Mini Fi
[16:39]<GM Stormcrow> [16:38]<BrianN> SC: We can discuss my terms of my impending GMness when im back from shopping
[16:39]<BrianN> Ive got no problems with u fi
[16:39]<Isroll> I always supported Duran's ascension, you have no proof otherwise
[16:40]<GM Stormcrow> ^^ I would rather push needles into my eyes, I think.
[16:40]<BrianN> GASP!
[16:40]<Lola> lol SC
[16:40]<Gruumsh> Hur hur hur
[16:40]<Ranalos> hahahaha
[16:40]<Mini Fi> Ok, then I shall endeavor to engage you more 
[16:40]<Muad'Dib> lmao
[16:40]<BrianN> SHARP INTAKE OF BREATH!
[16:40]<Mini Fi> 
[16:40]<Mini Fi> oh boy!
[16:40]<Lola> while you are here SC, one of my towns got bugged, it has negative 9 million mana 
[16:40]<BrianN> That part about being thankful WAS serious though
[16:40]<Mini Fi> Thats going on my profile 
[16:40]<Thorfinn> GM Monkey next
[16:40]<GM Duran> At least use dull ones. The sharp ones will require doctors.
Stand with Israel, pray for them.
[20:56]<Rok> Fiona is definitely better at this than me
And pure gold
[18:11]<Stukahh> i am wrong
Newbie Guides
Newbie Guide (Part 1)
Posted by tallica - 14 May 2011
Newbie Guide (Part 2)
Posted by tallica - 14 May 2011
Starting Illyriad: An Alternative Newbie Guide
written by Auraya, edited by Mithyn,
dwarf advice contributed by Smoking Gnu & Fluffeh,
orc advice contributed by BenDunder
Tips for new players
Posted by Manannan - 14 May 2011
City Development For New Players
Posted by Llyr - 28 Dec 2012
Joining an Alliance
Posted by Mara Zira - 05 Sept 2011
Begging For Dummies
Posted by Squill - 06 Sept 2011
Basic Self Defense for New Players
Posted by Rill - 08 Sep 2011
Military for New Players
Posted by The Electrocutioner - 23 Jun 2013
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Rare Herb Tile Locations | |
| Ancient Forest: | Ironstem Root, Brascan Seeds |
| Wooded Glade: | Larken Wood, Brascan Seeds, Queen's Hair, Furizion Seedpods, Sharproot |
| Blessed Oak: | Ancient Oak |
| Thick Forest: | Larken Wood, Vistrok Flowers |
| Dense Forest: | Larken Wood, Brascan Seeds, Suntree Haft, Vistrok Flowers, Furizion Seedpods, Sharproot, Brownback Moss |
| Light Woods: | Larken Wood, Brascan Seeds, Brownback Moss, Vistrok Flowers, Sharproot, Queen's Hair |
| Wooded Land: | Larken Wood, Brascan Seeds, Brownback Moss, Vistrok Flowers, Sharproot |
| Forested Hilltop: | Larken Wood, Brascan Seeds, Suntree Haft, Furizion Seedpods, Silverthorn, Rockweed Root |
| Swamp, Mire, March, Bog: | Toadcap Fungus |
| Abandoned Mineshaft: | Miner's Bane |
| Light Tropical Cover: | Queen's Hair, |Jungle| Giant Palm Leaves |
| Tropical Foliage: | Giant Palm Leaves |
| Tropical Hilltop: | Queen's Hair |
| Dense Foliage: | Giant Palm Leaves,* |
| Rainforest: | Giant Palm Leaves, Queen's Hair, Furizion Seedpods, * |
| Fisherman's Hut: | Ancient Oak |
| Abundant Clay, Exposed Clay, Turned Clay, Plains: | Warpwood Shoot |
| Oasis: | Rahan Palm Wood, Spidertree Leaves |
| Weeping Willow: | Queen's Hair |
| Palm Trees: | Rahan Palm Wood, Giant Palm Leaves, Ebony Wood |
| Dark Forest: | Brascan Seeds |
| Forbidden: | Ancient Oak |
Gathering in Illyriad
There are several different types of gathering in Illyriad. This information covers the basic differences and how to take part in each.
1) Caravan Harvesting (aka basic gathering)
Caravans can be used to gather goods outside of your city walls.
Minimum researches required: Haggling
Buildings required: Marketplace
Units required: Caravans (created in Marketplace)
Items that can be gathered this way:
Food 
Gold 
Wood 
Clay 
Iron 
Stone
Carrying capacity: The carrying capacity of your caravans is determined by your depth of research in the Improved Loading line of research
Gathering speed: The gathering speed of your caravans is determined by your depth of research in the Chain Gang line of research
Limits: The number of caravans you can have in your town is determined by the level of your marketplace and the depth of your research in the Trading line of research
2) Cotter Harvesting (aka advanced gathering)
Cotters are used to collect certain special items outside of your city.
      |
 Caravan |
      |
 Cotter |
   |
 Skinner |
 |
 Miner |
 |
 Herbalist |
Minimum researches required: Haggling, Cotters, Foraging, Grape Picking
Buildings required: Marketplace, Cottage
Units required: Cotters (created in Marketplace)
Carrying capacity: Each cotter can carry 100 items
Gathering speed: Each cotter will harvest at a rate of 5 per hour (7 per hour for humans) and will gather until their inventory is full, or they have exhausted the resource
Limits: The number of cotters you can have is determined by the number of cottages you have in your town. One cotter can be created per cottage and you can have multiple cottages in your town
3) Specialist Harvesting (aka skinning, herbalism, mining)
Specialist gatherers collect rare resources from throughout the world.
Minimum researches required: Haggling, Guilds, then depending on your chosen area of focus, Herbalists' Guilds & Herbalism, Miners's Guilds & Geology, Skinners' Guilds & Butchery
Buildings required: Marketplace, Herbalist' Guild and/or Miner's Guild and/or Skinner's Guild
Units required: Herbalist and/or Miner and/or Skinner (created in Marketplace)
Items that can be gathered this way:
Rare Herbs (gathered by Herbalists) 
Animal
Parts (gathered by Skinners) 
Rare Minerals (gathered by Miners)
Carrying capacity: Each specialist gatherer can carry 1 rare item
Gathering speed: Time it takes for the herbalist/miner/skinner to gather the items is dependent on the rarity of the item and will vary
Limits: The number of herbalists/miners/skinners you can have is determined by the level of their associated guild building, of which you can have multiples in your town
Step by step to gathering:
- Create the type of gatherer unit you'd like to use in your city
- Explore the world map for icons that display resources available on those squares (it may be helpful to turn off the map terrain feature to see them better)
- Click on the square on the map with a resource icon visible
- Choose "harvest resources" and send the appropriate unit to gather the type of resource available, using the information above
- The gatherer unit will then travel to the location and begin harvesting (movement speed to and from gathering squares can be sped up using prestige)
- Once they have landed on the square and begun harvesting, you will be able to see precisely which type of item your specialist gatherers (herbalists, miners and skinners) are harvesting on the Trade Movements page and in Notifications
- View their progress in harvesting on the Trade Movements page
- When they are finished, they will return home
- Check your notifications screen for important gathering-related information
Bumping, killing, over-harvesting and other useful information
Only one set, consisting of one type of gatherers can be on a single square at a time. This means, gatherers can be bumped off of a square they are working on by incoming gatherers that come in after them.
