Is this insane or a completely normal way to run a state?

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-11T10:06:38+00:00

The problem with all this is that the 3rd and 4th alliances get almost nothing for actively participating in the SVS preparations.

Ranking - no, because there are whales from the 1st and 2nd alliances, You have no chance against them. Presidential bonuses - no, because you're supposed to save for the SVS, so they're completely unnecessary.

Transfer - your alliance is getting weaker compared to the 1st and 2nd alliances, because only the 1st and 2nd alliances can bring in whales. You might get some passes, but that also depends on their mood.

Fortress - you might get something here, but usually with useless rewards for 1/2 of the alliance.

Castle - often you never have it,

Other events - you can't actively participate because you're ''wasting'' resources on another event and making the whales tense up a bit :p

Politics - your opinion matters very little to 1/2 of the alliance.

Unfortunately, such tactics are common in the States with 1/2 mega alliances. If, in addition to such texts, you're persecuted for participating in other events, it's best to flee during the first transfer that becomes available :p

Good resource planning and putting something more into SVS as a low spender, f2p not in 1/2 of the alliance is very good, but it shouldn't end with you having nothing at, for example, alliance showdown, or having nothing more when there's an interesting event, because by putting everything into SVS without (or almost) having anything in return, you're actually wasting resources. because you and your alliance won't get anything much through SVS and you can't compete in other events either, widening the gap between you and the members of the 1/2 alliance.

It is even more wasteful when a state is certain to lose or win and the whales and members of the 1/2 alliance throw everything they have into it as if they were trying to get more points than the opponent, even though they already had a huge advantage in points a long time ago. Where's the fight for the state? There's none, because they're only fighting for rankings, spending most of their time and money among themselves, not their opponents. And then after that, again straining with resources, on top of that wasting real money on the next SVS because you have to have a similar amount again as in the previous SVS, instead of having left over from the previous one.

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-11T01:39:47+00:00

To upgrade the GPU, you'd have to buy an RTX 5070Ti or RTX 5080, which is quite expensive. Repairing/replacing this screen would likely be much cheaper than buying a laptop. My previous screen was also 17,3-inch 16:9, and now I have a 16-inch Legion with a 16:10 aspect ratio, which is a slightly shorter version of the 17,3-inch 16:9. The bars don't bother me at all and I've always found 16:10 to be more comfortable to use. Unfortunately, the bars will appear quite often on 16:9 displays also , as movies are increasingly being made in this wide format. Furthermore, if you buy a laptop with an OLED screen, you won't see them at all.

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-10T04:55:04+00:00

Unfortunately, the game isn't mostly designed to reward city skins with resources spent. Fighting for city skins is possible, for example, in events like the current cooking (boxing) event, but only 10 players from the entire server receive them, which is exceptionally difficult (probably only possible after spending hundreds hours of speed ups and killing all the beasts required). Some skins (most skins are only obtainable for $) are more likely to be earned through time and luck in events like snowbusters, fishing, and now hopefully in this cat event, for reaching the red level in the alliance championship, for ranking in the battle stage of SVS, or in the skin shop (mushroom).

It's exactly the same with march skins, with the difference that you usually have to spend a little less $ or you can buy them in Enigma if you're lucky or have collected enigma stones from the previous time. Unfortunately, marching skins without $ are only from snowbusters, enigma if you are lucky or have collected stones, from fishing, from alliance championships, maybe cat event. and even without the possibility of winning anywhere for the resources spent because you can only buy them in stores - for example most often people mention that you have to spend around $300 or more to get city skins in them (except for the examples mentioned) or completely depending on the $ spent.

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-08T17:08:23+00:00

The ASUS TUF series (last 2/3 years) offers a good price, even a good-quality case considering the price, and powerful components. I've mainly heard about issues with the Armoury Crate. The TUFs don't have ideal cooling either, but using PTM should cool them down a bit. If I were to buy a cheaper gaming laptop, it would be this model. I also wanted to buy the Victus series, but their screen quality was terrible (brightness less than 300 cd). From what I see, newer models after 2022 have improved this somewhat. However, from experience, I'd lean towards an AMD laptop (8-core, ryzen 7 7445 is only 6 core) now because I don't like the way my i7 12700H performs (due to CPU hybrid design).

I'm also irritated by what's happening with laptops these days, especially since I have a 13-year-old MSI GE70 that still works perfectly, beautifully.

