EstoyLoco’s The West Tips Guide

DeletedUser

1- Introduction
2- The beginning
2.1- Your game plan
2.2- The skill investment
2.3- The quests
2.4- Items
2.5- Playing with jobs
3- The towns
3.1- Building or joining
3.2- How a town should work…
4- Duels
The attributes – skills
Tactics…
5- Premium account
6- How not to get hurt badly
7- Helpful sites
8- Conclusion

1- Introduction

Good day everyone. This is guide is made to guide people in their beginnings of playing The West. It has some tips that were handy to me. Please excuse my grammar; English is not my first language!

First of all, you need to understand there is not only one way to play the game and there is still a lot to learn from that game! I intend that text to guide you toward the right resources according to what I have figured. I will also try to answer the most common questions I receive in game.

I hope this will help you understand that great game and remember that a good beginning to every game is to read the help section! This is where we all started! This is really a general guide where I show now numbers… maybe one day I will make a restricted advanced guide ;)

2- The beginning

The beginning of the game is critical. This is where you should figure what you will do for the rest of the game… There is a possibility to change that but lets say you’ll help yourself be a better player if you can make wise decisions in the beginning…

2.1- Your game plan

I think the question i get the more often by mail is: “How do you level so quickly” or “how do you get a lot of experience (exp)”. My first answer is : you need to have a plan! Remember that in mostly every multiplayer online game there is mathematics… It’s all about probabilities and or prevision of what can happen…

I see 3 different type of class in this game :

Duelers : Duelers will be gaining his money and xp mostly by dueling other players. It will also do jobs as motivation drops too much at some point, although they will mostly work on winning duels. I recommand reading the Dueling section for more precise info on how to manage a dueler avatar. Duelers should have lower regular level as they level not as fast as jobbers… it all depends tho.

Jobbers : Jobbers will often be adventurers who will gain their exp and money from jobs. It is critical for them to invest well their skills to do the jobs they want to do! It is the most common way of playing the game and probably the easiest one to learn at first.

Builders : Builders are the ones who build in town but who also do a lot of money jobs. It is sad because they don’t have a specific ranking to compare to other builders as jobbers and duelers have… Maybe one day we will find a most building points ranking or something… This is the class I know the less so I will eventually invite someone to add some more precise stuff to the guide… I’ll start a section with the little info I have!

Planning to be a jobber will still allow you to duel or build, although you will do it less efficiently. Trying to specify yourself in two different class is possible, although you might have a hard time succeeding well in aspect of the game. Maybe one day we will see great all-arounders!

2.2- The skill investment

This section can be applied to everyone but is pretty critical from jobbers. For every level you get you will be able to raise 1 attribute and 3 skills. Make sure you know what you want to do later on!! I’ll take the example if you want to be a jobber and know you want to hunt beavers because you like the exp and money it gives… You know you will have to invest all your attributes and skills toward trapping until you get to do the job. Although try to think further… which job will you do after hunting beavers?? When I say the game is about mathematics, well you have to sit down and calculate how much points you need to invest in which skills to perform well… Is there a timeline limit? No! As far as you can plan do it! Although items will start interfering at some point! After a few world you will know what to buy and when to buy it also…

2.3- The quests

Another common question is “are you doing the quests”. I do some of them… Again its about mathematics… How many hours will I spend doing a quest to get 20xp? If it allows you to do another quest after which will give you 60XP it might worth it! So the math equation would be :

Amount of exp/money earned for amount of theorical time you will need to spend on jobs to get the items… Always consider you could do spend that job time on a job who would bring you 40-50XP instead.

I consider doing the first set of quest when you start playing is a must for a good start! It brings a lot of early XP and therefore a lot of skill points to do good jobs. Please note that to find the various items, you don’t have to work 2 hours on each job!! Work it 30 mins per 30 mins and stop as soon as your get the item you are looking for. You will save much energy doing that.

I would recommand to do most quest where you have duels to make… It is free pass for exp-money-items… Level 15 quest is a must for me especially if you already have a black bandana.

2.4- Items

To answer a lot of people : you can sell items in any town where there is a gunsmith, tailor or a general store!!! Sorry it felt good!

I suggest you to keep most of the items in the beginning, as you will need a lot for quests… Also you need to play with your inventory to maximize your labor points depending on which job you want to do. This will be particularly important later in game when items become more and more valuable.

Please don’t buy a donkey for the quest if you are not member of a town selling it… it’s a waste of valuable money! Honestly I don’t buy donkey before a dang while. These 250$ can be really useful to build your town! You shouldn’t have to travel much honestly…

2.5 Playing with jobs

There is no good or bad moment to stop doing a job motivation wise. Although always be aware that you can go back to a smaller job! The 20% exp job at 100% motivation will be more efficient than the 25% exp job at 50% motivation! Note that 20% exp job doesn’t mean it will exactly give you 20 XP per hour * motivation%... It is just an indicator, a range of exp.

In a perfect world you should have 6-7 jobs that you rotate after working on them 4 hours or so… You should try to keep your highest profitable jobs the more you can at 90-100% motivation as they will bring you the most exp-money-items.