Gatherers harvest in parallel. So if you send 3 cotters to a square instead of 1, in the same amount of time the group will harvest 300 items rather than just the 100 that one cotter can carry.
Interrupted cotters will bring home what items they've completed gathering that are in their inventory.
Interrupted miners/skinners/herbalists will not bring home any items, because they are each only able to carry 1 item and will return home only after it is finished gathering.
Check your notification screen for all information about gatherer units including interruptions, notifications if they have died, items that they have gathered and information about what remains on the square after they've finished harvesting there.
Gatherer units can be attacked and killed by hostile armies. They can also be protected by NAP-ed armies on the same square.
Scout squares with resource icons on them to learn more about precisely what type of resource is present and in what quantity.
Herbs, rare herbs and grapes are living items, meaning once depleted from a square, they will not return. They will spawn again elsewhere. Harvest these items with care if you want them to stay put.
Minerals and rare minerals live at fixed locations. If the square is depleted they will respawn at that same square.
Hides and animal parts appear on squares where animals have been killed and will disappear once depleted.
Welcome New Players to Illyriad
Whilst I have been playing Illyriad for a while now I am not the foremost expert, although some may say I would probably be close... I never liked those people anyway! The various recent reviews of Illyriad have brought an influx of new players to the game
which is great! I actively participate in global chat and a lot of the same questions come up. Being the lazy [insert own expletive] I am I have written this 'Tips for New Players' thread for newbies interested in becoming better Illyrians and save myself
and other veteran players from having to answer the same questions every five minutes.
This is the second version of the New Player Guide. The first was originally published by a great Illyriad called The_Dude who has now left the game, although there was some dispute over who actually wrote it, then later it was republished and added to by myself.
Unfortunately the more that was added the more difficult it became to follow hence a rewrite was required.
Illyriad is a perpetual game. The server does not (currently) end and restart therefore there is no winner. It is about choices and trade-offs as no city can be fully grown and support a large army. There are many paths players can take in Illyriad and no one
path is right for everyone. There are thousands of players which means there are millions of ideas on how to proceed through the wonderful land of Illyriad... If you look hard enough you will find 'lions and tigers and bears' on you way to find the wizard.
The best thing you can do is talk to the veterans in global and listen to the advice they give you. Most older players will give good advice you can use whilst most newer players will give you bad advice but think they are helping you.
I have split the guide into 3 distinct parts now in the hope that it has become more structured. Firstly there are 16 general tips to help you get started in the game, then a Q & A section of commonly asked questions and finally a section with links to more
information you may find useful.
GENERAL TIPS
1) Complete the tutorial
You get a basic understanding of the interface and mechanics of Illyriad and you get a gift from King Sigurd, a most honorable and glorious King. "All Hail King Sigurd!"
2) Change your tax rate
Taxes generate gold and when you start you do not need a vast income. You need gold to make units and support those units. As a newbie you will NOT be making vast numbers of units for a while yet. Taxes to generate gold reduce your production
of basic resources (wood, clay, iron, stone, and food) and early on these basic resources are much more important to you than gold is. I would recommend dropping your tax from the default 25% as a new player to 5% or less. As you grow in the game and start
building more and more units you will need to raise your tax rate once again. Keep in mind you can only change it once every 24 hours.
3) Visit Global Chat (GC)
Introduce yourself and say, "Hi! My name is Manannan and I'm and alcoholic" Oh wait... That what I say at my AA meetings. Regardless of that pop in and say 'Hello.' Most likely veterans like myself will be watching and recognize you as a new player. Many of
us routinely send new players resources and goods with no expectations other than you become a worthwhile member of the community. It is probably a different welcome to other nameless games of the same genre most people are used to where the first thing that
will happen is to 'beat on the new guy' as soon as his player protection finishes. Veterans for the most part are friendly and welcoming to new players to the Illyriad community. Subjects best avoided discussing in GC are real life politics, history, religion,
sex and drugs as they are either offensive to begin with or invariably lead to arguments and the developers prefer to keep a family friendly atmosphere in there. Discussions about Illyriad politics, history and religion are allowed but avoid insulting any players
if you want your gaming experience to be enjoyable. On a personal note if you do not want me to be constantly shouting at you please do not spam GC with pointless emoticons or emotispam as I call it. Its worst than having a troll in the room!
4) Upgrade your storehouse
If you visit GC and you see inbound caravans you should upgrade your Storehouse to increase the amount of basic resources you can receive. Resources that exceed your storage capacity are lost forever like over filling a glass of water. If that happens do not
worry. Older players are willing to help the new people get a good start in the game but do not abuse their kindness as if you are greedy you will find that the new player packages quickly disappear. Also manners never killed anybody. You'll find demands for
resources won't get you very far but polite requests normally get you several people sending. I myself have a limit to how much I will send in one go to new players outside my alliance and arguing with me that a free gift is not enough is more likely to get
you a future visit from my diplomats or military than from my caravans.
5) Increase your resource production very early on
My preference is to increase wood/clay/iron/stone production equally. By this I mean complete one Lumberjack level 1, then a Clay Pit level 1, etc. After I have a level 1 then I make a level 2 on top of that level 1 resource, then a level 3 on the same plot
and so on and so forth until I have a single plot of each resource at level 7. Once at level 7 you can research and then build the secondary buildings for the basic resources. These are important for two reasons. Firstly they increase your production of your
basic resources (obviously) and secondly they also open up further city upgrades when they reach certain build levels such as city walls and weapon production buildings which you will need to make troops.
Early in your city's development you will find it difficult to keep food production positive but try to avoid letting food production go negative and make it a priority to correct this when it happens. After I have a level 7 Lumberjack, Clay Pit, Iron Mine
and Stone Quarry, I will "back fill" the remaining undeveloped resource plots until I have completed every resource plot to at least level 7. While developing resource production as I just described mix in builds of Paddock, Common Ground, Marketplace, Consulate,
Mage Tower and Barracks. Most of these buildings have high food upkeep requirements so be sure to keep an eye on your food production.
