Newb Diaries

It seems like I'm posting this diary later every day.  Probably that is an artifact of my schedule rather than related to my growth as a newb.  But I have lots of stuff going on in Illy!

Yesterday I completed a level 1 consulate and a level 2 tavern.  I researched Scouting, Trade Contacts and Diplomatic Contacts and started to do trade quests.  I also built 5 scouts.  I really need 10 scouts to properly do diplomatic quests, but my gold income was only 5 per hour, so I decided to wait to build more scouts.  Upon further reflection overnight, I decided to build more this morning; I have plenty of gold stored to support a small deficit.

Since I had the scouts, I decided to check out the local rare herbs patches.  I sent 2 missions of 2 scouts each and 1 mission of 1 scout.  When I got up this morning, I discovered the one-scout mission had failed and did not return.  In my experience, there is somewhat high likelihood of this happening with only one scout.  I personally prefer to use 5 or more -- but I may not have that luxury as a new player.

Both successful scout reports turned up larken wood -- something that actually has a use!  It is pretty common and therefore not that valuable, but it could still be an income source.  Someone was harvesting one of the squares already, so I might hold off on that one (or discuss it with the person who was harvesting).  I sent a message to the player who has a city near the other square, asking if he would mind if I harvested and offering to share some of the proceeds.  We will see how he replies. 

 I started the Herbalism research just in case -- I have some confidence that I'll be able to find one or another rare herb to harvest in my neighborhood.  To build herbalists I'll need basic herbs and books.  Probably sometime today I should build a cotter.  I think it would make more sense to buy the books rather than make them in my bookbinder though.  I still need all my research points to do research -- a couple more library upgrades are needed before that's really humming.

My storehouse wasn't quite maxed when I got up this morning, but it was close!  So probably I should try to squeeze in another storehouse upgrade today.  My current hourly research production is -4 gold (with 10 scouts), 286 wood, 285 clay, 302 iron, 280 stone, 15 food and 45 research points.  I have 27,600 gold stored and 357 research points.

I already started building a level 8 quarry and a level 8 clay pit.  So my goals for today are 1) increase production of all resources over 300 per hour, 2) build at least two cotters and start harvesting basic herbs, 3) upgrade storehouse to level 8 and 4) upgrade library to level 9.  I might need to purchase some resources from the market in order to complete the library upgrade.

I upgraded my marketplace to level 8 yesterday and did the Reinforced Cartwheels research.  Now I have 10 caravans carrying 600 goods each.  

I started the upgrade to marketplace level 9 this morning.  In order to get the resources for marketplace level 10 today I will either need to buy some from the market or interrupt my building programme to wait for resources to accumulate.  I think I'd rather just keep building other things (like resources!) today and let resources accumulate overnight for the level 10 marketplace.  The build is only 3 hours long, which is perfect for my mid-day Illy break.

I cast my first rune today, a mark of seeking set against thieves.  I don't really need it since I have nothing to steal, but I like the idea of having even a small defense.  Speaking of nothing to steal, I notice I have 33 saddles, which is 3 more than my vault protects -- and I'm making one more.  So rather than keep them sitting around to be stolen, I sell 4 saddles for 5k gold.  Someone is getting a pretty good deal on saddles, but I don't really need them just yet.

I'm not all that excited about the research I have available; I would like to do Faction Markets but only have 1401 of the required 2000 research points.  I could wait to accumulate them, but since I don't have a bunch of stuff I want to protect, it's not really urgent, and waiting without researching seems like a waste of time.

So I research Agriculture -- also a waste of time, but it only costs 75 research points, and I will want to have milling eventually.  For my other research I debate between Chain Gang and Skinners Guild.  Caravan harvesting is pretty much a hobby for me now, so increasing the speed of caravan harvesting is not a big priority.  It would be fun to be able to harvest animal parts, but I am going to need to use all the books I can buy or barter for to build up my herbalists -- I've already found someone who is interested in Larken Wood once I build an Herbalists Guild.  What the heck, I research Skinners Guild anyway.

Speaking of herbs, I haven't gotten replies to my e-mails regarding the rare herbs, and they haven't been opened.  I think my neighbors near the herbs are inactive, and am going to risk harvesting there once I have my herbalists up and going.  So new goal for today: build an herbalists guild.

My cotters have been harvesting away earnestly.  I have collected 200 basic herbs (enough for 5 herbalists) and 92 hides so far.  I sent my cotters out for another round of herbs and hides.

Other than that, I think I'll be working some more on my resources and perhaps put another level on my architects office.  I need to start working on farms since I will be building things (like herbalists guild) that require a good bit of population.

My current hourly production is -2 gold, 353 wood, 352 clay, 380 iron, 351 stone, 13 food and 61 research points.  I have 910 research points (after setting my researches) and 12,288 gold stored, with 5000 more gold on the way from my saddle trade.

Another bust on trade quests today.  A group of cattle-drovers wants to trade me 20 cows for 7000 total resources.  I could probably eventually make a profit on that trade, but I need the resources to build my city!  So I think I will pass on that one.  My scouts are out industriously mapping the countryside for some elf almanac.  I just hope they get paid.

