Heroes of M&M MMO Live

[jpublic]

I just noticed the Heroes of M&M MMO went live. It's a browser game, that can be linked up with your Facebook or Live account. I'm not sure how good it is, I just started it. Probably won't keep my attention.

http://mightandmagicheroeskingdoms.ubi.com/play

[destoo]

Heard rumours from a friend about a new game from the HOMM franchise, but I didn't expect this.
First Ultima, then this.
What's next.. Commander Keen ressource management facebook browser game?

[Panthera]

Interesting. It's a lot like Civ.

[nnanji]

Can you change factions after you start, or would you have to make a new account for that?

[Panthera]

If by faction you mean city, I don't think you can, but the city types aren't necessarily allied with their own kind.

[MalReynolds]

anyone playing ? Needs Alliances

[nnanji]

Yeah, I'll be starting soon. I tried the tutorials today and it seemed interesting. I probably won't be able to start until the weekend though. I don't want to waste my newbie protection period when I'm not around to build up.

Is there a forum for this game that isn't in French?

[Hawkzombie]

anyone playing ? Needs Alliances

It Begins...

[Talanvor]

HOMM. I love that game. It's sucked away so much of my life, and was that just 3! I'll need to steer clear of an MMO version.

[jpublic]

I'm on as JPublic, but I'm doing pathetic.

[Panthera]

I'm playing. I like that it doesn't take much time each day to play.

[jpublic]

I'll set up a Colony of Gamers Alliance. Shout out here if you want in.

[rein]

Is there anything one should know before signing up? Will anything effect the ability to join alliances? I will try to give it a go tonight.

[Goronmon]

Count me in for checking this out. Been enjoying Lord of Ultima.

[jpublic]

Okay, let me know your nick once you've signed in.


EDIT: Well, fsck. Apparently, something went wonky on my Alliance and I've been informed it needs to be deleted. Thankfully, I'm the only one in it, but it'll be gone as of Tomorrow 8PM GMT.

Someone else may want to create one, since I've screwed it up.

[nnanji]

OK, I'm in. Name is nnanji

I started an inferno town. I'm at 122,184.

[Xerxes]

What kind of game is it? Yes, I'm being picky over a free game.

[jpublic]

It's a little bit of kingdom building, a little bit strategy.

[Panthera]

Imagine if Civilization had sex with Heroes of Might and Magic and out popped a browser game.

[nnanji]

The world is now half full, so if anyone was thinking about trying it out, I wouldn't wait too long. Did anyone get an alliance up and running?

[jpublic]

I had one, but it had to be deleted (sorry Panthera).

There seems to be something screwey now, as it won't let me make a new one. Someone else should and invite me (jpublic).

[rein]

Is there a difference in the two worlds? Is one of them just for training? Should I be sure to select Dragon Legacy?

[nnanji]

Dragon Legacy is the world that I'm in. It was the only world open for the actual game that i saw. Word of warning for people that haven't played this style of game before, it is much slower than the training world. My first battle to seize a mine took about 2 and a half hours.

[Panthera]

I suggest anyone starting up to click this link and start near me:

http://mm-hk.com/referral/00e819680192d072b189a2e163fd170f2040057e

[jpublic]

Man, I think I'm stalled for a while. I wasted a bunch of resources on a 3rd hero, and my attempts to start working on the outer ring failed twice. I've lost about 10k in army points.

My only hope is to save enough resources to build up my army up to a point that I can actually take something.

And someone make an alliance already.

[rein]

Man, I think I'm stalled for a while. I wasted a bunch of resources on a 3rd hero, and my attempts to start working on the outer ring failed twice. I've lost about 10k in army points.

My only hope is to save enough resources to build up my army up to a point that I can actually take something.

And someone make an alliance already.

I created an alliance CoG. I sent you an invite. Once the invite goes through I plan to give you admin rights. If anyone else wants an invite post your player name.

[nnanji]

Invite please. Name is nnanji.

[Panthera]

I'm Panthera in game. Invite me.