6) Barracks and Military
Everyone who starts is tempted into building an army as soon as possible to protect themselves. Do Not. Any army you could build at the start is completely insignificant and will only serve to tempt an aggressive player to attack you for points. Whilst I
have stated most of us are friendly there are those who aren't and won't hesitate to attack for a handful of extra points to their score. Early in the game you are more likely to be visited by diplomatic units such as thieves than an army. Building an army
will also make you raise your tax rates which will hamper your growth early on. Upgrading your barracks though is a good idea when you have a chance. When you do decide to start your army the higher the level your barracks is the more troop types you are able
to research and build and the faster the training times. Also the level of your barracks equates to the number of skills you can research for your commanders to allocate when they level up with enough experience. I go more in depth into troops and commanders
in my 'Military Guide' which I may post at a later date.
7) Research Arcana and build a Mage Tower
As I just mentioned there are elements of the player base in Illyriad less friendly to newer players and magic is your best defence to start at the start of the game, and even in later stages when you become larger.. Once you have built your Mage Tower you
can research your first school of magic. Please note the following magic school order is a guide only and not "Do it this way or you will perish!" That being said myself and others STRONGLY recommend the order given.
Currently there are three schools of magic you can research, these being Blights, Geomancy and Runes. As I am typing up the rewrite of this guide however, in early July 2011, we are lead to believe by the game developers that there will be an imminent release
of up to a further seven schools of magic. For the moment though it is just the three and you should research Runes first, Geomancy second and finally Blights.
Runes are your first cheapest defense against enemy units and are effective at all stages of the game. There are three types of Rune Spells. The first type are horror spells and they scare away hostile diplomatic units, with the exception
of scouts and spies, and sends them packing with their tail between their legs back to their owner without killing them. The second type are killing spells. These will indiscriminately kill any hostile diplomatic force sent against your city,
again with the exception of scouts and spies, and leaves their magic scared corpses scattered in front of your city. The final type are seeking spells. These are specialised killing spells allowing you to specify exactly what type of diplomatic
unit you want your mages to target if attacked and with these you can kill scouts and spies if you so wish. With seeking spells you get more kills per spell but you can only target one troop type at a time and cool off times for the spells are fairly long
if cancelled before you can recast a new one. If you have a seeking spell raised for thieves and you are visited by saboteurs the enemy mission will be successful unless you have sufficient diplomatic troops for defence. Try to stick to the killing spells
to start with as destroying enemy units is the best deterrent for attacks. The killing spells in order from weakest to strongest are Mark of Slaying, Death Rune, Killing Glyph, and Ward of Destruction.
Many of you will be tempted to research Geomancy as your first magic school to further boost your basic resource production. DO NOT. Unfortunately with the influx of new players theft attacks on new players in particular are on the increase,
much to my and others disgust, and is probably down to the number of new player welcome packages being sent out. Runes are your best choice for your first school and if you want a magical boost to your resource production you will probably find an experienced
player willing to cast one for you in GC.
Blights have no use for you early in the game as they are an offensive school of magic used to sabotage other players resource production or resource storage. They are described by some as cowards magic but can be highly effective. I go more in depth into the
various magic spells available in my Guide to Magic which I may also post at a later date.
8) Marketplace
You need a marketplace to make caravans. Caravans ship goods to friendly cities, make trades in the market, and harvest resources that spawn on the world map.
Resource harvesting is very useful as you start the game and you can use it to subsidise your resource production. Harvestable resources are shown on the world map as one of a wood, clay, iron, stone, food or gold icon the same as those on the resource bar
at he top of the screen surrounded by a white circle. Newly spawned resources can contain amounts exceeding 3000 to be collected by your caravans. To harvest these click on the square on the world map the icon is and select 'Harvest Resources' from the pop-up
menu list. On the following screen select how many caravans you wish to send to the node.
When you find resources on the world map you may see another circle to the left of it. This will be a caravan already harvesting and the colour denotes your relationship with its owner. A green circle is one of your own caravans, a blue circle denotes a caravan
either belonging to a member of the alliance to which you belong or to which you alliance has positive relations with, a yellow circle will belong to a member of an alliance you have no diplomatic relations with and finally a red circle is a caravan belonging
to an alliance you have hostile relations with.
If you send caravan(s) to nodes where harvesting is already occurring then yours will send those harvesting there already back to their original city without getting a full load allowing you to harvest what remains there or filling your caravan(s). These interruptions
are called 'bumping' by the community and although it is accepted that it is part of the game I would not recommend deliberately sending your caravans to locations already being harvested.
9) Diplomatic Defence
Most likely a new player will suffer attacks from diplomatic units before armies. Diplomats are anonymous unless captured and prisoners successfully interrogated unlike armies which identify the attacker when sent. Your first defense against enemy Diplomats
are your Runes so ensure you have a powerful one cast (see section 7) at all times. Second build your own force of diplomats. Put simply your diplomatic forces can stop enemy diplomats but your defending force needs to be about 50% the size of the attacking
force to be effective. Also only diplomats of the same type stop enemy; i.e. thieves stop thieves, scouts stop scouts etc. If you are being continuously thieved there is no point having hundreds of scouts there to try to defend because it is literally having
no effect. You train diplomats in your consulate and much like your barracks the higher the level the more types and the more advanced the diplomat you can research and build. Each diplomat type comes in a basic and advanced tier. The basic tier units are
good at defense whilst the advanced ones have better offensive and movement statistics.
10) Attacked
While a new player if you are attacked either by diplomats or military please come on to GC and speak up. Many of the older veterans do not like to see new players attacked and will render aid as they deem appropriate to the situation at the time whether its
giving advice, replacing lost resources, talking to other alliance leaders on your behalf or in very extreme circumstances destroying the offending player completely.
11) Alliances
You do NOT need to join an alliance right away. Often people come into global chat ask to join an alliance and within a minute you will receive a half dozen invites without ever having said a word to one another. These are most probably alliances
you do not want to join. You will be happier in an alliance that suits your personality so if you are interested in joining an alliance then take your time and learn about the various alliances. See how their members act in GC... It probably speaks volumes
as to their ethos.
12) City Relocation
Do NOT move your capital until you are very close to settling your #2 city. This gives you time to become more acquainted with world of Illyriad, its community and your own play style so that you can relocate your capital as wisely as possible.
