The Council of Alchemists: Alchemy Affinity

Greetings, Alchemists!

Today’s blog is a bit more straightforward than usual. We simply want to ask you about a specific trait that has sparked some internal debate due to its confusing mechanics.

You have likely already come across one of the traits from the "Alchemical Affinity" family.

Index

1. Introduction
2. Problem
3. Solutions
4. Conclusion

1. Introduction

The "Alchemical Affinity" family is composed of 3 traits:

• Minor Alchemical Affinity -> 1

• Alchemical Affinity -> 2

• Major Alchemical Affinity -> 3

Basically, all three traits do the same thing: they grant Concentration in an amount equal to the Unit Level of the unit possessing it, multiplied by the trait’s value.

For example, a Neonate [0-10] with Major Alchemical Affinity would grant us 1 x 3, which is 3 Concentration. However, an Adult Dragon [50-70] with Minor Alchemical Affinity would only grant $4 \times 1$, which is 4 Concentration.

Right now, you are probably in one of these three situations:

1. You thought a dragon's Unit Level refers to its Age Category (Young, Adult, Mythical...).

2. You thought a dragon's Unit Level is its Experience Level.

3. You have no idea what a dragon's Unit Level is or how to calculate it.

Logically, the reason we are making this post is that the first two assumptions are incorrect. Unit Level is what we see in non-dragon units as "Tier" within the game.

I’ve highlighted it with a dark blue square so you can see exactly what I’m referring to.

However, on dragons, that same spot displays their current Age, the number of years the dragon has lived, and the Growth Forecast for this turn.

In reality, the game does internally track the dragon's Tier based on its age, but this is never shown to the user. Furthermore, it is not a 1-to-1 relationship; in other words, a new age category doesn't necessarily mean a different Tier... and that is exactly where the confusion with these traits begins.

* Note: There was a bug where Legendary [200, 299] and Venerable [70, 99] dragons were being counted as Level 1 for the concentration output.

If we look at the current state of the game, a 700-year-old dragon with Major Alchemical Affinity grants 21 Concentration. This makes it slightly superior to holding a Talisman. The key difference is that holding a Talisman is visible to all other players and they can be "stolen." Theoretically, if you are careful with your dragon, you might never lose it.

2. Problem

So, after that long introduction, what is the problem? The problem is that a user never knows for certain—and in advance—how much Concentration a dragon with Alchemical Affinity will provide until they check the table in this blog.

3. Solutions

After discussing this internally, several options have emerged:

• Add the dragon's Tier to the unit interface -> Partially dismissed because the UI is already very cluttered.

• Change the trait to scale with the dragon's Age Category -> This is plausible since it's visible to the user, but it’s difficult to balance so that a dragon with this trait doesn't become significantly better than a Talisman or an Artifact. (For instance, with 12 different ages, if we granted 1 per level, a 700-year-old dragon with Major Alchemical Affinity would grant 36 Concentration... almost the equivalent of two Talismans).

• Leave it as it is -> Simply let those who want to know more check the blogs to see the table.

• Add a detailed breakdown similar to the income summary -> A "where is your Concentration coming from" list. For example: 100 base 100 Mage Tower (20 x number of Talismans) (X Alchemical Affinity dragons) - 20 "Headache" penalty.

• Add the specific Concentration value in parentheses next to the trait/perk -> This change has already been implemented.

4. Conclusion

And that’s all, Alchemists! Now we want to hear from you. Do you prefer one of these solutions over the others? Can you think of a better way to handle it? Do you even like the Alchemical Affinity trait?

Feel free to leave a comment in the section below with your thoughts—we’ll be more than happy to read them!