[nnanji]

It looks like there is a new world called the Ravaged Lands. Maybe one of us could start a town on that server and invite everyone else in? That way we can start near each other in the second world, as Panthera suggested. It will also allow JPublic to start over and not over spend on heroes.

Just a thought.

[jpublic]

I'm in for that. How about everyone else?

[rein]

I'm up for it too. I'm not too far with the other city. I created a new town on Ravaged Lands with the same player name, reinking, and city name Caprica.

I followed Panthera's link but in the world I'm not seeing any other cities in my region. I think when I was originally starting I clicked on that world and back out before going to The Dragon Legacy. That might have screwed me up. If so, I guess I can always delete this account and start over

[nnanji]

I'm up for it too. I'm not too far with the other city. I created a new town on Ravaged Lands with the same player name, reinking, and city name Caprica.

If you already made the city, send out invites to us please.

edit: It looks like you can copy and paste a link like Panthera did earlier for us to link to your city.

[rein]

Well, that didn't work either. I started a whole new account and followed Panthera's link thinking it would put me close to him. It gave a message across the top of the banner saying something about sponsor's world is full. I assume there wasn't a space close to him open.

So, my new info is player name: rein and city: Eureka. I'm trying to delete the other but it hasn't let me so far. The link to the new one is HERE (http://mm-hk.com/referral/e7c236f7e28ea4f57b4c71c1ee83d0b99089feac). I'm afraid to use the other since I requested it be deleted.

[nnanji]

Alright, I'm in and I see you are close to me. That worked out well. I also see someone named LessNessman in a town WKRP. Seeing as how I live in Cincinnati, I say we either welcome him in, or raze his lands, steal his women, and slaughter all but the weak and the old.

[jpublic]

I've joined Ravaged Lands using Rein's link, but I think I'm away out in the boonies, I don't see y'all anywhere. It looks like Alliances are per-server, so I'm going to start another CoG one, unless someone else has already done it.

I'm going to delete my Dragon Legacy account. No need carrying two games.

Edit: Or not, it won't let me. Keeps on saying I need to confim my emaila ccount, and I've already done that. Oh well, I'll see if I can rescue this kingdom.

[rein]

It wouldn't let me delete the my other account either. I figure it might be a bug for now. I didn't want to continue using it since I thing it might go through later. I started a whole new account thinking it might let me use Panthera's link but even that screwed up some how. Regardless, I'm going to stick with rein on The Ravaged Lands server and not worry about the other.

Shoot us invites when you get the clan set up. :)

[jpublic]

Invited rein and nnanji.

[Ink Asylum]

I'm in and I see Rein's city near mine. I'm Ink Asylum and my first city is named Asylum.

[Ink Asylum]

Now I know why I don't play Farmville or any games like that. I'm already pretty hooked on this after just going in a few times tonight to make some moves.

Already hit the paywall with 3 heroes out and unable to hire more unless I subscribe. I'll give it a week and see how interested I am before taking the plunge. That's a lot for a game you can't play for a while at a time. You can do a lot with the free version but I definitely would like a few more heroes to send on missions.

[rein]

I'm going to hold off on subscribing until I see where things go. It's fun so far but I think the big questions I have about balance and such will be answered once I get out of newbie mode. If it turns into a game of being ran over by larger clans it's not going to be fun. I used to play Cybernations and the first thing you have to do to survive in that game is get in a good alliance.

[Ink Asylum]

Good advice. I'll wait those two weeks and see how our alliance is doing.

[nnanji]

I probably won't subscribe. I used to play Travian, and frankly I just refuse to take these types of games as seriously as you apparently need to. Don't worry about your old towns. Sooner or later someone will get tired of farming an underdeveloped town and will take control of them.

[Ink Asylum]

OHGGRTx_eLI

[jpublic]

Yeah, I'm way off in the boonies. I wish there was a way to restart your character.

I also wish there wqas a way to promote people to being admin of an alliance. WTF.

[JayVe]

I came in here expecting to find a candy-based MMO.

[rein]

Yeah, I'm way off in the boonies. I wish there was a way to restart your character.

I also wish there wqas a way to promote people to being admin of an alliance. WTF.