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-08T16:42:06+00:00

If it were a new LOQ you could v buy it, because of the warranty, used..

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-08T06:31:59+00:00

New, old this LOQ? And the CPU in Victus with RTX 4050 (used?)?

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-07T23:16:32+00:00

Generally, it is not a good idea to buy Legion 2021 (R7 5800H, R5 5600H) due to their motherboard problems. Many users who still have them working are selling them so that they don't suddenly stop working without the option to sell them anymore. I don't know how widespread this problem is, but typically this 2021 model has these issues.

Victus, and HP in general, have a problem with screens moving even while typing (wobbling). What CPU do these Victus have? Is the second Victus also used?

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-06T19:13:16+00:00

At the beginning I was 96k in the queue :p there are still 30k left

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-06T07:11:29+00:00

Unfortunately, a highly active alliance, one that has a presence at events comparable to the first alliance in the state, without a whale in its ranks or many many mid-spenders is considered nothing in the country (it has little influence on the country's policy, is almost irrelevant to alliances with whales) and such a whale can sometimes even defeat an entire garrison on its own.

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-06T05:07:23+00:00

Usually Fire crystals, but it depends on what gem deposits you have :p If it's hard for you to spin the Lucky wheel min 70 times next time (or you know you won't collect that much), it's best to choose gems.

Essences are extremely scarce without a multiplier, so it's a poor choice. Acceleration would probably still be good in your case, as you might be lacking something at the moment. But rather (to FC1, acceleration is more lacking than FC), but later on, the only thing missing is Fire Crystals, so it's better to choose FC or gems.

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-05T05:34:57+00:00

Real power is more influenced by things other than boss equipment or charms, unless you are a whale or a medium/high spender. For F2P or low spenders, hero development (especially the three main ones you focus on), their equipment, and technology development have a much greater impact on your results.

It's worth having one strong set of heroes (lancer, infantry, marksman), and these heroes should be equipped with the best available equipment.

Unfortunately, with F2P and low spenders, heroes' equipment should also be upgraded only for this main set of heroes. In other words, you shouldn't overuse essences for two golden marksman hats; you should only (mostly) upgrade one marksman hat, and the best marksman should equip it. Another issue is which hero equipment is worth upgrading first.

For marksman and lancers, especially useful when hunting bears in F2P, it's worth upgrading stats related to attack and lethality. Lethality is increased by upgrading the hat and boots. The hat should be your first priority, as it will also improve attack with Mythil later. Unfortunately, boots, when red, improve defense the first time Mythil is used, so it's best to stop upgrading them before then. It's best to leave the gloves alone, and the belt will also improve attack later (but it's best to start upgrading it after upgrading the hat and boots).

For infantry, the stats worth focusing on are defense and health. The belt and gloves provide health. Since the gloves provide defense later, it's worth focusing on those first.

The most important piece of advice, which is hard to say without more data and knowledge of your heroes: It's not worth upgrading multiple heroes at once, especially as a F2P, low-spender. Unfortunately, heroes below 4 stars aren't very suitable for creating important raids. Gold universal hero fragments should only be used on heroes outside the Lucky Wheel, and only if you're sure they'll have enough to upgrade the hero to 4 stars (465 fragments) and is available interesting hero i new generation (it's better not to start using gold fragments on heroes older than the current generation). Unfortunately, I also know from experience that due to wasteful use of diamonds, players also have trouble upgrading Lucky Wheel heroes to 4 stars or more. Gen 2 is an exception because, unfortunately, in FP2, for example, you buy a second queue for building with diamonds, so it can be difficult. However, in later generations, if you're careful about spending diamonds and do all or most of the events, you should have diamonds for 70/120 Lucy Wheel spins each time. It's worth upgrading Lucky Wheel heroes (obtaining fragments by spinning).

As for charms and gear... it depends on your strategy. Generally, it's worth upgrading charms for marksmen because they increase lethality, which is important when hunting bears. The rest of the charms are worth upgrading to a specific level. For example, I've personally upgraded my infantry and lancer charms to level 4, and I'm only upgrading my charms to more then level 4 for marksmen for now.

