Shax
Greetings,
My name is Shax, founder and liege of the Riddlers of the Fox. I am a peace loving resident and explorer of Illyriad. Both me and my alliance are interested in the accumulation of knowledge about this world and I seek to build cities all over Illyriad in order to experience these different lands for myself.
I appreciate good manners and clear language in order to avoid misunderstandings. Other than that I have a love for sharp minds who seek to challenge both their neighbors and themselves.
If you happen to be my neighbor or are otherwise interested in communicating with me, feel free to send me a message, I will do my best to answer. If you are interested in trade, have questions about the workings of Illyriad or if you are founding a new city near one of my own and are in need of some quick resources, contact me and I will do my best to accommodate you.
Like most inhabitants of Illyriad, I abide by several unwritten rules and I ask current or future neighbors to adhere to these as well.
- Don’t settle closer than ten squares to one another’s’ cities without permission. This rule makes a lot of sense to me, for if you settle too close, both cities could be in danger of crowding each other once they start claiming sovereignty. If you do wish to settle closer than these ten squares, please ask permission first, of course I will offer others the same courtesy.
- Don’t hunt, occupy, harvest or claim sovereignty within five squares of one another’s cities without permission. I don’t really mind that much if someone harvests or hunts close to my cities and won’t make a big deal of this if someone does so (as long as you don’t exhaust certain rare resources such as rare herbs) Be aware however that my armies are actively hunting close to my cities and as such, accidents can happen. If you want to avoid such accidents where harvesters could be lost, please inform me of your harvesting efforts first. If in my haste to send out armies I hunt too close to your cities and you take offense to my presence, please let me know so I can be more careful in the future.
- I do mind other people’s armies occupying and claiming sovereignty within five squares of my cities however. If I notice such presence near my cities I will ask you to vacate my five squares, if you do not comply, your armies will be removed.
I have no wish for strife, so if you have any problem with me or my alliance, please contact me, so we might settle things diplomatically. I must say I have a love for eloquence, so please do not feel offended by my speech and in turn I will not condemn yours.
I hope to hear from anyone who is interested in peaceful contact and I wish all my fellow inhabitants of Illyriad a pleasant day.
Sincerely,
Shax
Liege of the Fox
A guideline for starting players
By all means, take from this guide whatever you want and leave the rest.
Early Development, Goals for your first town.
1) Go to the ‘castle page’ and turn your tax level to 0% to improve production of basic resources. In case you want to move your city, don’t use your ‘Tenaril Spell’! You will want to use ‘Exodus’ first so your city will be on a 7-food plot (‘Tenaril’ takes the plot underneath the city to the new location).
2) Next, you will need to secure a way to gain resources. There are three main ways of gaining resources.
- First is upgrading resource plots, this takes longest to achieve, and you might have to wait a lot before you have the resources you need for your next building. This will eventually be the way for your cities to gain their resources, but you might want to prioritize constructing other buildings first.
- Second is by buying them on the market. As a starting player you can earn money by using cotters to gather herbs, minerals, hides etc. on the map and sell them on the market. This money can then be used to buy the resources you need. Another way of earning money at this stage is ‘terraforming’ (this is also the best way for new players to earn prestige). In case you are interested in ‘terraforming’, I will add a good guide below. This option is mostly used in combination with option 1.
- The third and fastest way of gaining resources is to ask other players to send them to you. There are many players willing to help out new players and they usually don’t ask anything in return (these basic resources mean very little for veteran players).
3) Assuming you chose resource option three, you want to prioritize storage. Research ‘timekeeping’ and ‘pioneering’ while you are building your ‘storehouse’ up to level 15. When the research is complete build a ‘warehouse’. Try to keep research going as much as you can while waiting for other research options to open up.
4) Ask for resources in ‘Global Chat’ (GC), or if you have already joined an alliance, in ‘Alliance Chat’ (AC). When asking for resources, be sure to be polite and mention how much you can currently hold in your city. You can also ask specific people for resources, but be sure to ask people close by, as caravans might take days to arrive if they are sent from too far.
5) Upgrade resource plots with at least one of each up to level 7 to access further research.
6) Build your ‘library’ and ‘market’ to a minimum of level 4 (or a little higher) but don't bother with a ‘vault’ (the use of a ‘vault’ has been debated for a long time with people still disagreeing on the matter, but at least at this point you do not need it).
7) Build a few ‘cottages’ and then some ‘cotters’ and ‘caravans’ in the ‘market’. At this point (if you have done the appropriate research), you can start gathering and trading.
8) Start building your ‘library’ & ‘mage tower’ to unlock more research. Do research on your ‘runes’ and ‘geomancy’ spells. You can have one of each activated when your ‘mage tower’ is high enough to use them. The usual choices are a geomancy spell to boost food and a destruction rune to ward of attackers (although it is very doubtful anyone will attack you at this early stage).
9) As you approach 450 population (about 300+) build your first ‘settler’. If you are short on money or supplies, ask for what you need. ‘Settlers’ take a long time to build (4 days each) so if you are growing fast (when you use ‘prestige’ to rush construction (our alliance offers daily alliance prestige for starting players)) you should build it a little earlier. As you need an increasing number of ‘settlers’ for a higher number of cities, try to build several ‘settlers’ in your first few cities.