I think you can promote people in the clan. You have to go to the clan site link. From there you click on the Admin tab. In that tab, you can choose for a member to be substitute owner-all rights as admin and power member-can add/edit/delete news, manage the forum, and manage the shoutbox of the clan site.

[jpublic]

I think you can promote people in the clan. You have to go to the clan site link. From there you click on the Admin tab. In that tab, you can choose for a member to be substitute owner-all rights as admin and power member-can add/edit/delete news, manage the forum, and manage the shoutbox of the clan site.

rein, you're now a substitute owner, and nnanji and Ink are power members.

Man, I am way off in the boonies. I hope you can create a new character if you get killed off.

[rein]

Well... ...that didn't work. Apparently those options only apply to the clan website which is weird. How can something so basic be left out of the game but added to the clan website? Not having delegation of duties for alliances is a severe disappointment and could weaken the appeal of a game like this greatly.

[rein]

I've hit a point that I have Heroes sitting around idle. That can't be good. I think my plan to improve the gold mine will pay off in the long run but it's killed my income short term because improve stops production for a few hours while it is being improved. I gave up on improving the other mines and just started upgrading them. Unfortunately I only have one Hero above level 3 so they are stalling there for now. I think my plan for next season is to upgrade all mines in the beginning and once I have enough resources stored, destroy, improve and then upgrade them again.

Right now, I'm just waiting for my daily allotment of recruits so I can recruit enough to take over more of my region. Having no cavalry units is killing me too.

[nnanji]

Hmm... you definitely outrank me across the board and I don't think you started that much earlier than I did. I'd guess you're doing ok. How many heroes are sitting idle? I think three heroes is probably too many for the early game. I hired a second one and used the two starting armies to conquer the mines, but then I concentrated on having one out fighting while one was improving and I'd switch that up to try and get each guy some XP. Your upgrade than destroy and improve plan sounds pretty good actually. I wish I had done that first. At this point I don't know if it's worth throwing away the resources I already spent improving. In the long run I guess just improving is better, but it is certainly slower.

If you are haven, don't skimp on building that mage guild. Even if you don't have any wizard heroes, I think it is the pre-req for building the griffin tower. That will be the quickest way to get some more cav units rolling in.

edit: I am testing the diplomacy skill on this next battle. Hopefully I will get some of the NPC troops to join my righteous cause!

[jpublic]

Yeah, the three heroes thing was my problem with my Haven game. I'm playing Wizards now, and I'm keeping it to two heroes - one that only does building/upgrading, and one that only does fighting.

[rein]

I have a warmage that I'm just going to park for a bit. I guess the backwards thing about that is I have already wasted a little exp adn gold on her that could have been put to bette use this early in the game. I've learned a lot building this first (well second) city that I can put to good use when the next season rolls around.

[Ink Asylum]

I've reached a point where I just don't have a strong enough army to capture any more tiles without potentially losing a fight. Like others I just don't have any cavalry to take down ranged. I'm going to have to focus on building and recruiting the next couple days.

[rein]

I've noticed the game is really starting to slow down as levels get higher. That can be a good thing or a bad thing.


* Domination ranking drops like a bitch if you lose a battle.I knew it was going to be close. :D

[nnanji]

I've been scouted. I suspect the dude that is right on my border.

[rein]

Yes, I was scouted too. I'm thinking he is strolling around trying to get the hang of the skill. Regardless, I will try to be prepared when noob time comes off.

[jpublic]

How the heck do you:
a) Scout
b) Protect from Pillage?

[Ink Asylum]

The pace fo the game has definitely slowed once you get past your first few days. I lost my first battle last night, thinking I could squeak a win against a slightly better force and taking heavy casualties as a result. I'm now sitting around waiting for reinforcements to slowly spawn and a slow trickle of resources to build more army-generating buildings.

[jpublic]

That's exactly what happened to me on my dead Dragon Legacy game. Remember to only attack when you have a significant advantage, *especially* if the enemy has a suspiciously strong single unit (aka Dragons).

[Panthera]

Looks like this game is getting really crowded really quickly.I may have to join a local alliance just to defend myself.