3- The towns

Towns are an important part of the game! Do you need to join one to perform or play, the answer is no. Although they bring to you another dimension of the game. Of course you don’t have to donate to a town so you keep all your money for yourself. But when you will want items, they will cost twice the price and you won’t have access to all of them!

It might also prevent you from being dueled but you won’t be able to duel others neither! Now if you want to be in a town, do you want to join one or create a new one?

3.1- Creating a town

If you want to create a town, I suggest you to be a member first in another world. You have to understand the utility of a jobber, a builder and a dueler to manage them well. A town having no specific builder won’t ever succeed… or it will take a lot of time.

If you decide to create one, it might worth setting your town in an area with not too many large towns. If you are the biggest, people will come sleep and buy items in your town, which will give you free money! Yep that’s right every time someone out of town buys an item, the town will receive a certain % of money.

Also if you have the best duelers and most duelers around you will be able to defend yourself against other local towns. This is a unproven point though so feel free to experiment!

If you want to join a town, and to explain players who didn’t read the help section, you need an invite to get into a already existing town.

Also note that the highest ranked player isn’t the one who can get you in! You need to contact the players having little hats beside their names!

3.2- How a town should work

As explained previously, a town should have their own moneymakers, builders and duelers. Moneymakers are jobbers who deposit a lot of money to help building non-stop! Builders on their side build as long as there is money and that motivation doesn’t drop too low. What is too low? It all depends how many builders you have… I would recommend staying over 85% motivation to get a maximum points per hour-money you invest… Duelers should work together to hit specific enemy players to kill them. The targets should mainly be the players who attack your moneymakers…

As for buildings there is various tactics… Just keep note that building a lot of resisdence allows you to get more members… Gathering 120$ being 5 members takes X times. Having 10 members reduce that time by 2 and so on. So the more members you have at first bringing money in, the more efficient your town will be!

Now choose wisely the players that come in and use wisely also your town forum to guide everyone in the same direction!!

4- Dueling

To be completed later on… lack of time
 
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DeletedUser

5- Premium account

Premium account brings you a certain advantage. Do you need premium account? The answer is no… Although to succeed it is highly recommended! Each premium account brings you nice features to help you enjoy the game! You at least have to try the difference of playing with and without! You don’t need all of the extras so I’ll give you a list of “Must” if you want to be a leader in your class and of “good to have”

Jobber : MUST have More Energy
Good to have Automation
Good to have Higher Income

Builders : MUST have More Energy (to both job and build)
Good to have Higher Income

Duelers : MUST have Dueling advantage
Good to have More energy
Good to have Automation (duels last only 10 mins)

Note that Character bonus is a good to have in all cases!

6- How not to get hurt badly

I laugh every time I see thread on forum about how bad players get injured. You get frequent severe injuries when you do high risky jobs with only 1 or 2 labor point. Having a lot of labor points won’t prevent you from getting injured… although you will loose few healt points instead of hundreds.


7- Helpful sites

I strongly recommend you to visit the following sites, which can be really useful to answer your questions and to help you plan your next world!

http://en4.the-west.net/help.php or any other world’s help section which is TW’s help section.
www.weststats.com which is a really nice site where you can enter your skills and it calculates which jobs you can do and what you are missing to do other jobs… I used it pretty much honestly.
http://westtool.redio.de/w1/skill_tool_index.php another nice useful site!


Conclusion

I don’t pretend to be a master or anything at this game! I’m just trying to help newer players who might have a hard time figuring few stuff. If you would like me to explain different subjects concerning the game please feel free to message me and I’ll see if I can add some stuff!

Thanks a lot for reading me and I hope it was helpful to you!

EstoyLoco


P.S. If anyone feel like doing the grammar correction let me know! ☺
 
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DeletedUser

way to go estoyloco, for english not being your first language you did pretty darn good. Like the guide, I think you could expand some on the jobbers and builders like a few strategies for skill and attribute distribution.
 

DeletedUser

I will later on.. although I don't want everyone to have same strategies and such... I'll see about it later. Thanks for the cheering tho :)
 

DeletedUser

Great advice ! I wish I had read this before starting on W-1.

I'd suggest that people figure out whether they want to go Firearms/Shooting or Melee/Vigor and put points into one or the other BUT NOT BOTH !

I would not recommend builders going below 89% Motivation unless trying to coordinate work on the next level or finish a building rank - otherwise they just end up taking more time to get back to 100% Motivation.

Better to do 4hrs on one day then 8hrs on one day and have to wait 2 days to get back to 100% Motivation IMO.

Also there is no more "Dueling Advantage"
 

DeletedUser

great guide:)

i think it whould be a good idea to add some false/true rummers to each part of your guide.

like whit labor points.
i.e.
the more labor points you have the more money and XP you will get FALSE!!

and whit building
i.e.
the more labor points you have in your builder skills the more you will get done on your town for the same amount of money. TRUE!!


or something like that, sins a lot of new players belive every thing they are told. even if they hear it from a person that is just as new as they are.
 