10) Build other buildings as you see fit but don't bother with troops at this point. They cost gold every hour and you do not need them yet.
11) You can build a ‘tavern’ and do some basic quests, but don't bother with the ones that need ‘scouts’ yet, as they cost gold every hour just like troops.
12) Avoid upgrading buildings past 12 at this point (except for storage). It is very likely you will move your first city at your earliest convenience and when you ‘exodus’ the city to a 7-food tile, all buildings are set back to 12 if they were higher. As such, try to level as many buildings to 12 as possible. If you want to hurry the settling of your second city, you can always make an exception and level a high population building (such as the ‘spearmaker’) to a higher level so you reach population 450 quicker. This way, you would lose a few levels on this building, but it could speed up your game a lot (especially if you use ‘prestige’ to rush construction).
Goals for 450-1000 Population
1) After reaching 450 population, you are ready for your second city. Send your ‘settler’ to a 7-food tile with other high food tiles close by. This will make it easier to grow big in the future when you start claiming ‘sovereignty’. If you are part of an alliance, you might want to settle the city close to the alliance so you can enjoy the full benefits of their help and protection. If you are not part of an alliance, look for a nice spot where you might want to settle your cities (for instance a spot where there is good hunting). Although you can always choose to move your cities in the future, this is a lot of work and will set you back significantly. So try to pick a good spot for your second city, as it is likely this will also be the general area where the rest of your future cities will be placed. Before settling the city, check if this is a good site and if there are no ‘land claims’ by alliances that might want to chase you away if you move there. The best way to check this is by asking someone in your alliance or someone else you trust. Be careful not to settle within 10 tiles of another player’s cities, as they might take offense to that. If you do want to move within 10 squares, always ask permission.
2) Build your ‘storehouse’ in your second city and make sure you find a steady source for resources. If you moved close to your alliance, it should be very easy for them to send you resources to your second city.
3) While following the same steps in your second city as you took for your first (buildings and research), your first city should focus on building your ‘warehouse’ up to level 20 so you can research ‘exodus’.
4) When the ‘exodus’ research is done, you can move your first city to a good location. You can do this through the ‘castle page’ of your second city and following all the rules that are set there (such as making sure all your units are back in your town). Be sure to use ‘exodus’ and not the ‘Tenaril spell’. You probably want your first city in the same area as your second city. There are two ways of doing this.
- You can ‘exodus’ your city to 7-food tile close to the current location. When it has reached the 7-food tile, you can use your ‘Tenaril spell’ to instantly teleport close to your second city (be sure to type the coordinates correctly as there are no do-overs). The advantage of this method is that it is very fast and you can start building up the first city quickly.
- You can ‘exodus’ your city to a 7-food tile in the area of your second city. This method may take a long time, as an ‘exodus’ moves slowly, but you will save the ‘Tenaril’ spell for a later moment. ‘Tenaril’ is a once/account ability, so most players would advise you save it for later.
Whatever option you choose, ask someone to look at the location you want to move to so they can confirm it is a good one.
5) After ‘exodus’ rebuild your storage back up, as it will have deleveled to 12.
6) At this point start building your two cities. Construct the buildings you want (including your resource buildings); do the research you find interesting; and explore the game. Ask as many questions as you need to and have fun. The ‘exodus’ part is rough, but once it is done, the game quickly gets more interesting, and you can start developing your own playstyle.
Goals for 1001-???? Population
1) At this point, you have some idea about the workings of the game, so explore the options as much as you want. Below are some things you might want to consider while exploring the game.
2) You should always keep an eye on growing your population so you may settle additional cities (3rd city at population 2000). To avoid needless waiting, always make sure you have ‘settlers’ standing at the ready to place the next city. If you want to grow your population, focus on constructing buildings that yield high population such as the buildings for ‘advanced resource’ production (‘common grounds’, ‘paddock’, ‘spearmaker’ etc. Not ‘brewery’ though), buildings that add a percentage to resource production (‘carpentry’, ‘kiln’ etc.) and the ‘tavern’/’consulate’.
3) As soon as you have a decent resource production, raise the tax rate so you have gold income (gold income is derived from the population your city has). This gold can be used for trade or to serve as upkeep for military and diplomatic units.
4) Do the appropriate research and build a small army (keep an eye on your gold income/upkeep). Promote a unit to commander and train your commander by attacking NPC’s. Ask questions in AC on the best way to approach this.
5) Do the appropriate research and build a number of ‘diplomatic units’. Use these units to do quests (‘scouts’), uncover discoveries (mostly ‘spies’) or to steal from your neighbors (‘thieves’).
6) Very important to remember is that using your armies or diplomatic units against other players will most likely elicit a response and they might attack you for it. Before using your units in this way, be very sure you are okay with the possible consequences. In addition, many alliances (including ours) do not permit these kinds of actions against others and the alliance might not help you out if you were the one to start hostilities without provocation.