[rein]

How the heck do you:
a) Scout
Click the "center world on map region" button to display all cities surrounding yours. Select a city, then a hero with no army, then the spyglass icon over the city. I have not tired it yet because I don't want to risk a hero being injured.
b) Protect from Pillage?By your Hero name there is a small button for patrolling. Patrolling should help protect your city. I'm not sure it is necessary during the noob period though.


nnanji-I think Ashwick scouted us. That town makes the most sense because of its location.

[rein]

Looks like this game is getting really crowded really quickly.I may have to join a local alliance just to defend myself.
I'm curious about how the alliance will work over a distance. In other games I have played similiar to this it didn't matter that much. The problem with distance if it does have a significant impact is that it's hard to keep an alliance close together. You would all have to join the game at the same time and hope you get placed close together. I thought your area was already full because when I tried to follow your link it didn't put me close to you. I am starting to think there are several 'broken' elements of game play with the game. Or, at the very least, game play elements that were not well thought out.

[jpublic]

Yeah, I followed rein's link and got tossed way the heck away.

[LordDon]

I can see Ink and Eureka. My username is lorddon. Can I get an invite JPublic?

[nnanji]

That's exactly what happened to me on my dead Dragon Legacy game. Remember to only attack when you have a significant advantage, *especially* if the enemy has a suspiciously strong single unit (aka Dragons).

Strong units especially factor in because of the 'round' structure of combat. For example. A single angel has a power of 10000 or so. You might be tempted to think you can attack her with 2 separate units of 7000 power each. This is a mistake! After she wipes out your first unit a new round will start and, because she didn't die in round one, she will engage your second unit at full power.

Some of this is supposition, but it would explain some of the times I got my ass handed to me by pit lords in the first game.

[rein]

Strong units especially factor in because of the 'round' structure of combat. For example. A single angel has a power of 10000 or so. You might be tempted to think you can attack her with 2 separate units of 7000 power each. This is a mistake! After she wipes out your first unit a new round will start and, because she didn't die in round one, she will engage your second unit at full power.

Some of this is supposition, but it would explain some of the times I got my ass handed to me by pit lords in the first game.
In that case, I just sent some more troops to be slaughtered. I thought it took into account over all power. I will most likely over power two of his units but he will slaughter two of mine. I think what you are saying makes sense though looking at the last battle I lost. I just wish they were more clear in the guide. Oh well, lesson learned.

[nnanji]

As another example, let's look at a slightly more complicated situation. I will be making up numbers for ease of reference.

The enemy has 3 liches, which are archers, valued at a total of 6000 power. You have no cavalry, so you decide to attack with a group of archers worth 3000 power to soften them up and an infantry group worth 5000 power to finish them off. What happens?

In round 1 your archers attack their archers. They do 3000 power worth of damage to the liches before getting disbanded. Since each lich is worth 2000 power each you kill one of them.

In round 2, the two remaining liches fight, but they are effectively at full health because it's a new round. At 2000 power each that gives them a total of 4000 power. However, since they are archers, they also get a 50% bonus against infantry, effectively making them worth 6000 power, and they slaughter your infantry.

In this battle, the wisest course would be to wait until you had at least 4000 power worth of archers. If you could kill 2 of them in round 1, your infantry could finish the job.

[jpublic]

Here's another example:

You have 5000 power worth of archer, and 5000 of infantry. The enemy has a 3000 stack of infantry and a 5000 stack of cavalry.

So, you logically use your archer to attack their infantry, and your infantry on their cavalry, right?

Congrats, you'll take big losses. Your archers will wipe out their infantry in round 1, but then in round 2 they'll attack the enemy cavalry, and already having been weakened will end up getting wiped out by the enemy cavalry and their bonus.

The better thing to do is to cut down your archer stack so that they're just strong enough to take out the enemy infantry, so that when they are forced to fight the cavalry, you take smaller losses.

[nnanji]

That's a great example jpublic. By splitting your stack and sending your extra archers home, not only do you prevent extra losses, but by lowering the overall power of your army you increase the size of your honor bonus. This grants you extra XP for your hero and earns you honor for the rankings.

