Light houses are pretty bad

[Mawdesty]

This been bugging me for a bit and I think I wanna pose the problem here to see what comes of it.

So biggest issue I notice being in two crowns are light houses. Okay, winter is the first big issue but after that it's these things. Light houses are really cool and I love the idea but they cause a major conflict with the other games mechanics that make them a trap option. Similar to catapults and knight statue it feels like using the light house makes the game harder. Perhaps even worse when maxed out.

-Even though you can return to a previous island and likely keep your boat intact, due to decay, your kingdom is likely without walls or hunters/builders. Normally when your boat crashes you are in the middle of the island, roughly speaking. With a working light house you spawn on the far end of the island on the dock and must now run a large part of the islands length to reach the closest wall you'll need to rebuild in order to defend. Also, you bring some archers and builders with you but with the boat already available to leave they don't even actually help anymore as they ready themselves to set sail. So you're gonna need to hire builders as soon as you get to town center as you can not rely on the force of units you brought with you.

-Retaliation waves are still a thing and seem to carry from island to island. Clearing the path to build a light house means strengthening greed retaliation when you finally come to clear the mountain. In New Lands you needed a dock side clear of portals to leave an island and that was the entirety of that run. Now that leaving an island no longer means a new run and greed progression is carried to other islands, because the new goal is to eventually beat the greed, it seems like it can only be a detriment to destroy dock side portals.

-(not something I experienced but heard) If your boat sets out on the side of your kingdom that has the mountain side then, while it is in the water, you can only send knights to go on the boat and be unable to attack portals. If your boat never crashes anymore due to a light house and is thus always in the water, even on return, then you can't really assualt the mountain side anymore. Or at least it's much harder to do so with three knights first climbing aboard to sail.

I suppose, in summary, light houses feel like an unintended penalty and not a goal worth working towards. I might try playing without them from now on.

[Zeke]

only worth building once you clear an island, lets you go back without needing to rebuild the boat and raid your safe islands for income gold and more knights to sail back with you to the uncleared ones

[Mawdesty]

Originally posted by Zeke:

only worth building once you clear an island, lets you go back without needing to rebuild the boat and raid your safe islands for income gold and more knights to sail back with you to the uncleared ones

If you ever need to return to a previously cleared island for money and knights then why not just clear the first island and go back there? It drops all the pieces needed to build the boat and builders will be right at the wreckage. Literally boat remade in one day while you collect money and knights. No light houses needed ever.

[tobias599]

Originally posted by junkbarrage:

Originally posted by Zeke:

only worth building once you clear an island, lets you go back without needing to rebuild the boat and raid your safe islands for income gold and more knights to sail back with you to the uncleared ones

If you ever need to return to a previously cleared island for money and knights then why not just clear the first island and go back there? It drops all the pieces needed to build the boat and builders will be right at the wreckage. Literally boat remade in one day while you collect money and knights. No light houses needed ever.

All I needed was the Archer Statue and Griffon from island one... and the Builders Statue and Baker Hermit in island 3, that is how I won the whole game. Getting to island 3 without building the boat was the only real use I had.

I don't need more, tried out the Unicorn but sadly NOT worth the money, even on island 5.
Yes, it did go a little slower without the Unicorn, but I played enough New Lands to know very small tricks that stacks up and make the end game no problem.
Each day, I got enough money to build two walls from wood to iron... on island 5 and without using the banker. It all comes down to position and... good planning!
(Whole forest on dock side in my walls, cleared the forest on cliff side = deer always spawn in my walls, while a few archers run to the other side of the map)

Lighthouses are a trap and I agree, nearly made that mistake...
Total Reigns: 4
Skipped Winters (losing crown): 3
There, I even cheat winter... Ok, I killed the last three portals and the cliff portal on accident in island 5 while it was winter.
All in all, the lighthouses aren't worth the money until you cleared the island... it doesn't help you and can only harm/delay you.

PS: Sorry for telling my... Two Crowns story

[Zeke]

Originally posted by junkbarrage:

Originally posted by Zeke:

only worth building once you clear an island, lets you go back without needing to rebuild the boat and raid your safe islands for income gold and more knights to sail back with you to the uncleared ones

If you ever need to return to a previously cleared island for money and knights then why not just clear the first island and go back there? It drops all the pieces needed to build the boat and builders will be right at the wreckage. Literally boat remade in one day while you collect money and knights. No light houses needed ever.

simple, bigger island, bigger economy to collect from, depends on how the map sets itself out really, island 1 might not be the best of your islands to colelct from
and yea, not much point in island 1 since its almost fully built but thats still 10 coins to start it building plus 10 to set sail

[HapHzrd]

You hit the nail on the head. Good idea, but not great implementation.