I have searched through the forums and only found vague finger waving and guessing at exactly how Drafts work.

Has anyone figured out specifically how they are calculated and how Increased Draft Size (IDS) affects them? (ie a formula?)

I have seen people think there is a limited "Draft pool" that you draw from and IDS either increases the max or increases the the amount you get each time while the max stays the same. I have seen some formulae that do not seem to match with what I see in game (though that may be before an update). And various other thoughts.

The general consensus is "it's good," but I am curious to know "how good?"

Things that increase drafts by my observations:
Gaining troops (or conquering territories)
Time (could be a byproduct of gaining troops)
Other mystic nonsense

Among the mysticity is sacrifices to Fizzer. They tend to drop when that happens. Fizzer does not like sacrifices of anything but cold, hard cash. Not warm, soft cash. He does not like warm, soft cash.

The most you can draft at once is the following:

3690 * Army Income * (1 + Modifiers)

I've done the calculation on a few levels. I suspect that the formula for drafts is based on armies per second, total armies earned, and total drafts so far. Then, it multiplies that result by (1 + Draft Boost artifact + Tech Boost + Increased Draft Sizes).

Edited 5/11/2021 22:32:36

The number of armies you gain from drafting is the sum of two separate formulas: The fixed draft portion and the sliding draft portion.

The fixed portion is calculated based on your armies/sec number every time you draft. Therefore, the total armies gained from the fixed portion scales linearly with the number of times you draft as well as modifiers that increase your draft sizes.

The sliding portion is calculated based on both your armies/sec number as well as how many armies you've drafted in the past. The total armies gained from the sliding portion will approach but not exceed a percentage of the total armies gained in that level.

Interesting. Thanks for the info.

So, if I am understanding it correctly, Increased Draft Size (IDS) will increase your minimum (fixed) draft size, but will do little to change your maximum income from drafts as that is fixed by the limit on the sliding portion.

Increased Draft Size is useful to help you hit the Draft limit faster. If you actively pick up Drafts, you will have consistent minimum drafts and constantly be near the limit. If you occasionally Draft (or after big Caches/Mercs), they will be barely affected by IDS since the bulk will be from the sliding scale.

I had figured that IDS would increase the maximum amount that I would get from Drafting, but that looks like it is more impacted by your Army Camp production. IDS only affects the speed at which you hit the cap.

Not sure if I will continue investing in Increased Draft Size for now. I see other more useful upgrades on which I can spend my AP.

Do drafts obtained from the fixed portion affect the sliding scale calculation?

Do drafts obtained from the fixed portion affect the sliding scale calculation?

Nope.

Do drafts obtained from the fixed portion affect the sliding scale calculation?

Nope.

This confuses me ... can we pls reword the question?

What we want to actually identify is: will investing in IDS will actually get us xx% (whatever % we upgrade IDS to) more armies compared to the exact same drafts without any IDS investment? (ie: total armies gained from drafting = draft size * xx%, where draft size=result of formula dealing with fixed draft portion & sliding portion)

I think Z just took away from this conversation that investing in IDS gets you bigger drafts each time, but over the course of an entire map, it doesn't actually get you more armies, and thus investing in IDS is not efficient. But I don't think this is right, I think it will get more armies overall. If not, I will be very sad for having invested so much in it already.

Edited 5/13/2021 17:51:10

but over the course of an entire map, it doesn't actually get you more armies

That is incorrect. The draft modifiers affect both portions, the fixed and the sliding.

First off, it depends on how often you draft.

If you're a very active player who drafts very often, then the sliding portion will always be capped by its percentage. In this case, draft modifiers are still beneficial to you since they increase the fixed portion of the draft.

If you draft only a couple times per day, then the fixed portion won't amount to much. But the draft modifiers are still useful for helping you reach the sliding percentage faster.

Ok, thank you for clarifying. This helps greatly. It seems to help players differently based on their playstyle.

A few key points that I have learned:
Draft is broken into two components: Fixed Draft and Sliding Draft
Sliding Draft is capped at the Draft Cap, but Fixed Draft is not
Draft Cap is not affected by Fixed Draft or Increased Draft Sized (IDS)

Active Players:
Drafting constantly will continuously give you the Fixed Draft which is boosted by IDS.
Sliding Draft will, for the most part, be at the the Draft Cap for the level and barely affected by IDS.

