Topic

Emblem less time off skill than favor pts?

Earlier today, I capped out Zille at 2200 favor points & s/he gave me an emblem. I used it and it gave me somewhere around 2 hrs 21 mins off learning the skill I'm currently learning. Which was odd, because I seemed to recall earlier it was offering something like 5 hrs when the bar was only partially full. 

Right now I'm at 1500/2300 and it's offering to take 4 hrs 22 mins off. Which is more than the emblem (a full 2200) removed. Is it better to spend before it becomes an emblem?

Color me confloozed.

Posted 13 months ago by Wynella Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • No matter how much favor you utilise to make the emblem, the emblem is always worth 1000 favor when spent on skill learning :)
    Posted 13 months ago by DTC Subscriber! | Permalink
  • DTC: So it's always better to spend it beforehand if you have over 1000 favor points then?
    Posted 13 months ago by Wynella Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes!  spend the favor before you get to an emblem.
    Posted 13 months ago by oscarette Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yep.  Unless you want the emblem.  When icons came out I didn't know whether I wanted skills or icons more (icons require emblems, not favour), so my donating got really confused for a while.

    (just in case you were going for both.)
    Posted 13 months ago by Lara Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Lara, right now I'm just working toward the skills. Icons will come after I've learned everything. lol ;) 

    I wish I had known this before! Thanks all. Much appreciated. :) 
    Posted 13 months ago by Wynella Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I have a related question.

    Is the time you save per favor point constant?

    Is it just as good to spend the favor points when the favor is, say, 25% of the total as when it is at 99%  of the total?  (As far as the time saved per favor point.  I know it is more economical when using EHSP to donate as much as possible at a time, in order to reduce the expense of using the powder.)
    Posted 13 months ago by MasterOfMyDestiny Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @MasterOfMyDestiny (me) I meant to add that the comparison is for a given God.  The Gods connected to the skill provide more time savings that those not connected to the skill.  From a previous post, by Zu, http://www.glitch.com/forum/general/9667/:

    For every favor point spent in your skill's primary giant, you will reduce learning time by 10 seconds.

    For every favor point spent in your skill's secondary giant, you will reduce learning time by 7 seconds.

    For every favor point spent in any other giant, you will reduce learning time by 5 seconds.
    Posted 13 months ago by MasterOfMyDestiny Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Having studied this rather extensively, here is my strategy:

    To maximize your skill learning speed, do the following every day:

    For skills you are learning currently, find the primary giant's shrine.  Spend any points you have and then try to get as close as possible to the max without going over.  The max favor you can gain from each giant per day is the same as the amount it would take you to get that giant's emblem.  Once you're close to the limit, spend those points too.

    For skills you plan to learn soon (especially those that take days to learn), try to get as many emblems from the primary giant as possible.  This increases the amount you can donate per day (thus speeding you up when you eventually start learning them) AND it gives you a bunch of emblems to spend when you start learning to give you an early boost.

    Remember that you can't spend favor points on learning past the cap - that cap is half the amount you have left on the skill to go (assuming you're learning at normal speed).

    The FavorSaver was specifically designed to help you maximize your shrine donations without going over the limits:

    agent86.nfshost.com/glitch/

    Probably there will be more strategy on that page in the near future :)
    Posted 13 months ago by agent86 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Wow. A comment from agent86! I really enjoy your Glitch utilities. Can't believe I forgot about FavorSaver. Doh.

    Thank you for your wisdom on speeding up learning. It is, inadvertently, what I have been doing to get through Mining IV. I had 4 or 5 Zille emblems saved, which I spent immediately. Then I was donating until I got an emblem & spending it. Thanks to the help from this thread, I'm now spending it before I get the emblem. I've also been able to max my donations out the last couple of days. :)

    Thanks again!
    Posted 13 months ago by Wynella Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Great thread.
    Commenting to bump it up!
    Spending emblems for learning speed.
    Posted 13 months ago by Pasquali Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Sad but true. . . The emblem only gives you 1000 points worth of learning - no matter how many points it took you to get it.

    I only learned this last week, and I'm up to 2100 points to get a Lem icon. 
    I was very disheartened when I found out and have decided that it's a waste of time trying to reduce the learning on skills anyway. 

    I can know a whole 2 and half hours off a 15 day skill?! That's as long as it would take me to accumulate the points. . . 
    I'd rather wait out the 15 days.
    Posted 13 months ago by Liz Erd Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Well, if you had 2,099 points of favor with Lem and you were learning a Lem skill, you could save almost 6 hours, which is a substantial amount.  Gaining favor is pretty easy if you have a high Animal Kinship or Mining skill level - meat from pigs and sparkly rock are both really cheap to harvest and worth a good deal of favor or currants.  

    Just don't take the emblem if you're not trying to increase your favor cap or working towards an icon.  Spend the points on skill speeding before you earn it instead.
    Posted 13 months ago by agent86 Subscriber! | Permalink
  • In the early days I would occasionally miscalculate and get an emblem when what I wanted was to earn favor just short of the emblem in order to use the favor for speeding learning.  Pretty soon I realized something which hasn't (I believe) been mentioned here.  Assuming you'll be making more than one donation to get the favor you're after (not always the case!), only make part of your donations, then spend the favor to speed learning.  Then make the rest of your donations and spend that favor.  There's no penalty for spending your favor in two chunks rather than all at once, and it eliminates the possibility of accidently donating too much and getting an emblem that you don't want (unless you massively miscalculate).

    An example just in case this isn't clear:  Say you are at the level with a giant where you need 1400 favor for an emblem and you're going to make donations yielding roughly 800 and 600 favor but you want to stop short of an emblem.  You could try to calculate so that one was 800 and the other 599 and make them both one after the other.  If it turns out the second was really 602 you've donated 1402 and get an emblem.  Instead do this:  Make the 800 favor donation.  SPEND the favor - you're now back to 0.  Now make the 599 donation and spend the favor.  If it turns out to really be 602, you're just at 602 not 1402 - no emblem problem!
    Posted 13 months ago by Hawkwell Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'm just collecting icons now.
    To me it's too much like hard work to knock a few hours off a skill.
    6 hours off a 18 day skill still leaves nearly 18 days.
    Posted 13 months ago by Liz Erd Subscriber! | Permalink