This Illyrian Life

Anything and everything about Illyriad, the immersive online city-building MMO RPG.

[thisillyrianlife]

Diplomatic Units, This Time

Last time, I got in to the different types of military units.  Today, I want to do a quick overview of the diplomatic side.  The six types of diplomat are Scouts, Spies, Thieves, Saboteurs, Assassins, and Messengers.

Like military units, each unit has two tiers, except Messengers, who are kind of an oddball.  More on that later.  Generally, tier one units are cheaper to build and maintain for defensive use, while advanced units have better offensive stats, as well as additional functionality when used.  

Scouts are the first type of diplomat most players will build, and probably the most widely used in the game.  Scouts are basically there to tell you what is on a square and how much of it there is.  Troops, harvestable resources, or trade units, these are your guys and gals.  

Basic scouts are the cheapest diplomats in the game, and the best investment for keeping other players’ prying eyes away from your armies.  They are also up for most of your day-to-day scouting tasks.

Advanced scouts are a bit more suited to punching through another player’s defending scouts.  They also move faster and, when scouting a players town, in addition to telling you what armies are there, will tell you where that cities are and what they are doing.  This can be extremely important.  

Spies are used for looking in on other player’s cities.  They will tell you what buildings they have, what level they are at, and how many resources are present.  They are also useful in several of the known Mysteries.  

Basic spies are the most cost effective way to keep out spies, if that’s all you’re looking to do.  If you are looking for spie defense though, check out the Human Statues Mystery first.  

Advanced spies are specialized for infiltration, and will tell you what is being built and researched in a town in addition to the information from a basic spy.  This can be interesting, but rarely terribly useful.  Advanced spies also move faster than their first-tier counterparts.  

Thieves go to other cities and take their stuff.  That’s really pretty much all there is to it.  

Basic thieves have the chance to steal basic resources,  food, books, and beer from a target city.  They are also best suited to defending your own supplies.

Advanced thieves move faster, take more*, and can steal any basic or advanced resource, except for horses, cows, and siege blocks.  They can also steal food and gold.**

Saboteurs work to delay other player’s progress by stopping their building upgrades.  

Basic saboteurs delay building, and defend your own.  

Advanced saboteurs are tuned to attack,  and will sabotage a second building project and set back research as well.***

Assassins kill enemy commanders off the battlefield so your soldiers don’t have to fight them on it.  This can be pretty major, considering that a good commander can add a 10-15% bonus to an army.  

Basic assassins protect your commanders, and can take a shot at your opponents’ when the occasion calls for it.  

Advanced assassins move faster, are more specialized for attacking, and can kill an additional commander in each successful hit.  Both tiers have among the highest upkeep in the game, and are usually used in small numbers.  

Messengers are a weird one.  Their sole purpose is to bring your armies and harvesters orders to come home.  The main use of messengers is to deliver recall orders to armies, and maybe save a harvester here and there.  They don’t have stats, like all the other units, and they are one use diplomats that die after their ride.  Mostly you are not going to want to keep these on hand, as they are extremely expensive, and will want to just build a few when needed.  

Diplomatic units are useful both as a specialization and as a supplement to military forces.  The build from a different building than military units, the consulate, and so can add to the effect of your armies without sacrificing precious barracks build time.  A diplomatic specialist will find they have a lot of flexibility, due to the fact that all diplomat build time bonuses come from the same sovereignty structure, the Finishing School.  There are also upkeep reduction buildings for diplomats, but I’m not aware of anyone using them, and I can’t see the use for any, with the possible exception of the Lookout’s Rest.  

Technically, each race specializes in one type of diplomatic unit, too.  However, this matters so little I couldn’t even say off the top of my head what they are, and don’t frankly care to look it up.  The stats are here if you do.  

*Though not relative to their upkeep, notably.  

**It should be noted that both spies and thieves are significantly less useful than they used to be since the advent of trading hubs.  In the past, any resources you had stored up had to be kept in some city, somewhere.  You could defend them, but other players could, feasibly, find them and steal them from you.  These days, any caches of any significant size are in a hub, which you can’t spy or steal from.  Essentially, everyone has easy access to perfect thief defenses.  Kind of a bummer for the footpads of the world.  And spies where really most useful for their ability to find where people had their resources.  Now, it’s a pretty safe bet where they are, but it doesn’t help you much.  