My trade research completed and I built 10 more caravans.  Now I have 20 caravans that can carry 600 goods each -- 12,000 total goods.  That should be plenty to help supply my new city when I build it.

I built an herbalists guild yesterday, but was busy building caravans and did not make an herbalist.  I have collected 500 herbs so far, enough for 12 herbalists -- but only have enough books for 2 herbalists.  May buy some more books on the market.  Still haven't gotten a reply to any of my queries about rare herbs.

I upgraded my barracks to level 5 yesterday, which unlocked a bunch of research.  Now I can build t1 infantry units, Occupy Territory, build spear units and recruit 2 commanders.  I'm researching t1 bows right now.  Later today I will start on the command portion and research forced march and heroism.  I'd like to keep pushing my barracks to level 11 so I can research t1 cavalry, but that will take quite a lot of resources.

I also upgraded my storehouse last night, to level 9, and a good thing, since I woke up with several resources maxed out this morning.  My hourly production is 0 gold, 473 wood, 479 clay, 467 iron, 474 stone, 12 food, 7 mana and 62 research points per hour.  I have 20,479 gold and 1,919 research points.

I also have 54 cows, the cow fairy having visited me overnight again.  My petition on the subject has been acknowledged but is unassigned.

Almost all my resource fields (except food) are now at level 8.  Resource costs for level 9 resources are steep -- an average of 1600 of each resource, or a bit less than 4 hours production for me.  My goal for today is to upgrade one resource of each type to level 9.  I started with iron mine and lumberjack, and still have enough resources to start a level 9 quarry when those are finished, so maybe it won't be too bad.  I might even put in a couple more levels of architects office later on today.

My goodness, Illyriad is abuzz with news of the new map to the south.  Perhaps instead of terraforming, my alt will explore this new land -- I'm glad I haven't yet sent out settlers!  Perhaps I should set some new ones cooking, with a goal of being able to Tenaril and settle two cities when Broken Lands opens.  That way I can continue this diary as a record of the opening of new lands.

Sounds like fun, no?  I am just sad that so many of my friends won't be able to participate because of the account limitations.

It seems I will need more beer in order to make 2 more settlers for my third city.  I start some cooking, as well as horses and cows.

Now, on to making my current city the best it can be.  I upgraded one of each resource to level 9 yesterday and upgraded the barracks to level 7.  I completed commander researches for heroism, forced march and accelerated healing, as well as ranged weapons.  Today I will complete more military researches.

I will upgrade one more of each resource to level 9 today and work on some mage tower upgrades -- I have a sense that runes will be VERY useful in Broken Lands.  Perhaps I should also prioritize my faction markets and trader resources.  Wouldn't want to be all alone in the wilderness without even a trader!

My hourly resource production is 0 gold, 583 wood, 536 clay, 522 iron, 530 stone, 48 food, 7 mana and 62 research points.  I have 22,012 gold and 1,273 research points.

I had another productive day in Illy yesterday.  The longer build times are starting to slow down my progress a little bit though.  For the first time, I am not very much limited by resources but instead by the length of builds.  So time to upgrade the architects office, right?  I managed to upgrade it to level 8 yesterday.

I didn't get as many of my other builds completed as I would have liked.  Did some resource upgrades and upgraded my consulate to level 3.  No progress on my barracks or mage tower though.  I will try to get one more level on each of those today. 

I did do one fairly long build yesterday, a level 10 farmyard.  That is giving me some extra food production to build higher population buildings like architects office, consulate and mage tower.  I also upgraded my storehouse to level 11; I can now store a little more than 10,000 of each resource.

 I need to keep making progress on consulate, mage tower and barracks in order to continue to unlock researches.  I've done most of the ones available in those areas without an upgrade, and the remaining researches I have available are not as important as unlocking new military and diplomatic units and new spell types.  I did complete the faction markets research yesterday as well as master scouting to make advanced scouts if I want.  

I also researched Sally Forth, which is comforting to have if someone sieges you.  Sure, mostly you just attack the siege camp from another city, but it's nice to have the sally option -- especially if I move to the Broken Lands where it might make more sense for people to reinforce the city directly from far away.

I never have as many cotters as I'd like, so first thing this morning I built 3 more cottages, to make a total of 6.  There is an unguarded grape patch near me, so in addition to setting at least one cotter to harvest herbs every day and sending others to hides when I can find them, I can send one or more cotters to harvest grapes.  I checked my inventory and I've managed to accumulate 306 hides, 1060 herbs and 70 grapes so far.  Not too bad!

I also made an herbalist unit and sent it forth yesterday to collect one whole unit of ancient oak.  Upgrading the herbalists guild to be able to make more herbalists is on the list -- maybe after I've unlocked a bunch of research opportunities by upgrading consulate, mage tower and barracks.

For now, I start the Finesse research and the Interrogation research.  That will last 14 hours, time enough to upgrade my mage tower to level 5 and research Principia Magica, unlocking the ability to study a second school of magic.  I think I will choose Geomancy.  That could be handy if I am pioneering down in the Broken Lands.  If I upgrade my mage tower to level 6, I can also do the Seeking Rune research.

My hourly resource production is 4 gold, 622 wood, 650 clay, 632 iron, 642 stone, 36 food, 19 mana and 85 research points.  I have 10,204 gold and 564 research points.