[MagGnome]

I joined up as well, although I have no idea how close I am to anyone.

My name is MagGnome. Please invite me to the COG alliance. May we live long and prosper together!

Edit - I just noticed that I am very close to rein, but otherwise surrounded by other non-COG players. I hope none of them are too aggressive! One of them seems to have a rather large city already.

[rein]

We have a Gnome in our kingdom. :)

Well, my latest battle is over and to my surprise I won. It came down to a 11 peasants being able to finish up 5 cavalry units in the sixth round. It also netted me the quest about the Heroes influence and I got a nice chest piece too. I don't know if I want to skate by that close again even though it bumped my Heroes exp bar 3/4 of the way to level 5.

[MagGnome]

I look forward to the day when your filthy peasants quiver in fear before me.

Erm, I mean I look forward to joining up and kicking butt! :D

[jpublic]

Invite sent, my Gnomish friend.

Wow, once my newbie protection goes I'm doomed. I've been scouted by everyone around me, and I am FAR away from y'all.

[rein]

Invite sent, my Gnomish friend.

Wow, once my newbie protection goes I'm doomed. I've been scouted by everyone around me, and I am FAR away from y'all.

Do you have open spaces around you? If so, click on the banner to the right that says "share your mmhk adventure" and select "sponser a new friend." On the next screen select "Near my Kingdom" and "Get Link." This will provide a link for you to post and maybe we can get some people to join closer to you.

I still can't figure out why it didn't let me join with Panthera's link. I just assumed his region was full and it cut me off. Seeing his post about others getting close to him makes me think it wasn't full at all.

I hope distance isn't going to play a large role in being able to send aid to alliance members. That will really suck if it does.

Now that I have a few Heroes sitting around doing nothing. Whenver I have free soldiers I am sending them out on patrol. I don't know what will happen if they come across a scout but I figure it can't hurt since they are just sitting there.

[nnanji]

There is a distance factor. Any armies we send to help out will have to travel to him and then back again, which is a long time for the army to be in the field. The strat guide says an army has to stop for 2 hours for every 4 squares they travel, and when they are stopped they are vulnerable to being attacked in the field. During the nighttime all armies halt for the night, but they can't be attacked at that time.

A long range strategy for jpublic might be to keep building up that town until he gets to the point he can create a second city, and see if he can establish the new city by our hive. Then the first city can act as a resource farm, shipping gold and materials to his new city via caravan. If he is so far away that the old city is just going to be constantly raided, then its better he raids it himself :)

[jpublic]

http://mm-hk.com/referral/1a08be76fe4312010036fc2dc1b8387ff5a88115

There's the link for me.

[MagGnome]

Or we could hang him out to dry, and use him to bait other players. Just sayin'...

I don't know why I feel so violent today. :p

[EWolfmanD]

I used your link, jpublic, and it looks like I started near you. My username is EWolfmanD, if I could get an invite to the alliance, please?

[jpublic]

Sent.

And Mag, you're off my XMas card list.

[MagGnome]

:eek:

I recruited a new hero and named him Dave. I also turned him into a builder. I forgot to give my first hero a class before sending him off on another mission, oops.

I can't figure out how recruitment works. It took one minute to recruit one imp, but now I can't seem to recruit anymore. What gives? One imp doesn't do me a whole lot of good, and it doesn't look like I can set up any sort of queues to recruit more than one unit.

[Ink Asylum]

New units trickle into the recruitment building at a certain rate per hour/day.

[MagGnome]

How do I know how many units are in there?

[Ink Asylum]

It should say it somewhere on the top pane. Alternately, you can keep clicking the top portrait and it will add people to your recruit screen as long as they are available.

[nnanji]

It does show in the recruitment screen how many units are available, but if you just built the structure you probably only had 1 ready. You probably create imps at the rate of about 16 or so a day. That means you'll get a new one ready every hour and 15 minutes or so? Making someone a leader class can increase the how units you generate per day.

edit: I put this on teh clan site forum, but I'll put this here too. I've invited some of my RL friends to play the game too. If/when they join, can we get them invites to the alliance too?