***You may notice this section is a little sparse.  Gonna level with both of my readers here, I have not found much use for saboteurs over the course of my Illyriad career.  There are a very few situations where they are useful, but probably you will not benefit from keeping them around full time.  Also, their effect on building queues can be pretty much negated by anyone willing to drop a couple prestige.  

[thisillyrianlife]

What type of units should I build?

This is a fairly common question among players looking to start building armies, and the answer is that it really doesn’t matter*, as long as you know what their strengths and weaknesses are, and how to build and use your unit of choice.  Let’s look at the four troop types: Spearunits, Infantry, Ranged, and Cavalry.  

Spearunits are the quickest, cheapest units to build.  They are consequently usually fielded in the greatest numbers.  Spearunits are primarily defensive units, used to hold a square against attackers.  Offensive actions with Spearunits are not recommended.  

Tier one Spearunits(Protector, Yeoman, Militiaman, and Kobalt Cohort) are the cheapest units in the game, and provide a decent defense against everything but Ranged units.  

Tier two Spearunits(Phalanx, Halbardier, Pikeman, and Clan Guardsman) share the weakness to Ranged and solid matchup with Infantry and other Spearunits, but have the best defense in the game against attacking Cavalry.  Spear armies are prized for their ability to stop cavalry charges like no other unit.  Spearunits defend best on building type terrain, followed by mountains and hills.  

Orcs are spear unit specialists.  The Kobold Cohort is by far the cheapest unit to train, as it requires only a single beer and spear, both of which are quickly and cheaply produced.  Orcs willing to invest in Clan Guardsmen will see a huge level of effectiveness against cavalry.

Spearunit production is fairly easy to set up and maintain.  No two resources involved in either tier go through the same production building, and it takes a fairly narrow variety of resources.

Infantry are a primarily offensive unit, although depending on terrain and equipment load-out they can make capable defenders.  As basic strategy, try to use your Infantry in offensive actions against an enemy held square.  

Tier one Infantry(Warden, Axman, Swordsman, and Fang) are basic level offensive units.  They provide a solid attack against terrain squares that cavalry would be disadvantaged in.

Tier two Infantry(Wardancer, Stalwart, Man-at-arms, and Fist) are advanced offensive units, with even stronger attack against forest and building terrains.  As this is exactly the type of terrain sieges like to set up on, and the final battle for any city is fought with the building terrain modifier, Infantry plays a heavy role in siege warfare.  

Dwarves are the premier Infantry forces in Illyriad.  They largely employ Stalwarts, both as flexible attackers or even as occasional defenders in forested areas.  

Infantry production can be problematic, however.  Almost(or, in the case of elves, fully) all the resources required to build infantry comes out of the blacksmith.  This can create a bottleneck for your most vital goods, if you aren’t careful.  As an infantry specialist, you might have to look outside your towns more than others to keep the swords and chain armor flowing.  

Ranged units are a primarily defensive unit, though are situationally used to attack.  Most Ranger tactics, however, are based around defending a square.

Tier one Ranged (Sentinel, Slinger, Archer, Clanguard) are a basic defensive unit.  They are pretty well rounded against everything but Cavalry, and are kind of unexciting.  They do provide the best defense against other ranged attacks, which is something.  

Tier two Ranged (Elven Trueshot, Crossbowman, Longbowman, Death Dealer) are advanced defensive units, with even more solid matchups against everything except, like tier one Ranged, cavalry.  These units are the most common defensive units seen in Illyriad, as their command of mountains and hills is unparalleled.  

The breakaway Ranged race is the elves.  Their Trueshots and Sentinels are not only marginally better than their counterparts, but slightly cheaper as well.  Elves are insufferable.  

Ranged unit production is straightforward, they require only two or three different resources, and none come from the same building.  As an added bonus, nothing needed for Ranged units is made in the blacksmith, so if you build one you can use whatever you make there as surplus to sell or use elsewhere.  

Cavalry units are the most specialized offensive units in the game.  You don’t want to be caught defending with cavalry.  

Tier one Cavalry(Swiftsteed, Packsman, Charioteer, Wolf Rider) are the fastest units around  with high carrying capacity.  They have very high attack, but are disadvantaged on many terrains.  