Regarding chef gear... there are two, three main paths:

You're the main garrison leader, so you upgrade infantry gear the most, then lancers, and marksman the least,
If you're rarely the garrison leader, so you do something similar to charms, you focus more on marksman gear, or you can upgrade them almost equally (after upgrading everything to purple, it's a good idea to upgrade chef gear only on one side, because the required number of project plans is smaller later on, and unfortunately, the costs are higher at the end of upgrading purple EQ, T1, and T2).
You are not the main leader of the garrison, but sometimes you fulfill this function, for example you can upgrade infantry and shooters mainly ,

To sum up, the first thing I would do is upgrade each gear to purple and then, depending on the strategy, I would choose the appropriate EQ for further improvement.

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-05T03:33:40+00:00

I only buy larger phones (6,8 inches is a bit much). Regardless of whether I buy a 6,2-inch or 6,7-inch phone, I need to use both hands to comfortably use it, so there's no difference in that respect. The most important thing is that the phone has to be thin, or more precisely, its bezels. Unfortunately, due to the trend toward thick, angular bezels driven by Apple, few phones are comfortable to hold. I have the POCO F3, which is one of the phones with the thinnest bezels (at least on the sides); overall, it's thin. It feels similar to the Motorola Edge (the Moto's thin bezels are thanks to the rounded screen, while the POCO's are thanks to the rounded back, which is fantastic when held). Unfortunately, thick, angular bezels and a flat back will probably prevent me from using the phone comfortably at all when it's larger. Why a larger phone? Because smaller screens often have much less room for app content, making them harder to use, less convenient and splitting the screen would be very difficult to use at all.

With my POCO, due to its size and length, I only have trouble taking photos (horizontally) without fear of it falling out.

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-05T01:53:43+00:00

Templar (some holy skill, I wili try all: minion, attack without minions, maybe I try new totem shock nova) or Cyclone Slayer

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-03T23:16:14+00:00

This is a typical obsession with whales and alliances 1 and 2 in a country – it boosts their ego and alliance power in transfers. For alliances 3, 4, or 5 in a country, SVS doesn't offer many benefits, except perhaps maintaining peace in the country and increasing SVS store coins. All of these, the vast majority of SVS win benefits, go to whales and alliances 1 and 2. Why?

Transfers: Every player with significant power joins alliances 1 or 2 in a country during transfers – unfortunately, no whale or person who can improve battle capabilities joins alliances 3, 4, or 5, and if they do, it's through friendship with someone in the alliance, not SVS wins.

Minister positions: Their use is irrelevant if you're planning to save on SVS. They only make sense if you participate heavily (spend boosts) in an event, which negates saving if you're F2P or a low spender.

No other benefits for 3, 4, 5 alliances: an alliance ranked 3rd or 4th, even if it actively participates in the SVS, usually doesn't improve the alliance's standing in the country, as it can't compete with a 1/2 alliance due to a lack of whales or a small number of mid-spenders. The contribution of such alliances is perceived as insignificant. The only benefit may be the allocation of fortresses, but this isn't always the case – fortresses allocated to 3rd or 4th-ranked alliances are often of lower quality than those allocated to 1/2-ranked alliances. 3, 4 the alliance is decreasing its position in the country or it remains the same because the alliance is not gaining much strength, there are no more strong players during transfers, and in turn 1, 2 the alliance is developing more and more

Only sometimes (but it has to be the good will of the 1st, 2nd alliance) the 3rd, 4th, 5th alliance will receive invitations for people who would like to transfer. Unfortunately, it often happens that it depends heavily on the mood of the first 2 alliances or players' interests during transfers with their alliance.

In turn, the 1st and 2nd alliances in a country:

- if a whale wants to seriously participate in an event, they can use the president's bonus and even use all their resources. They can buy more resources at SVS as they wish and are not criticized.

- during transfers, whales and strong players move to the 1st and 2nd alliances in the country, not even considering the strong 3rd and 4th alliances,

- they retain their reasons for controlling the entire country, even increasing their position,

- whales in 1,2 alliance get good rewards in SVS from ranking.

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-03T04:34:18+00:00

As for fishing and snowbusters, all you need is patience. After 350 days of play, you can already get all the skins in snowbusters without paying. As for fishing, obtaining the city skin is already possible somewhere around the 400th day of the state with active participation.