This advice holds even if you have joined an alliance (or especially if you have). There are plenty of people willing to give advice on what makes a good spot but at the end of the day you have to be happy with where you move your capital too. If you join
an alliance prematurely and move your city to be next to that alliances cities, you are severely limiting your future options to join other alliances that are a potentially better fit at a later.
13) Daily Log in Bonus
Thanks to the generosity of the Illyriad staff you can claim a free bonus every 24 hours when you log in. This is claimed from the front page of the Illyriad Herald which is the screen that automatically loads when you log on the game. If the 24 hours has not
expired from your last claim when you log in you can always go back to it later via the satellite button off the world map at a later time. You have a choice of claiming:
- 1 prestige to be credited to your account
- 500 wood to be delivered to a town of your choice
- 500 clay to be delivered to a town of your choice
- 500 iron to be delivered to a town of your choice
- 500 stone to be delivered to a town of your choice
- A resource bundle consisting of 100 of each resource to be delivered to a town of your choice
Although the developers will probably hate me for saying this I would recommend claiming the prestige everyday the reason being that you can use it to do a great many things in the game. Please don't let this free prestige stop you from supporting the game
and buying extra prestige though. If you are desperate for resources though do consider claiming them, as with distances and travel times in the game it can take a while for even the veteran player to send their surplus to you to aid your construction and
gaming experience to reach you. The best thing about this free bonus is that everyone can gather and use prestige even if they do not buy it.
14 Buiding Your Second City
Once you hit 450 population in your first city you will be ready to settle your second city. To do this you must first have completed 'Pioneering' city research which costs 1200 RP and takes about 12 hours to complete. You can actually complete this research
very early in your gaming experience, however you may struggle to do so unless you have been sent a large amount of books. Once you have completed this research you should start training your settler as soon as possible. They cost 15000 gold, 8 horses, 20
beer and 10 saddles each to produce and require 4 days to train! Don't leave yourself having acquired the required population but having to wait a further 4 days to found your second city. Also if your are considering relocation of your capital
now would be the time to do it before you send your settler.
15 Population Growth
The common misconception seems to be if you continuously upgrade your farms your population will increase by itself over time... WRONG! Every building has a food upkeep value. This can vary from 0 p/h for low level buildings to nearly 1500
p/h for buildings at their maximum level. Basically the higher a buildings food upkeep the greater the population it provides for your city. High food consumption buildings, therefore high population buildings, include the consulate, mage tower, common ground
and paddock. If you are looking for a quick boost in population those are some of the buildings to consider but be sure to keep an eye on your food production though and build farms as needed.
16 Library and Research
You need your library to produce research points and also complete research. If you are lucky an older player will send you some books you can convert to research points in a care package. This will enable you to research at the start without having to wait
for points to amass. You should aim to get you library up to about level 12 as quickly as possible. At this level you can produce enough research points to research continuously. If you time your builds and researches completely you can do this after accepting
no more than 100 books. You can boost your research points by either visiting the Temple of Reason early in the game or completing the Ancestral Lineage Mystery at any point.
New Player Q & A
When am I no longer considered a new player?
Different people consider your new player status ending at different times. Some will consider you veteran enough after your new player protection expires after 5 days. For others its when you construct your second or third city. Others still will say you never
stop being a new player. For me your definitely stop being being new when your population reaches 1000 regardless of the number of cities you own. If you use prestige early in the game to boost your population to this level you could swiftly end up regretting
it as although your city will have moved along swiftly other important aspects of your game will not have. For classification purposes we tend to use newbie/newb to describe a player new to the game and learning the ropes and noobie/noob as a derogatory description
for a player who either does not learn even the simplest of game functions after several weeks or does something really stupid.
How do I make my population grow?
This is a common question asked in Global Chat and believe it or not asked a lot by people who have just read the Tips for New Players too. I can only assume people are a selective readers. Refer to section 15 for an in depth answer to this question.
Can I cancel build or research items in my queues?
No. There is no way to cancel build or research items you have put into your queues not even by using prestige or petitioning the developers.
Can I speed up research?
Again no. There is no game mechanic enabling you to speed up research times not even through use of prestige. The time stated for completion of the research is the time it takes so make sure you choose carefully. This provides a useful restriction to keep the
proverbial real life billionaires from 'speed building' cities. Even with unlimited prestige cities can only grow as fast as the pace of research.
What should I research?
"Timekeeping" should be your first research item as it opens up a large section of the city research tree immediately you need for many of the buildings you can construct. As said above for Magic research"Arcana" then "Runes". To open
up the trade research tree research "Haggling" to allow you to have a marketplace and caravans for quests and harvesting. "Negotiation" is a wise early research to allow construction of the consulate and then later diplomatic units such as
scouts. To build your barracks and open up the military research tree for various troop types, tactics and commander skills "Militia" must be completed. Once you have caravans and scouts you may want to do quests so research first "Brewing" to
allow construction of a brewery to produce beer and "Bartending" to build a tavern to receive quests. Once done you can research firstly "Trade Contacts" allowing you to accept trade quests using caravans, then secondly after your tavern
is upgraded to level two "Diplomatic Contacts" to accept diplomatic involving scouts. The massive "Sovereignty" research tree should be low priority unless you have nothing else to research.
Can I speed up building construction?
Yes, but as I mentioned I'd be very wary of doing so constantly for a few reasons at an early stage of the game. Firstly its not really cost effective on the prestige use. You are gifted 50 prestige when you begin by the all powerful Illyriad Gods and this
can quickly get used up insta-building or boosting resource production. To continuously insta-build you would need to exploit the kindness of the veterans to be constantly sent basic resources which in some cases will upset them and get you a swift visit from
their diplomatic forces. I once saw a new player who had constantly built up his storehouse and warehouse since joining the game ignoring all other buildings and asked to be sent 300k of each resource... As you can imagine the response he got wasn't very polite.
Use some common sense and upgrade your storage to a decent level, say till it holds 10k, then work on your resources. Also with insta-build although your city population is rising quickly the research falls behind as will advanced resource production which
will have a knock on effect on diplomatic/military/settler unit production, unless you can find a kind veteran or two as a benefactor. Later in the game when you have a decent foundation of resource production and research completed is when I would recommend
insta-building more. Firstly you have your foundations laid and secondly the build time for some of the higher level buildings can literally take days to complete.... Or as long as it takes to click the complete all buildings in queue button.
Where do I find Quests?
I'm not going to tell you.... Only joking! What sort of Q & A guide would it be if I didn't! Quests can be found via the bottom satellite button off the world map; i.e. hover your mouse over the far left icon at the top of the screen. Here will be displayed
trade and diplomatic quests, if your prestige account is active there will be two of each otherwise only one. The cost either one or two barrels of beer to accept and you must then either dispatch goods or scouts to a given location within the given time scale.