Tier two Cavalry(Marshal, Runerider, Knight, Deathpack) are slightly slower than their tier one forms, but hit even harder.  On plains, or even water and small hills, it takes a lot to withstand a cavalry charge.  The strength of a cavalry attack, however, is much diminished on less favorable terrain, like large hills, forests, mountains, and buildings.  

Humans are the most efficient race on horseback.  Their Knights actually cost a bit more than the cavalry of other races, but the increase in power is well worth the extra beer.  

Cavalry production is made challenging by the wide range of items needed, as well as a heavy reliance on cows.  Each tier two cavalry requires two saddles, and each saddle demands two cows, so as a cavalry player, cows and saddles will be your primary concern.  Other resources needed include horses, chain armor, spears, and, in some cases, plate armor and beer.  These are all produced in different buildings, so it shouldn't be too hard to keep up, but every one is another thing you need to stay on top of.  

One more thing, before I wrap this up.  As I mentioned, each race has a specialty unit, one they do better than the others.  It is certainly very possible to build units outside your racial specialization.  In fact, most people do.  The differences between races units are far from backbreaking, and any race can make effective use of any of the unit types.  Don't be overly afraid to step outside your racial box.  

*It is however, important that you specialize each city in one of the four major types.  Both the sovereignty structures that reduce build time and that city buildings that lower upkeep costs will work for a specific type of unit, and the best way to use these efficiently is to specialize.  

[thisillyrianlife]

High Drama in Illyriad

This is about as exciting as it gets.  A divided Crow confederation squares off against Night Crusaders and the Darkstar Dominion, and a dozen other as-yet-uninvolved parties shout about it in every available forum.  And it's really distracting me from the soft news post I SWEAR I'M WORKING ON!

[thisillyrianlife]

Hello again

Sorry for the huge drop off in posts, my online gaming activity has been restricted by outside factors to logging in every few days to hit the "max" button for cow production.  But now factions are waking up!  Exiting!  Maybe the orcs or dragonkin will get off their butts and give me something to write about.  Or this will just be one of those blogs that has one post every three months that apologizes for not posting more.  

[thisillyrianlife]

Will Elgea become deserted when the Broken Lands are open for settling?

I'm inclined to doubt it.  There will by all accounts be enough going on in Elgea to keep people there, and probably even draw more.  Remember, players are allowed ten settlements on each continent, so it's not like people will have to choose one or the other.  

[thisillyrianlife]

What terms should be included in part two?

What do you feel was either excluded or inadequately explained? 

[thisillyrianlife]

Illyriad Terminology, Part One

As someone who has spent a long-ish time in the game, I often find myself using Illyriad-specific slang or game terms, and forgetting not everyone knows what they mean. Hopefully, this will be a useful resource for anyone who has gotten some helpful comment or advice but had no idea what the giver meant by it.

    Sov. -  Short for sovereignty.  These a squares claimed outside , but usually in the immediate area, of your towns.  This can grant you various benefits, from combat bonuses to production increases.

Pop. - Short for population.  This is the total amount of food your buildings are consuming per hour.  Taxes and new city settlement are based on this.

Res. - Short for resources.  This is used in various contexts, including basic resources(i.e. Wood, Clay, Iron, and Stone) and advanced resources( Horse, cows, swords, saddles, ect.)

Diplos - Short for diplomat, the catch-all term for any unit that isn’t directly military. It includes scouts, spies, saboteurs, assassins, and messengers.  

T1, T2 - Refers to the “Tiers” of unit types.  Tier one units are the cheaper, more easily trained variety.  Tier two units are more expensive and more powerful.  In the case of diplomats, the second tier also increases functionality.  

Tenaril - Tenaril was a crazy/brilliant mage sometime in the world’s past.  Lots of different spells are named for him, but the most commonly referred to is Tenaril’s Spell of Ultimate Teleportation, which is the single-use movement option your first city comes with.  It moves your city to any place on the map and keeps all your buildings intact, as well as keeping your resource distribution(if you have five each of wood, clay, iron, stone, and food, and you use this spell to move to any other spot, you will still have five of each, regardless of what that square has).  The only restriction is that you cannot move within ten squares of a city that is neither in your alliance nor confederated with it.    

