Greetings!

I think I inadvertently stumbled upon an exploit/glitch. I recently finished up Europe 1066 AD, and decided to give Hardened Ursa:Luna a try. After finishing Hardened Ursa:Luna, I noticed that everything on the map selection page was available. I started up Hardened Europe Huge because I was curious.

I remember seeing something about how adjusting system clocks, etc, isn't allowed and can get you penalized; but I was wondering about this situation? This one doesn't seem as bad, because as far as I know Skip Level powers aren't hard to come across and are generally regarded as almost useless; so someone could just as well use Superpowers with 5 Skip Level powers to achieve this. But was just wondering if I should or shouldn't continue on Hardened Europe Huge.

Aside from the exploiting glitch situation, from a progression standpoint should I keep going on this level? I guess even if I don't, I can cancel it to get partial AP (which, for the time I put into it, I might net more AP than if I did normal progression). Does the AP gain compared to time make this worth the endeavor?

Other info:
I switch back and forth between my mobile device (Android, Warzone app) and computer to play, but not simultaneously

I haven't ascended yet, and I'm barely into my Phase 2 advancements (so I'm not sure if it's efficient for me to even do Hardened Europe Huge, even though it's the biggest/longest level)

https://warzone.com/ReportBug

If things unlocked for you, you're fine to play them.

That said . . . if you haven't ascended at all yet and you're still in phase 2, it will likely take you 6+ months to finish HEH. It is more efficiency to do other levels first.

Yes, you can earn AP for HEH - but this is substracted from your next attempt, so all the AP you earn, you're essentially robbing yourself from your next playthrough on it (but you still have to expend the same time to redo everything to the point you aborted).

So my advice is ... Abort Level. Quickly. Or strap in for the long haul.

I think, that if you take partial AP from levels right before ascention, then after ascention the AP for those levels will be restored to its normal values right???

Yes, if he clears regular EH, he can take the partial AP from HEH and have it reset. I can't imagine it's going to be much AP though. HEH has such huge army counts, can't imagine getting very far while still in phase 2.

It might be some sort of glitch, who knows, it might be that Fizzer thought that we should be able to have access to most of the levels (to find new issues with the new levels). But in general I'd say that playing a level that is unlocked (however that happened) isn't a problem. I have made the observation that by finishing the level I was playing since before the update, I unlocked the final hardened level, which before was still unlocked despite the use of a Skip Level power. So, yes, perhaps there might be something wrong here but for us - as in players that already played before the update - the game might behave differently than to new players. So, if new players can confirm that the game suddenly unlocks itself, then there is a bug, otherwise I would attribute this behavior to the update itself and not worry too much.

Regarding playing a later level with little to no advancements: There seems to be a fixed AP/day ratio for all levels. So, playing early levels or playing later levels will give you roughly the same amount of AP per played hour/day. Therefore, you can always start every level you like. The difference is that with shorter levels you get more opportunities to earn and invest AP, and hence, improve your personal AP/day ratio. For long levels you will need quite some time but afterwards be able to improve drastically. Pick your poison.

Thanks all for the feedback!

I submitted a bug report (thanks l4v.r0v for the link!).

I decided to abort it, and continue with the normal progression. I earned about 57 AP from it, from sinking about an hour or so into it (which, for the time spent, is a lot of AP, I think? At least for my stage of the game, that's a lot of AP in one hour).

My thoughts:
I'm contemplating if there might be a strategy where I could eyeball the best and worst levels (fastest and slowest based on my artifacts and advancements, etc), and skip some and grab some partial AP off of those.

The new update makes it so that one only needs to finish the final level and throw in 100 AP to ascend; so these Skip Levels along with superpowers might be useful in allowing someone to only finish the final level, and the ones that they deem the most AP fruitful, and then milking the worst for partial and then aborting them.

I'm still pre-ascension, so I still have a lot of stuff to pick up from all the levels (like the ore benefits from completing the level quickly, etc); but for someone in their post-ascension and beyond, this could put their Skip Levels to use. And I guess in my current stage of the game, some of the hardened levels appear like they'll have to be done post-ascension if they look too hard, so I'm thinking of grabbing some partial AP then if I'm skipping them and ascending without them (and doing them post-ascension).

Out of curiosity, what kind of AP per hour or (AP per day) rates do people normally see? And any consensus on how much time should be spent on levels? I've perused the forums, and people have some well-made compilations of stuff like artifacts, level army info, etc; so I figure someone might have something for time spent per level, perhaps? :D

fizzer said that he is trying to fix it, but he also said to enjoy the free levels

Edited 8/22/2021 12:25:07

As I hinted at, there is (or might be) a somewhat fixed AP/day ratio, but this assumes that you play all levels without artifacts and advancements. Another deciding factor is whether you try to collect all the tech achievements or not. Because doing so dictates another strategy than if you deliberately skip those achievements. And this ratio assumes a pretty useless play style (always capturing the lowest cost territory, as far as I know) and should assume you playing actively 24/7. So, all that combined, don't waste too much time thinking about this ratio and just find your own balance.

Regarding just playing the most profitable levels and then ascend: With the latest update ascending costs APs. So, I assume that it is still most profitable to just play all levels (exactly once) before ascending. Whether this includes the hardened levels or not, I'm not sure yet, but I'm pretty positive.