The rewards vary from quest to quest and some are worthwhile others are not worth turning your computer on for. I will endeavour to publish my own comprehensive quest list in the very near future which tell you what is needed, what the reward is and how worthwhile
I consider completing it. Quests do produce two random research 'discoveries' though which are randomly dropped after completing and both well worth gaining in all your towns.
How do I make books to make more research points?
This is a common misconception by new players that books are required for research but this is not so. Books will provide a boost you your available research points (RP) if you use the Reading Room to convert them, keeping your research queue busy, however
it is the library which produces RP. The higher the library level the more research points are produced an hour. Other than boosting your research books are also used in the training of diplomatic troops, casting of spells and manufacture of siege blocks.
Another misconception is than manufacturing books in your bookbinder will help boost your store of RP, again this is not true. Books cost 25 RP to produce but only convert back into 20 RP. The reason for this is what I call the 'brain drain factor' in that
if I have an understanding of something and explain it not all of that information can be translated across and some is lost.
What are the purple/pink circles on the world map?
You will see animals/monsters and army encampments on the world map that have a purple/pink circle around them. These are Non-Player Combatants (NPCs) and are static targets for players to kill. The squares on which they spawn are referred to as NPC nodes and
there are many different types. They do not attack you and can be ignored if you wish. If you do want to attack them you should scout them before you send armies to them to ascertain numbers and troop types. Every six hours the NPC nodes respawn either a new
NPC or resources for harvesting. An example of one of these nodes is -113|-111. I go more in depth into the various NPCs in my 'NPC Guide & Bestiary' which several of us have tried posting without success on the forums several times. You should hope
to see it in the near future in the forum if indeed it is not there already.
Can I attack other players to boost my available resources?
All players are free to attack whoever they wish but you must be willing to reap what you sow. GC and the forums are full of daily doses of drama of people attacking active players and not liking the consequences afterwards. You will see many towns on the world
map near you that have zero or very little population. If a population remains zero for more than 15 minutes it means that the player quickly decided that Illyriad was not what they expected and quit right away and if a population is ten or less and stays
that way for a few days you can assume they never even completed the tutorial. Once the player protection has been lifted from this inactive account all players are free to attack and "farm" the inactive city for resources. A zero pop city will produce a meager
amount of fresh resources for only 1 week but a city with a population of one or greater will continue to produce resources for 4 weeks. It goes without saying that the higher the population of a city the more you should expect it to produce and hold for farming.
A word of advice though and avoid attacking any player in an alliance... Their colleagues may just decide to exact extreme revenge on you.
How can I tell if I'm under attack?
You will know if armies or diplomatic units you see on the map are hostile to you because they will be coloured red and also you will see a red box with a number in it on the right side of either your Military Overview (Axe
Icon) or Diplomatic Overview (Rose Icon) buttons at the top of the game screen. Also you will see a red progress bar in your 'Next Events' box on the right-hand side of the screen. Note that you have very short alert notice of hostile
diplomatic units, perhaps just 15 minutes or less at early stages of the game.
What are trolls as I hear constantly mentioned about in GC?
One of two things. Either the not so cute and cuddly NPC type that roams around the central areas of the map or more likely a particularly nasty player in the game. Any player has the potential to turn into a troll and in definition they are people who post
inflammatory, extraneous or off-topic messages in global chat or the forums with the primary intent of provoking readers into an emotional response or of otherwise disrupting normal on-topic discussion. If you see a troll in GC or the forums the best thing
you can do is either ignore them or block them in chat. Trolls feed off reaction and quickly become bored and move on if ignored and nobody talks to them. We have a saying "DNFTT" in Illyriad... Do Not Feed The Trolls!
What are Mysteries?
Mysteries are special sites around the world map which when visited correctly can give you an added gaming boost. There are currently five mysteries I am aware of only three of which the community has solved. These mysteries are:
- The Ancestral Statue Mystery (Solved)
- The Steamtastic Brewery (Solved)
- The Temple of Reason (Solved)
- The Heart of Corruption (Unsolved)
- The Fortune Teller Mystery (Unsolved)
There may well be further ones out there, in fact I would guarantee there are others hidden somewhere. I will cover mysteries at a later date either with another post myself or links to links to others how have.
I am an elf, should I bother building a forge?
Yes. Elves should try to build at least a level five forge even though they do not use plate armor at all. This is because it also opens up a small branch of the sovereignty research tree and it will also be another building producing something which has value
on the marketplace where there was nothing producing before. In fact plate armor would in fact be an excellent export item for an elf and if the prices are good they might even consider upgrading it further.
I've a game/technical problem nobody in GC can help with. What do I do?
Abandon all hope... Only kidding. You have three options. Stay in global chat and keep telling everyone your story every five minutes hoping someone can help. Your could post a new thread in the forums where again people can see your problem. You may get a
lucky response or it may be noticed by a developer to get a proper response but most likely it won't. Or finally you could open an petition with the developers detailing your problem and get a proper response with no hassle. This is the preferred method of
reporting problems.
What happens when I have negative food production then run out of food?
Your city starves and dies! Well not quite but it does shut down. If your food storage reaches zero you will not be able to start any advanced resource queues, any research, cast any spells or build anything other than new/upgrade farms until you have food
in storage again. Keep an eye on food production and if it goes negative build a farm or two immediately. At the start of the game its very hard to keep food in the posititve but as you progress you will have to upgrade farms less frequently.
Why is my basic resource production positive but storage amount red?
Easy answer is that your storage is full and anything produced when the amount stored is red is lost forever. Either expand your storage capacity by upgrading you storehouse/warehouse, set off some advance resource production or new building construction queue,
or send resources to another city/player.
What is this 'sovereignty' I keep hearing players talking about?
Oh boy... Saved the most difficult one for last have you. Sovereignty is one of the most difficult aspects of the game to understand and there are people who have played the game since it was introduced who do not have a clue about it. Ask a person in GC about
sovereignty and the odds are you will get told a load of hogwash which sounds good but is in fact complete and utter rubbish. In the simplest description possible Sovereignty is the extending your empire outside the walls of your city, getting the denizens
of these squares to bend to your will and support your city. It has high upkeep costs even at low levels and therefore is not something to consider claiming until your city is very well established but should be in your mind when finding a location for founding
new cities. You can find plenty of details about the subject in my 'Guide to Sovereignty.'
Welcome to the Not-So-Newbie Guide!
(or the Newbie Guide Part 2)
So you're a week in and past the help that the Newbie Guide gives, but you're not quite sure about some of the more advanced topics in Illy. Well this will serve as your one-stop shop for the post-newbie help topics.