Exodus - Exodus is the other way to move a city.  It has the same distance restriction as Tenaril’s Spell of Ultimate Teleportation, but it also levels everything but your wall down to twelve.  In addition, a city moved with Exodus will take on the resource distribution of the destination square.  

Alliance tickers - This is more a category.  Each alliance has a five letter abbreviation that the game will often use in lieu of its full name (For example, House of Plantagnet’s alliance ticker is PLAN).  If you want to look up an alliance or its ticker, it we be displayed on the profile page, or you can find it  here right after the alliance name.  

Harvesting - Sending trade units out of your city to pick up resources from the lands around you.  Wood, clay, iron, stone, food, and gold deposits are harvested by caravans.  Hides, herbs, and minerals are collected by cotters.  Rare herbs, rare minerals, and anatomies (or animal parts) are harvested by herbalists, miners, and skinners, respectively.  

Bumping - Sending a harvesting unit to a space where another unit if already harvesting.  This sends the previous occupant home, empty handed except in the case of cotters.  

Hub - Also called faction hubs or markets.  These are major cities controlled by one of Illyriad’s factions.  Players with the appropriate research and trader units can use them to exchange a wide range of goods, including crafting items and rare resources.  Be sure to read the faction descriptions, as some of these may be dangerous.  

Runes - The class of defensive spells cast on a city to protect it from hostile units.  These can be targeted at specific types of diplomat, or generalized to hit any hostile unit, including soldiers (but excluding scouts and spies).  Runes are widely considered to be the best form of protection for new players.

Van - Caravans.  These are basic trade units used to move resources between towns.  They can also be sent to deposits of wood, clay, iron, stone, food, and gold on the map, to harvest it and bring it back to your town.

  I'm sure this is somewhat incomplete. If you can think of any term I missed, or if there's something you've heard used but not been totally sure what it meant, send it in and I'll attempt to address it in Part Two.

[thisillyrianlife]

City Placement (The basics)

Where best to put your cities in Illyriad is a deep question with dozens of factors to consider, many of which I’m neither knowledgeable nor motivated enough to discuss at length.  What I can do is give an idea what the most crucial points for city placement are.  Understand, not every single one of of these will be valid all the time, but they will be the best thing to do in 99% percent of cases.  

1) Find a seven food tile.  I cannot emphasize this enough.  If you do not settle your new cities on seven food tiles, you will eventually regret it.  If you ever hope to settle a tenth town, most of your cities will need to be on seven food tiles, to support a sufficient population.   Seven food, as opposed to five, gives you 40% more food as applied to your base income, and thus another 40% to all the additional bonuses you’ll be stacking up.  Your gold income is directly linked to your population, and thus your food production.  So seven food means 40% more gold, 40% more soldiers, 40% more diplomats, 40% more anything.  Seven food.  Get it.  

2) Make sure the eight squares immediately surrounding your city are plains.  Not mostly plains, all plains*.  Far and away the largest threat to your cities is siege by hostile players.  Here, in broad strokes, is how the average siege will play out.  A large occupational force will appear next to your town.  You will have no warning that they are coming, because forces sent to occupy next to your city aren’t counted as an attack against it, and won’t be shown moving inbound. They will take up the best defensive position available to them.  To oversimplify somewhat, this will be a large hill or mountain if they are mostly archery, a forest or building if they are heavy on the spears, and a plain only if they have no other choice.  Then, the siege force itself will be sent to the occupied square.  At the same time, having realized you are under attack, your friends** will send in the cavalry to remove the occupation and weaken and destroy the siege. All of these forces will be figurative cavalry, in that they are coming over the hill to rescue you, but the large majority will be literal cavalry, in that they ride horses and charge people with lances.  Tier two cavalry*** is the best attack value for their gold upkeep for most players, and just as importantly, it is usually the type of unit that can get there in time to save you from death and destruction.  Cavalry gets a 30% bonus attacking on plains, but suffer a 20% penalty attacking up even a small mountain.  That means that cavalry attacking on a plain will be over 60% more effective against a defending force, even before considering the difference in the bonus the defenders are getting, which can be almost as extreme.  In short, allies’ go to units are going to be nearly twice as effective if you surround your city with indefensible squares, and an enemy seeing such a city is going to be less likely to decide to attack it at all.  

