the player a little more control, adds a fun new building, and removes the AI/balance wonkiness with fueling collectors. :)

[Kingfisher]

That future change sounds amazing. In the meantime, roughly how often does a collector burn crylithium and roughly how much does it produce per burn? I havnt done much manual dropping because I always have trouble getting it to land in the collector and not next to it. Thanks for the quick responses also, you guys are the best

[Veldrin]

Crylithium takes 3,000 ticks to burn. Makeshift Essence Collectors generate 1 energy every 50 ticks burning Crylithium, Essence Collectors generate 1 energy every 40 ticks burning Crylithium, and Established Essence Collectors generate 1 energy every 30 ticks burning Crylithium.

[BoogieMan]

Originally posted by Rayvolution:

Originally posted by Tiberiumkyle:

but that's going to change with the next game update (currently being worked on).

Current plan:
- Essence Collectors no longer can be fueled with Crylithium.
- Essence Collectors can now hold more energy (to buff them a bit because of the above)
- A new "praying" type building (name pending) that you can assign workers to, and they go to the alter/whatever and "pray" generating free essence.

The idea is to remove crylithium as a fuel (because it's always been problematic and annoying for the AI anyway). Now, generating excess energy is more a "labor" cost, because you have to reassign precious workers to "Pray" rather than just chunking crylithium into a collector. Gives the player a little more control, adds a fun new building, and removes the AI/balance wonkiness with fueling collectors. :)

Sounds interesting. I have two questions!

Do you have an idea about the rate you may get from the new source vs the old source, specifically in regards to overall labor cost? I usually feel like I never quite have quite enough people for most of a map so it makes me a little wary to think about lost labor slots to the change.

Will there be more changes that essentially serve to close the gap between the player (some kind of benevolent godlike entity?) and the villagers? IE, make them more aware of you, reaction differences and more of a relationship of sorts?

Personally, I was always particularly interested about the relationship between the player and the villagers and hoped to see it evolve.

[rodburns]

So my villagers will go to a shrine and pray to me... I like that idea.

"Oh, you didn't pray to me today, into the Cullis Gate with you!"

[Den4ik]

This is bad =( Not be able to consume Crylithium actually kills all the fun of managing crystal industry to fuel magical buildings. Now if you remove Crystals/Crylithium from game nothing happens. It is become useless. Just artifical resource to build buildings, as soon as you build all you want you can get rid of all Crystals/Crylithium buildings. Crystals/Crylithium is renewable resource and is HAS to be consumed somehow. Fuel role for this resource was ideal IMHO.
Now i need 4 workers to pray level 3 altar just to fuel essence motivator wich i don't need anymore because i do not need crystals ! =))))

Well... i cannot make game-design decisions, but for me the game seriusly lost if fun. I say more - this Crystals/Crylithium mechanic change made me stop playing this game completlely.
I hope this will be changed in the future, this is a very good game and a very talented dev !

[...👑 JOST AMMAN 👑...]

I think Altars should use Crylithium as "fuel" to amplify the prayer essence generation.
That would be both in line with the new update AND give crystals back their "fuel" role.