One note: The following topics are highly dependent upon what you want to do and many choices will be left for you to make, this is just to help you understand what is going on and what your options are.
1) Building
So you've been building up your res and storage and are ready for something else. Yeah, res building can be boring, but now comes the fun stuff! But what to build first? Welcome to your first major decision in Illy. You'll need to ask yourself: What do I want to do, what do I want this town to specialize in? Towns have a limited build space, you only get 23 plots (25 including the Paddock and Common Grounds) but you have an available 44 buildings to choose from. So you cannot build everything.
Well, first off you should focus only on T1 buildings (most T2 buildings have a res upkeep that you don't want to pay at this point). Buildings to focus on include: Library, Mage Tower, Barracks, Consulate, Marketplace, and Architect's Office. Once those are up and you have several research unlocked you can focus on some production buildings such as the Common Grounds, Paddock, Saddlemaker and Book Binder (there are several others you could build as well).
If you are trying to work on your population the best buildings are: Consulate, Common Grounds and Paddock (these are both useful and give good pop increases while remaining cheaper and quicker than other buildings).
T2 Buildings to avoid early on (because of res upkeep): Foreign Office, Thieves' Den, Saboteurs' Sanctuary, Assassins' Abode, Spies' Hideout, Scouts' Lookout, Runemasters' Grounding, Geomancers' Retreat, Spearmens' Billets, Infantry Quarters, Cavalry Parade Grounds, Archers' Field, Arctic Warfare College, Desert Warfare College, Jungle Warfare College and Chancery of Estates.
A bit of advanced advice: Don't build up your Storehouse past level 15. Once you get it to level 15 you can research the building Warehouse, which gives more storage per level, plus once you have all of your build plots full, the Storehouse is one of the buildings you could replace (if you choose to).
Last note: These are general good goals to set for building early on (these building levels will unlock research items that are useful). Resource plots level 7, Storehouse level 15, Library level 10, Consulate level 5, Mage Tower level 11, Marketplace level 10, Barracks level 11.
Links on Building:
HonoredMule's Unofficial Illyriad Wiki: http://arcanum-illyria.com/wiki/Building_Charts
2) Relocation/Exodus
So you've been building up your res, you may have found an alliance, your area is too crowded (or some other reason) and you wanna move your town? You can and there are a couple ways to do so, however, you shouldn't right now. You should be at, or very close to, 450 pop before moving. But you should also have that Settler ready to go! In order to settle your second town, you'll need 1 Settler. Settlers can be trained in the castle after you research the Pioneering research. NOTE: allow 12 hours for the research and 4 days for the Settler. You should begin work on your settler around 300-350 population, that way it will be complete when you hit that 450 requirement mark.
Now that you're at (or almost) 450 pop and have that Settler ready, you have some options at hand. First do you want to move to a different area of the Illy world? If so, you have 2 choices. Send that Settler somewhere and follow with the free 1 time use spell Tenaril's Spell of Ultimate Teleportation (found in the castle – relocation tab) or you can send the Settler and once it lands (and you have that second town) you can use Exodus to move. The spell is free and instant, but you can only use it once. Exodus is much more expensive, but you can (if you so choose) perform it multiple times, however it will cause all buildings above level 12 to de-level down to level 12.
So what should you do? Exodus or Spell? Another important choice. One strategy is to use Exodus with your capital so that you can grab a 7 food plot and then use the Spell to put yourself in the area you want to be. Exodus is a quite advanced topic and there are other guides discussing this. There are some links at the end of this guide detailing moving/settling.
Links on City Movement:
Where Do I Put My City? A Guide to Real Estate by Rill: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/where-do-i-put-my-city-a-guide-to-real-estate_topic3623.html
Guide to Exodus by Cerex Flikex: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/guide-to-exodus_topic3593.html
3) Collecting goods from the map
So there are basically 5 Tiers of items in Illyriad.
T1 are the basic res: wood, clay, iron, stone, food, gold
T2 are the advanced res: horses, cows, beer, books, spears, swords, bows, saddles, armor (leather, chain, plate) and siege engines
T3 are the basic materials gathered by cotters: NON-rare minerals, herbs, hides and grapes
T4 are the rare materials gathered by miners, skinners and herbalists: RARE minerals, herbs and hides
T5 are the equipments produced for troops/commanders: Special horses, weapons and armor
Basic Harvesting
There's a second way to attain more basic res: harvesting. To do this you'll need a Marketplace and some Caravans. You can train Caravans from the Market, each van requires 1 horse and some gold. Once you have your vans, you'll need to search around the World Map for some resources. The easiest way to locate them at first is to 'uncheck' the boxes on the bottom, uncheck the “Sovereignty”, “Moving Units” and “Terrain” boxes, as well as the Labels boxes: “Regions”, “Towns” and “Hubs” (if those are in the way). What you're left with is towns, encampment and resources. Now just look around and you'll (hopefully) find some resources, which look just like the pictures in your resources bar. Now the tricky part, you want to find one that does not have a caravan there. If you see a caravan there that means someone else is harvesting there and you shouldn't go there. Once you find an empty resource on the map, click it and then click the option “Harvest Resources”. You'll get an option to send some Caravans, send however many you have and they'll march off and gather that res for you!
Advanced Harvesting
There are other items to gather on the map beside basics. Basic materials are gathered by Cotters, which are trained in the Cottages. Rare materials are gathered by special units, Miners gather rare minerals; Skinners gather rare skins dropped by defeated mobs; Herbalists gather rare herbs. These materials are used in crafting special equipment for your commanders and troops. There are a myriad of items you can create (all unlockable from research) that all have different effects when equipping, such as raising attack on certain terrain or biomes or increasing the marching speed of the troop. For more detailed info see the links below.
Links on Harvesting:
Step by Step Guide to Harvesting Resources by Mara Zira: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/step-by-step-guide-to-harvesting-resources_topic2290.html
Gathering: The Basics by Rill: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/gathering-the-basics_topic3951.html
4) Advanced Resources
Once you have a good supply of res coming in, it's time to start working on some advanced resources, which are used to trade off or train units with. The most common and needed resource in the game is Cows. This is because they are used in the making of Saddles, which tend to be a bottle-neck in production (that is a town making Cows and Saddles will not be able to make enough Cows to keep up production at 100%, and you need Saddles for many important and useful units). There are several different advanced resources to build in your town and you can attempt to build all of them from one town, however, in later stages of the game, you may find that it is easier and more efficient to focus on only a few per town.