3) Be aware of your resource weakness.  All seven food tiles are going to have one (or more) basic resources they will have trouble producing lots of.  Look up the buildings you are going to want their, and make sure they don’t use the resource you are going to be weak in, or at least not too much of it.  If you plan to pack a city with cavalry, make sure it’s not lacking in clay****.  Cities with large forces of swordsmen can’t be lacking in stone*****.  

Of course there is a lot more you will want to consider, but following these three guidelines will make sure you have a strong, robust city that is equipped to do what you want it to.  

And finally, yes, there are corner cases and experimental city builds that some people use that break some of these rules.  This is the eight lane highway to success.  There may be some goat trails that get you to the same place, but you might also end up up to your neck in mud.  Or at least you hope it’s mud.  This is a goat trail after all.  

*Coastal and freshwater tiles count as plains, and impassable tiles such as lochs, volcanoes, and canyons cannot be occupied, and so are not counted for purposes of this discussion.

**You do have friends, don’t you?

***Knights, Marshals, Death packs, and I suppose even Runeriders, technically.

****The cavalry upkeep reduction building is the parade ground, which, which absolutely guzzles clay.   

*****Infantry cost is reduced by infantry quarters, which take a similarly large amount of stone.

[thisillyrianlife]

Let's talk about alliances

Alliances!   Alliances are an extremely integral part of not just politics, but the day-to-day life of nearly all players in Illyria.  Your alliance affiliations might determine where you will and won’t be allowed to settle, what resources you can harvest, and perhaps most importantly, what players you interact the most with.  Ultimately, choosing an alliance will come down to personal judgement and preference, but hopefully this will give you some reference and perspective to inform your choices.  

In Illyriad, there is no rush to join any alliance.  In many games, military protection is a central issue, and players will have strong incentives to join up with in few days.  Illyriad allows the luxury of time, to allow you to give the decision due consideration.  In fact, it allows the luxury of never joining one at all.  Usually, people will begin joining alliances at around 450 population, when they’re beginning to settle their second cities.  You shouldn’t feel, however, like you ever have to join an alliance.  Being able to sort out your own growth in the first stages of the game, without being distracted by alliance activity and drama, can be very valuable.  At some point, however, you will probably find yourself wanting to join up with an alliance.  

First of all, I want to get training alliances out of the way.  These alliances are set up with the intention of teaching new players the mechanics and customs of the game, and usually, but not always, of at least increasing the likelihood that you will end up joining the parent alliance.  In a training alliance, you will get time-tested advice on the best way to build, grow and thrive in Illyriad.  However.  You will get the same advice from most any alliance worth it’s salt*, and it may even afford you increased attention, if the alliance you join has fewer newcomers and more experienced players to help out.  Basically, until somebody shows me a study, what I’m going to say about training alliances is that you can take them or leave them, as you feel comfortable.  

When looking for an alliance, it is important to account for your own play style and personal goals.  Here are some factors to consider:

Distribution:  How does the alliance settle it’s towns?  Are they all in one region or spread across the map?

Size: How big is the alliance?  Small groups might be more intimate and better coordinated, while larger ones will have access to more power and resources and may have more active chats, due to a larger pool of players.  

Aggression:  How much does the alliance like to pick fights?   Sometimes, this isn’t made clear by alliances in Illyriad, but finding out a perspective alliance’s history or asking some older players may help you find out more about this.

Goals:  What does the alliance want to do?  These goals can be general, like just growing a larger alliance, or very specific.  Alliances with more defined goals will usually post them on their profile page or public forums.  

People:  It’s probably most important to find an alliance with members you get along with.  This is where talking in GC or through in game mail can help you.  

When you do join, you may feel the need to move or right away to be near your new allies.  I would advise that you give it at least a week or two, to be sure you’re really comfortable in the alliance.  Personally, I would recommend choosing where you want to build first, and considering alliances nearby.  That way, even if you decide the alliance is not for you, you’re at least happy with where you are.  

Basically, a lot goes in to finding a suitable alliance, and you shouldn’t feel rushed to join on or trapped once you do.  You will almost certainly go through many different alliances in your time in Illyriad, and the most important thing is to find one that enhances your enjoyment of the game.  