Inactive Players:
Not Drafting constantly will diminish the effects of IDS on Fixed Drafts as fewer Drafts are gotten.
Sliding Draft will be boosted greatly as it will not be at Draft Cap, and IDS will help bring it to Draft Cap.


Overall though, inactive players will not see more Drafts per level with IDS as they will get fewer Fixed Drafts, and Sliding Drafts are capped regardless. Active players are the ones who benefit the most. They will hit the Draft Cap with ease and their Fixed Drafts will be much bigger.

I think what caused my confusion is how the two different Draft types are lumped together. I was expecting to see a huge jump in my Total Draft percentage, but it stayed more or less the same with +90% IDS. Though I did notice my minimum Drafts get larger. Confirming what was said above.

Thanks

(The real takeaway is: Draft constantly to maximize Drafting.)

Edited 5/13/2021 18:30:56

Thanks Fizzer, great to have confirmation!

Is the sliding draft cap (fixed draft cap) just a fixed number? like, say 10%? Or is this affected by army camp income/other factors?

See bolded part.

The number of armies you gain from drafting is the sum of two separate formulas: The fixed draft portion and the sliding draft portion.

The fixed portion is calculated based on your armies/sec number every time you draft. Therefore, the total armies gained from the fixed portion scales linearly with the number of times you draft as well as modifiers that increase your draft sizes.

The sliding portion is calculated based on both your armies/sec number as well as how many armies you've drafted in the past. The total armies gained from the sliding portion will approach but not exceed a percentage of the total armies gained in that level.

...."but not exceed a percentage of the total armies"......

I guess that's also my question. what is this percentage?

some kind of a formula would help

If Fizzer wanted us to know these details, I guess he would have told us in the first place. So - if I understood this whole concept right - the only thing you can try is drafting as often as possible over some time (perhaps an hour or two or even a day) with nothing else changing, write down your numbers, and do the math.

@Phoenix

That is exactly the point of these threads: posing questions. Some players share thought, some even find the calculations.
Thanks for your great tip though!

okay, you're right, I was a but too quick with writing this. But I thought you were (mainly) addressing Fizzer. And I realized something else. You don't just want to draft as often as possible, but you want to draft as often as possible while writing down all the individual drafts. As soon as the drafts stabilize, you want to calculate the percentage. Because while the numbers still change (decrease), it means that the whatever percentage isn't reached yet, and as soon as the drafts stabilized, you might actually draft too much (in regards to the percentage). The exact moment of convergence is important.

@Phoenix

I remember (some 4-5 months ago), while playing the Netherlands level, that at the very end (I had some 15 territories to go) my drafts dropped from 1B+ to about 100M - Draft Cap reached - that was quite unfortunate because at this point I was out of mercenaries and it took ages (2 more days) to finish the level.
So my first estimation (based on a blur memory): sliding portion is about 10 times bigger than the fixed portion....

At the end phase of my play through Europe Huge, my drafts were 9B-11B - I never reached the draft cap because it never dropped from that number. It was a surprise to me - I was drafting frequently

Fizzer said in the past that drafts were meant to be 17% to 21% of your total armies earned. I haven't pinned down the exact number, but they appear to converge around 17% for me. I have seen the number go higher when I've unlocked the draft tech early and drafted consistently every few minutes. I haven't put any AP into increasing draft sizes. I would love to see the numbers from someone who has increased their draft sizes (by 100% or more).

Here you go Master Jz


I draft often

Afro-Eurasia Gargantuan stats Draft Sizes 120%, Draft Boost rare 16%

Army Camp ~247.7 B
Mercenary ~567.9 B
Cache ~352.6 B
Drafting ~269.3 B
Drafting% ~23.05%

Orbis Veteribus Notus stats Draft Sizes 150%, Draft Boost rare 16%

Army Camp ~27.6 B
Mercenary ~60.5 B
Cache ~28.1 B
Drafting ~28.4 B
Drafting% ~24.4%