Early things to start producing are Cows, Horses, Spears, Saddles, Leather Armor and Beer. These come from buildings that can be researched without any prerequisites (Cows and Horses don't even need any research). As I said, Cows tend to trade well in the market, but they are also a very important part of your personal production, because of this, you shouldn't trade off 100% of your cows on the market (unless that is what you wish to do).
Later items to make are Bows, Swords, Chain Armor, Plate Armor and Books. The last advanced resource is siege blocks, and these are used for sieges, more on that later. All of these adv. res have many uses (unless you're an elf, then you don't need Plate Armor ever) and are nice to have a back-up stockpile of.
Links on Advanced Resources:
Trading For Dummies by Squill: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/trading-for-dummies_topic2648.html
5) Defense
You don't need to worry about being totally wiped out in Illy (not unless you are really really rude). However, there are players who like PvP or who just want to steal your res. Most likely your first encounter will be in the form of Diplomats (diplos) doing something sinister in your town. Don't panic, it's not the end of the world. There are things we can do to help prevent this from re-occurring over and over.
First and most effective is Runes, you need a Mage Tower and some research. The research you're looking for is Runes and should be the first “school” of magic you research. The spell you want is Mark of Slaying, you'll find it under the Runes research tree. Once researched find the Cast Spell (lightning bolt) satellite under the Magic Seal (looks like a bluish orb). Click on Mark of Slaying (or an advanced form if you're further along). This will open up and show you a whole page of stats. Most importantly you'll note the casting cost. You'll need some basic res, mana, a book and a cow. Click Prepare Spell and there ya go. You have an active rune in your town, the next hostile units that arrive will be blasted to oblivion!
A secondary defense measure you can use is to build a Vault for a couple levels (max level 3). This will keep a handful of your resources from being stolen, however, you should note that most players advise you to not build this up too high as you may later replace it with a more useful building.
If that isn't working, then you may have a more serious problem and should seek help through GC or people you have met.
Links on Defense:
Basic Self Defense for New Players by Rill: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/basic-self-defense-for-new-players_topic2368.html
6) Magic
Yes, you've already learned about Runes, but there's more to Magic than just Runes (though Runes are the most useful school of magic!). First there are 3 schools of magic: Runes, Blights and Geomancy. Runes are defensive and Blights are offensive, while Geomancy is for economic boosts.
Runes have 3 classes: Destruction, Seeking and Fear. The most useful Runes to have cast in your towns at all times are Destruction Runes (Mark of Slaying, Death Rune, Killing Glyph, Ward of Destruction). Destruction Runes are so useful because they will hit armies, thieves, saboteurs and assassins (they will not trigger on scouts or spies). Seeking Runes (Mark of Seeking, Seeking Rune, Seeking Glyph, Ward of Intentions) are useful for when you know a specific type of Diplo unit is heading for your town. They hit for harder but will only activate on a specific unit type (scout, spy, thief, saboteur, assassin). Fear Runes are absolutely worthless. They will fail to do anything at all if the number of incoming units exceeds the number the rune can handle. NEVER EVER CAST FEAR RUNES!
Blights are used during war and aggression. They limit the res production of enemy towns or destroy the advanced resources stored there. These are not to be used casually! If you would like to test them out, use them on an alt account or ask some friend if you can cast on them. THE CASTING OF ANY OF THESE SPELLS COULD START A WAR!
Geomancy spells are good for boosting your economic output. These spells boost your towns res production (there are ones for Wood, Clay, Iron, Stone and Food). Typically you will have food boosts (Spirit of Nourishment, Gift of Nourishment or Nature's Bounty) cast in each of your towns.
Last note on magic: You can only cast 1 Rune and 1 Geomancy boost at a time per town. You cannot cast both a Destruction Rune and a Seeking Rune, nor can you cast Nature's Bounty and Gift of Nourishment.
Links on Magic:
Step by Step Guide to Using Illy Magic by Mara Zira: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/step-by-step-guide-to-using-illy-magic_topic2456.html
7) Diplos
There are 5 different diplo units that you can train at the Consulate, and each has a special use: Scouts, Spies, Thieves, Saboteurs and Assassins. Besides these there is another special unit called a Messenger which is a consumable unit. These are used to send to a camped army so that you can change their orders (usually used to bring them back home). All diplo units can be used defensively to stop their own type of enemy diplo unit from succeeding in your town (the same works for your enemies) and have an upkeep cost of gold.
Scouts are used to gain information about army sizes and unit types. These get sent to NPC groups in order to learn exact unit types and numbers so that you can better plan how to attack them (what units you should send and how many). You can also figure out how many troops an enemy city (or inactive) has stationed there, as well as commanders and their levels.
Spies are used to gain information about enemy towns (or inactives). They will tell you what buildings are built and what levels each are at. The spies also find out how many resources (both regular and advanced) are being stored at a town. Both scouts and spies are immune to Killing Runes but can be targeted by Seeking Runes (also, enemy scouts will try to stop scouts and spies will stop spies, the same goes for all diplo units).
Thieves are used to steal resources from enemy towns. T1 Thieves can only steal basic resources (wood, clay, iron, stone, food) while T2 Thieves can steal anything and everything. Thieves do trigger Killing Runes. Thieving from a player is considered an act of war, so do so with caution.
Saboteurs are used to cancel the current build order in a town (some of the res used to build that structure will be returned to the building player). Like Thieves, Sabs trigger Killing Runes and are considered an act of war.
Assassins are used to kill the army commanders of enemies. If they successfully infiltrate a town that has a commander there, they will kill him, which causes leaderless, non-functioning armies. Of course, the use of assassins are considered an act of war and they will trigger any active Killing Runes.
Links on Diplos:
Questions about Thieves by Mandarins31: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/questions-about-thieves_topic1462_page1.html
8) Mysteries
Illy is full of mysteries, literally! Some of them have been solved through long hours of searching and cooperative brainstorming.
The wiki has solutions for the 3 solved mysteries: http://arcanum-illyria.com/wiki/Mystery. 2 of these are worthwhile for your towns: Steamtastic Brewery and Heroic Human Statue, and should be completed in each of your towns (yep, you have to do them more than once!).
There are also many unsolved mysteries: The Rift, The Misted Lands, The Heart of Corruption, Fortress of Shadows, Duraz Karag, The Mysterious No Food Zone, The Other No Food Zone and the Fortune Tellers (I can't put a link to these because they move around every day).
There are alliances wholly dedicated to working out these mysteries.
9) Armies
This is the meat of Illy strategy and not something that can easily be covered in any one guide. So, I will give a brief explanation on the workings of armies and let you experiment and research on your own.