*Look to avoid joining an alliance with very few or no veterans (a highly contentious term, but here used to mean any player with at least about 50,000 total population).  These alliances will usually be less able to assist their members, both materially and educationally, than alliances with several active, larger members.  They also tend to be more prone to unnecessary conflict, both internal and external.  

[thisillyrianlife]

I could not think like a lizard, and I was young and foolish thinking that I could talk to them as if they were men or Orcs.

Saxil of Tundale, on realizing he was not cut out for a legal career.  

[thisillyrianlife]

Gameplay and storytelling

One of the best things about Illyriad, in my opinion, is that it’s a long term game played over weeks and months, that requires patience, planning, and deliberate execution.  Of course, the flip side of that is that, at any given, moment, you might not have anything particularly exciting to do.  This is the best part.  Bear with me.  

  There are, at last count, over one thousand dwarves playing the game, one thousand seven hundred elves, and another two thousand seven hundred humans*.  Only about six hundred orcs, but still a substantial crowd to get lost in.   What makes your character different?  Are you a six foot tall dwarf?  A bloodthirsty orc shaman?  A shemeing elven trade-lord?  This is when you get to decide, even if only to yourself.  

  Read the faction descriptions here:  http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/#/Alliance/Faction

  Besides being good reading, they show the breadth of story options available to players.  There are warmongering elves and pacifist elves, marauding orcs and reclusive orcs, jungle dwelling human savages and a council that controls most of the civilized world, dwarves that dwell underground and dream of reclaiming their lost mountain fortresses and...

  Well, all dwarves are pretty much the same.  It’s a known issue.  But that’s the great part.  You can Be the Change.  You could be Illyriad’s first teetotaling, clean-shaven dwarf assassin.  

  Another thing you’ll notice in the faction descriptions is that many of them are not entirely of one race.  Your cities don’t have to be either.  Well, mechanically, they do**, but not in the realm of imagination, which is where the best parts of the game get played out.  Throw in a significant minority race or three, and find ways to represent this within your commander and city names.  

  If you’re really feeling adventurous, pick a non-playable race (Knolls, or Gnomes, for instance), pick the closest playable one, and just play it out.  I won’t judge***. I’ve seen it done, with pretty fun results.  

Also, check out the traveler’s tales.  There’s some pretty interesting fiction in there, written by players about their own characters and cities.  It’s a great way to get inspired.  I’ll leave some of my favorites at the end.  

  And to be perfectly clear, there is absolutely no need to write out any sort of narrative or document about this.  Nobody needs to know the story but you.  I would bet that, even just in your head, having a story will increase your engagement and enjoyment of the game.  But once you get into it, you may just find yourself wanting to share.  

  http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/steel-dominion_topic4175_page1.html

The cast and narrative of Steel Dominion, by BlindScribe.  Focused on one character, but really contains the stories of his whole alliance.  Pretty cool idea.  

  http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/descent_topic3007.html

Just the one scene from a character’s past, but still manages to tell, or at least hint at, the bigger story.  

  http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/the-tale-of-tallica_topic2334.html

Polar opposite.  A semi-historical account of a character and his followers.

  http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/lashka_topic2756.html

Great story, in a lot of ways.  I really love how it shows her character's motives and goals.  Also a reminder that the Illyriad forums used to have a black background.  Highlighting the text should solve the visibility problem.   

  *Humans being the superior race will be a recurring sub-theme of this blog, and indeed most of the Illyriad experience.  

  **This is actually something I hope changes at some point.  Just in case anyone with influence of future development happens to be reading this.  *cough*

  ***And since I spent over an hour considering how the abundance of Iceheart ore in my region affected my fictional civilization’s culture, I’m really in no position to.  

[thisillyrianlife]

So, it's a blog, is it?

Yes, yes it is.  I know there have been some Illyriad blogs in the past, and it seems like we should have at least one going, if not several.  Also, I have stuff to say.  I saw my chance and I took it.  Don't like it?  Deal.  Or, leave, I guess.  If you can't find something else to read on the internet, you deserve to be stuck with whatever I write.  But seriously, stick around.  We're gonna have fun.  Hopefully.