DeletedUser

great guide:)

like whit labor points.
i.e.
the more labor points you have the more money and XP you will get FALSE!!

More Labor Points = More Money = True

There are level limitations so you can't do Picking Tobacco and make a mint at level 40, but you definitely get more money with more labor points.

^^^I'm guessing it is level versus difficulty ... another one of those things that nobody knows the answer.

While there is also hidden luck factors go ahead and try Carving Claims with 1 labor point and then with 20+ labor points and you'll see a statistically sound increase if you do the job enough times.

Also if you scroll over "Labor Points" in-game it says that I'm right :p
 

DeletedUser

I also wonder to which level it gives more money... guess we'll never know!
 

DeletedUser

i did a test whit tobacco. i did a job whit my w3 character that have 60 labor points, he got:
5 $
1 XP

and then whit my w4 character that have 19 labor points.
3 $
1 XP

so labor points has nothing to do whit how much money you get out of a job.

and if it has its so little that there is no point in getting more insted of working on getting a better job.

also remeber that the factor of random is in place.

the only thing more labor point do to a job is to lower the loss of HP.

i might be wrong but this is what i belive.
and if you are going to tell me that i am wrong then i whould like to see some prof.
 

DeletedUser

I said your level versus the job difficulty also plays a significant part of the equation. Otherwise we'd all be Picking Tobacco and making hundreds of dollars an hour.

Try 1 labor point and ALOT of labor points on a high money job with a high difficulty number for your level where you'll actually see the difference.

Also saying you did something once is meaningless - I made a basketball shot from half court once - does that mean the same outcome would happen if I tried it 100 times ?
 

DeletedUser

i did a test whit tobacco. i did a job whit my w3 character that have 60 labor points, he got:
5 $
1 XP

and then whit my w4 character that have 19 labor points.
3 $
1 XP

so labor points has nothing to do whit how much money you get out of a job.

60 labor points is still 166% the amount of $ you got with 19 labor point... you should try with a harder job.. might be more revealant...
 

DeletedUser

okay i understand it now.
(but still no real prof other then your word)
and to take my test and say that its the same as basket is silly.

this is a math based game not rael life.

and if it had not bin for the lvl thing then it whould have showed a real big dif. sins i had 3 times more labot points.
 

DeletedUser

You tested it once - I've tested XP 30min versus 2hrs and money hundreds of times. Believe me or not.

Or hey go test it for yourself as I suggested with a high money job and job near your level ??? Just a thought.

You're not going to see a difference in a low difficulty/money job like that cause of the variance that already exists. If you did Picking Tobacco 10 times you might end up with a range from 2-10$.

You may not see the difference until you do Coal Mining or something else with high money %
 

DeletedUser

hey Whistler,

on a side note... As it happened to me it prolly happened to you also working on a job 25% exp job for 2 hours at 100% motivation and getting something like 22 XP (I know when you get injured it seems to drop a little your exp.. no proof of that but i tend to see that...)

I'm testing if I will reduce these low exp sequence by working 1 hour instead of 2 hours period...

I was wondering your opinion on the subject.. You can also voice me on your opinion toward when you get injured if you get less exp... Its not happening all the time but i would say a 75% of the time...

Thanks
 

DeletedUser

Test it on a high XP job so you can see the difference ... 40% +

Also there is a hidden luck factor for XP that swings XP up or down by 50% from what I recall reading ... someone tested on the German worlds.

I do Building RR stations at 30m and my average is 21 XP/30 mins. When doing it for 2 hours my average is 68 XP/2 hours.

I've gotten 43 XP in a 2 hour shift and 26 XP from a 30 minute shift. The most I've ever gotten from 2 hours is 77 which is below my average when doing it for 30 minutes ... I can't explain it, but I have it logged.

All the work was done with approximately the same labor points as I've been putting them into other skill/attributes for over 10 levels.
 
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DeletedUser

I can confirm what EstoyLoco and Whistlingleaf are saying.

On W1, I can get $100 almost every 2hr session with a flag or three. On W4, I barely hit $50 and MAYBE a flag. Labor points DO matter as far as your luck and your payout for any job is concerned.
 

DeletedUser

Test it on a high XP job so you can see the difference ... 40% +

Also there is a hidden luck factor for XP that swings XP up or down by 50% from what I recall reading ... someone tested on the German worlds.

I do Building RR stations at 30m and my average is 21 XP/30 mins. When doing it for 2 hours my average is 68 XP/2 hours.

I've gotten 43 XP in a 2 hour shift and 26 XP from a 30 minute shift. The most I've ever gotten from 2 hours is 77 which is below my average when doing it for 30 minutes ... I can't explain it, but I have it logged.

All the work was done with approximately the same labor points as I've been putting them into other skill/attributes for over 10 levels.

Now THAT is very interesting
 

DeletedUser2708

okay i understand it now.
(but still no real prof other then your word)
and to take my test and say that its the same as basket is silly.

this is a math based game not rael life.

and if it had not bin for the lvl thing then it whould have showed a real big dif. sins i had 3 times more labot points.

But the probability principle involved is exactly the same, which is why he raised it.
 
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