To start with the basics, armies are made up of 1 or more commanders and any number of units. There are 4 different units in Illy, each with 2 tiers: Infantry, Ranged, Spears and Cavalry. These are all trainable from the Barracks, however you first must complete research for them all. Each unit has a different cost in advanced resources and have an upkeep cost of gold.
Once you have trained some units you will need to promote one into a commander, go to the Commanders satellite under the Military Seal. Form up an army (go to the Armies satellite) by assigning 1 or more commanders and then transferring troops from the town pool to the army. Now you can begin gaining experience for your commander(s). I will link some guides on Armies below.
Links on Armies/Commanders:
Advanced Attacking: a work in progress by Innoble: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/advanced-attacking-a-work-in-progress_topic3506.html
Everything you need to know about commanders by Fluffy: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/everything-you-need-to-know-about-commanders_topic2742.html
10) Sieges
Sieging is a section of military/armies and the point of this is to attack enemy (or inactive) towns with the intention of utter destruction or capture. When a siege is conducted on a town, the siege engines will attack the town's buildings in an attempt to reduce their levels. Once a town's population has been decreased to 25% of it's total pop when the siege began, the besieger is given the option to Raze or Capture. Razing a town completely destroys it while Capturing will hand the town's ownership to you. However, in order to capture a town the player must first have the ability to have a new town (you must have the current pop requirement to settle a new town in order to capture). More specific details on Siege can be found in one of the linked guides.
In order to prep for a siege army, you first need to level up your Barracks to 20. This unlocks the Siege Encampment tech, which is necessary to conduct a siege. You also must be able to train T2 siege engines, which requires level 15 Barracks and the War Machines tech. Siege engines are built from the Barracks and require horses, gold and siege blocks.
Sieges get reported to GC when they land, alerting everyone who is being hit, what town is being hit, who sent the siege and from what town. Most of the siege reports that you see in GC are people either razing or capturing towns from inactive members. So, even though you will see siege reports every day, it's not really an exciting event.
I should not, however, that sieges are extremely hurtful. In a matter of hours, weeks of work can be erased and in a matter of days a player could be left with 0 population. For this reason, no one should take sieges lightly.
Links on Siege:
Seiging an abandoned town – are ther any how tos? by plum (scroll and find the post by Rill, detailed explanation on sieging): http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/seiging-an-abandoned-town-are-ther-any-how-tos_topic2620.html
11) Sovereignty
Now for the last, and arguably, most complex item in Illy. Sovereignty (sov) is the claiming of the land surrounding your town. Once you claim ownership of this land, you can build a specialized structure on that square that will boost some production in your town. What is boosted depends on what you build, and there are a lot to choose from. I will link more involved guides on sov, which I suggest you take a look at when you are finally ready to start claiming your little piece of Illy. Here I will give a brief overview.
Before you begin there are some things you should know about sov. First claiming land costs and upkeep of gold and research points. How much depends on the distance from your town and level of sov claimed. Next, you could have an upkeep of res, depending on what structure you put there.
The first step to claiming sov is to send an army to the desired sq around your home. Since the further away you go, the more it will cost you, you should choose 1 of the 4 squares (sq) adjacent to your town for your first sov. Send the army and have it camp there for some number of days (this process will take awhile). Once the army lands you can begin claiming sov there. Once you reach level 1 of claiming, you can begin building there. Building on sov takes days and goes faster when you have an army camped there (this is why your army was set to camp for days).
There are 2 types of structures you can place on sov: Resource Structures and Production Structures. Resource structures provide a flat bonus to res production in your town, the amount of this bonus depends on the value that sq has in regards to that res (Plains have a value of 5 for each res, so a res structure will give a 5% bonus at level 5). Production structures give you a boost in production speeds for adv res or units, but these cost you an upkeep of basic res that increases every level. If you look around the map at the various squares, some of them will mention a +x% to some production. For example deer plots will give you a +1% Horse production per level of Farrier. For this sq, if you build a Farrier here you will get a larger bonus to horse production than if you build a Farrier elsewhere.
There is much more to sov than this, and you should really read more specific guides on Sov before attempting this on your own. It is a fairly complex game feature, but one that can really help your town out. Below are some links to good guides on Sov with more detail and more specifics.
Links on Sovereignty:
A Guide to Sovereignty by Manannan: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/a-guide-to-sovereignty_topic1939.html
Step by Step Guide to Claiming Sovereignty by Mara Zira: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/step-by-step-guide-to-claiming-sovereignty_topic2659.html
12) Random other items
Trading: When trading on the marketplace, sellers are shown at the top ranked in order by price/item, buyers are on the bottom also sorted by price/item. A market history is located above the sellers and can be changed to display various amounts of time.
Discoveries: There are an unknown number of Discoveries out there to be found. Currently we know there are 2 from Quests (1 from each type: Trade and Diplo): Block and Tackle which increases the load speed of vans while harvesting (from Trade quests) and Inquisitive Populace which increases the sight to hostile diplomats. When you finally settle your 10th town you unlock the Famine Management discovery which increases your food production in your captial by 10%. Lastly there are 2 from solving mysteries: Allembine Research, received from completing the Heroic Human Statues, which increases your research point income by 5 per library level (so a level 10 library will grant an extra 50 rp/hr) and Gnome-Brew, from completing the Steamtastic Brewery, which reduces the amount of food needed to produce Beer.
Quests: Building a Tavern and researching in the Quest tree can unlock quests. There are 2 types of quests that can be completed, Trade and Diplomatic. Each quest type has a hidden Discovery to find that gives your town a permanent bonus of some kind. To see what quests are available to you, locate the Scroll satellite under the World Map Seal. For more information on quests, see the link below.
Empire Development
The size of your empire is determined by your combined population levels from each of your cities. Each building constructed in a city increases that city’s population. In order to maintain the population, one must have equal amounts of food to support the population (either in hourly production, or in stock in the storehouse/warehouse) – food can be produced with farms, and can be increased with sovereignty. Once an empire has reached a certain population level, new cities can be obtained (450 pop = 2nd city, 2000 pop = 3rd city, etc) with a settler or by capturing an existing city with siege engines.
In order to reach 10 cities, your first 9 cities will have to have an average of 25,950 population each. The jump between city 10 and city 11 is another 30k required, with each subsequent city requirement growing a little more (from 11 to 12, 31k; from 12 to 13, 32k; and so on). This means, the most feasible way to reach a higher number of total cities (10+) is by placing almost all of your settlements onto tiles which offer 7 food plots, in addition to having a respectable amount of food sovreignty in the area to build farmsteads/fisheries.
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Resource Management
City # - Pop Required |
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