Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-25258217-20150429180219/@comment-1577342-20150830230751

Okay, I gave this some thought a few months ago. This is what I came up with, so please check my logic.

I honestly only light torches 3-4 times a week. I have not opened the torch lights needed section of the friends menu in over 10 weeks without a MINIMUM of 25 pages of friends who need a light. The average at the moment is about 32 pages. That's 160 visits per day. That I get to the end of the list 3-4 times a week, in my opinion, is both exceptional and more than sufficient dedication to my friends.

In the beginning, I tried something similar to BunsenH, but that was before I really thought out the situation. There are a lot of hidden factors involved. All I see are the running totals of occasions that Friend X lights my torches and I light Friend X's torches. The torches burn 24 hours from the time that Friend X acknowledges my light by tapping the torch to set it burning.

After some deep thought and careful observation, I realized that even though I had many more than 30 friends, I usually ended up lighting the same core group of Friend's torches. I wasn't starting with these friends and then seeing who else needed a light. I was just lighting torches that needed it when I happened to do torch lighting in my routine.

I was curious about the situation, so I changed the time I did my torch runs by 12 hours. Sure enough, I started seeing a different core group of friends that were getting my lights. The biggest hidden factor, and it is hugely misleading, is that while I see how many times Friend X lit my torches, I couldn't see if or how often Friend X had lit the torches of Friends A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, K, L, etc.

For that reason, I now light as many as I am willing to light, on a schedule that works for me. Remember that with perfect reciprocity among a closed group of 30 friends, no one would ever have to light more than 30 torches per day. Unfortunately, we generally don't have closed groups or perfect reciprocity, so Friend X might be lighting hundreds of torches a day for friends that aren't in my Friends List at all.

Light what you can, as often as you can.

For advanced players, maybe over level 40, please explore the option of selling your torches when you do not actively need the boost to breeding. It is hardly a burden for me spend 100,000 coins to replace 10 torches to do some targeted breeding on a given island. Just one of my six Rare Entbrats produces that much several times a day. I suspect that it is much the same for others of advanced levels.

I would like to apologize to all on my friends list for wasting their time needlessly lighting my torches for the decorative effect. I will be greatly reducing my torch count at my next collection cycle.

Caltain