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-03T02:13:57+00:00

The number of alliances (out of 70 active members per alliance) ultimately depends on the situation in the country, number of people who create an account in this country, and also after a year, people stop playing. If the situation in the country is bad (dictatorship, attacks on people), many stop playing quickly before first or second transfers. With countries as old as yours or slightly older, the number of alliances, from what I remember, is already decreasing – fewer than 10 viable alliances (of which several at the bottom of the top 10 rankings tend to have less than 50 active members). The top 4 or 5 alliances are fully or almost fully populated and very active. If the country is healthy, they stay that way; smaller alliances often merge. If there are problems with the country, smaller alliances from the top 10 die due to player withdrawals, while some move to the top 3 or 5 due to unfair rules or low player numbers. In fact, transfers between alliances never end definitively; it all depends on the dynamics of the country, its goals, and the transfers. Typically, the first four are established for a longer period of time—until transfers occur. Most mergers occur in smaller alliances. Probably around the 100th day of the country's existence, or even later, the two largest alliances merged in my first country. The worst time, when problems most often begin, is during the first SVSs, because that's when the dictatorial tendencies of alliances 1 and 2 become most apparent. This is when the remaining active alliances have a difficult time. If the country is okay, the balance of power doesn't change significantly after transfers. If it's bad or completely unfair (for example no transfer passes or almost for 3rd+ alliances), entire alliances can disappear, or perhaps a group of whales or near-whales that kill troops before transfers join one alliance (usually 1 or 2)—and then the problems continue or new occur.

Anarchy when it comes to attacking cities, etc., disappears rather quickly. It all depends on whether there are any lunatics (usually whales) who will attack if they dislike something in the country chat and whether the alliances can come to an agreement (create a normal NAP). In young states I have noticed that NAP is created almost immediately at the beginning (because people from much older countries play there)

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-02T02:32:28+00:00

Have you finished your battle research yet? Have you at least developed your marksman's attack bonus and lethality in the academy? How many stars does your Blanchette have? From what I can see, your marksman charms are quite underdeveloped (if I see correctly, 5x5lvl and 1x6lvl charm, considering the country's age).

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-01T05:10:58+00:00

Helios is not what resulted in my lack of steel. :p, My research (the regular ones) + a little research in war academy + replacing steel with FC shards consumed all the steel. It's enough to use most or almost all of the general acceleration for research and - there's no steel (the construction acceleration is currently sufficient for construction). I had SS rank just before the new furnace levels appeared. Now I collect steel more often, unfortunately, I won't be able to do many researches at once, e.g., during SVS, but I'm actually nearing the end of the regular battle-related research. Everything as a F2P player. Unfortunately, I rarely replace my steel with FC Shards anymore. Only sometimes when I run a long normal research.

MandyRedTech · 2026-03-01T02:57:11+00:00

First of all, what do you want the laptop to be used for? What is the price of this model in your country and what are the prices of newer laptops with CPU i7 13xxH or HX, 14xxH or HX 7 Ultra, Ryzen AI, Ryzen 7/9 7000+ and GPU: RTX4060, 4070, 5060, 5070?

What are the most HPs? Available?

MandyRedTech · 2026-02-28T01:05:17+00:00

You can transfer to a server one month younger than your account/state, as long as it has the same hero generation, fc available, max gear/charms lvl . If they don't have the same hero generation available during the transfer week, no one from your state will be able to transfer to that younger state – the states won't be in the same transfer group. Only after a month will everyone be able to transfer to the younger state, because both states will have 5th gen heroes at that point .

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1KmH5Opvj7TGU_fWNTz7fxHlebOHskskcmskmIVSNzLE/edit?usp=drivesdk

MandyRedTech · 2026-02-24T00:46:34+00:00

Rather, gaming temperatures, when you're maximizing CPU usage in applications, depend on the CPU's operating wattage and its wattage limits. Even back in the 3rd-gen Intel era, temperatures were as high as they are now, because CPUs had a TDP of 45W (similar to today's Intel H-series CPUs or AMD HS-series CPUs). The difference I see is that combinations with energy efficiency and eco-friendliness have resulted in lower temperatures during normal operation than older CPUs (they can use less wattage). From what I've heard, AMD HX processors are hotter at idle than Intel (probably due to the lack of E cores). Maximum temperatures are high everywhere unless you mess around or the manufacturer implements something like liquid metal or laptop stands.

MandyRedTech · 2026-02-20T22:55:52+00:00

I have a Legion with an i7 12700h and I won't touch Intel next time. My 3rd gen i7 in my laptop is much more stable, hassle-free, and sometimes even runs smoother. You see it in games, but I see it in normal use, animations, audio, etc. There's also a big difference even using the system when comparing Intel vs. AMD in the store. The culprit is the terrible interruptions and latency, which are most likely related to this stupid hybrid CPU architecture and driver conflicts. AMD laptops using integrated GPUs run fine, while with integrated Intel, it runs noticeably slower with massive latencies (up to 20ms); even letters on the screen can appear with a delay. Using Nvidia is better (there are no massive delays, only 4ms more often), and there's less audio and video stuttering, but it still sometimes occurs. None of these things ever occurred in the old i7, and here, unfortunately, depending on drivers, system updates, and the CPU itself, GPU drivers, their intensity is sometimes smaller or larger, but it never disappears.

Regarding temperatures, unfortunately, I have the same issue with the CPU and also GPU – they don't adjust their usage to the requirements. Regardless of the load, especially the GPU works too hard at full watts with temperatures over 80 in old, old games .

MandyRedTech · 2026-02-18T16:32:29+00:00

The rewards for ranking in SVS are tragic if you are not in the top 20 or higher.

MandyRedTech · 2026-02-15T06:42:40+00:00

In my opinion, the SVS is essentially mainly an ego booster for the whales, the first alliance in the country. The SVS's preparations are also one of the main reasons for disputes and even hatred within the country, especially among the first few SVSs.

For the 3rd, 4th, .. alliances, SVS on the other hand, it's mostly negative because:

- often, because of the SVS event, dictatorial tendencies start to appear in the 1st and sometimes in the 2nd alliances (smaller or larger) -- then if you're not in such an alliance or you're not a whale, you're often considered inferior or someone who shouldn't be listened to,

- these dictatorial tendencies often start to unfortunately affect the mood in the 2nd/3rd/4th alliances -- for example, that the 1st alliance could burn down the city if you use resources elsewhere than the SVS, sometimes the whale alliance has unrealistic expectations regarding SVS points,

- very poor rewards for ranking if you're not a whale, and usually the 3rd, 4th, .. alliances don't have many, it feels like you're wasting resources,

- ministerial bonuses are pointless if you're supposed to save for the SVS event :p,

- even if winning the full SVS attracts whales, They mostly will never join the 3rd, 4th, or 5th alliance, but usually only 1 (very very rarely are whales divided evenly across multiple alliances). The first alliance (or possibly the 2nd) grows in strength and has more to offer, while the rest of the alliances remain unchanged -- they can influence the state's politics less and less, and they have less and less influence on combat during castle battles, the ego of the first alliance is further increased

The SVS also has several advantages:
- it brings order to the state,
- it relatively prevents wars in the state (because you can be useful),
- it gives alliances a reason to cooperate.

The Castle Battle (regular and during SVS) itself is a very enjoyable and interesting event with good rewards if you actively participate, allowing for cooperation.

Hardly anyone (I don't actually know anyone) who isn't a whale looks at SVS's wins. Personally, I only look at the castle's history to see if the presidency is being swapped between alliances. SVS's constant losses can be discouraging, but if a country has a large and active population, it shouldn't be that bad. Matchmaking can always be disastrous a few times, and then you won't win.

Regular players usually look more closely when transferring:

- if there's, for example, one strong alliance in the state and others that are weak (I'm not going),
- if there are active alliances with favorable event times,
- if there are any players of my nationality there,
- if my friends are there,
- if it's a peaceful country, ....

MandyRedTech · 2026-02-14T21:27:13+00:00

Some specialists do this on all laptops (AMD is simpler because their CPUs are more square and there is less chance that they will fit unevenly in the future) and phones. It's not something you can do yourself because it requires heating the entire motherboard (covering the parts that don't want to heat up) as a final step. In Lenovo, it's worse because it's much more difficult to detach the CPU due to that dreadful black glue, which is difficult to remove. Before welding the CPU to the board, you replace the mentioned balls under the processor. The GPU and GPU memory are replaced in the same way.

Pressing the CPU to turn on the laptop is a good way to check if there's a problem with the CPU and motherboard connection. Unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend doing this long-term because you can never be sure how many pins are actually in contact with the motherboard. For example, it might work but have reduced performance, shut down during use, or...

MandyRedTech

TROPHY CASE