[MagGnome]

Do those bonuses (such as Leadership, and Resource bonuses) work regardless of where the hero is located, or does he have to be in my city?

[jpublic]

Mag:

Your various minion buildings slowly build up a stock to recruit over the course of the day. So if it might, for example, provide one every hour.

When you recruit, it takes a fixed increment of time per unit to recruit. So for peasants, which take 1 minute each, if you want 20, it takes 20 minutes.

[jpublic]

edit: I put this on teh clan site forum, but I'll put this here too. I've invited some of my RL friends to play the game too. If/when they join, can we get them invites to the alliance too?

Yes. Give me names. I'm not checking the clan forum because I'm lazy. *This* is the clan forum. :D

[MagGnome]

I figured out the recruiting stuff now, thanks guys!

I still am curious about the various skill bonuses, however. For example, one of my heroes is now a Leader. Do the recruitment bonuses apply only when he's in a city, or at all times? Do I have to recruit with that hero in particular, or can I recruit anywhere?

I'm guessing I have to recruit with that hero, but I might as well ask.

What about resource bonuses. How do those work?

[nnanji]

I think troop bonuses apply as long as that hero is in the region (any of the starting 25 squares). They would not apply if he was on the march to pillage a neighbor.

Which classes give resource bonuses? That sounds useful.

[MagGnome]

The builder class can gain abilities that grant resource bonuses.

[jpublic]

@&*^#&*%!!

I'm more or less stuck until I can build a Statue Foundry. I need more infantry. :/

[nnanji]

I've been avoiding fighting while I try to build up my archers and peasants to overwhelming numbers. I took two levels of diplomacy and I'm hoping I can convert some of the neutrals to my cause, but to do that I need more power than them. Otherwise I don't think I will get any cavalry from my town for another week.

[destoo]

I've just learned that the servers available to you are depending on the geo location of your IP address...
There are two "challenge worlds" opening this morning (where time elapses at 200x), but since we're in NA we will not have access to them.
This sucks big time.

The only reason I know this is because I browse the site in french and there are different news and events.

[destoo]

ok, it's been confirmed.
The current challenge only works if you're in france. The next one will be opened internationally.

[rein]

I think I am f'ed. My plan to improve the gold mine and upgrade the others is killing me. The problem is when you improve the mine stops production and it gets very expensive for early game. I just started upgrading my gold mine which I think will knock it back down to level one. It should be a pretty quick build back. At least I hope so. I think I am going to try to recover and go with the plan of upgrading and once I have enough income saved start over by improving for end game.

Things are getting too expensive. My troop numbers are pretty low and building has come to a crawl because I am having to save up gold to do much of anything.

[jpublic]

The slowness is my main complaint.

In the first couple days, you can free the inner 9 areas of your region, build mines, improve or upgrade them, and probably build a tavern, marketplace, your first two recruitment buildings (and even upgrade one of them), and probably improve your resource silo 2 levels. If you're lucky and the RNG has given you some outer regions with sub-12k enemies, you might be able to free a couple of them.

But once you're done that, you're stalled. You have a large amount of stuff you *could* do, but not enough resources to do any of it.

Here's my problem. Right now, I need to save up for the building to make Golems, because they're my only source of infantry, so I can take out more of the outer regions. That's 20k gold and a 20 Wood and Iron. At the same time, all my mines are level 3, and I could improve/upgrade them to level 4, but each of those are around 10k each. Oh, have I mentioned I also need to keep recruiting troops, at about 5k/day, because my troops are too weak?

My income? just under 7k/day. Yeah, this game is going to be fast-paced.

[rein]

I've played net games before that are designed to be slow. Cybernations was one of my favourite. I don't mind them, in fact, I like the fact that you log on once a day to manage a few things and then log off. The problem with MM:HK is that there is too much to do to have any sense of strength or balance with the amount of limited resources.

Looking at the rankings, I should be doing pretty good. I'm not. My plan was to build up my income and resources and then build an army before the noob time expires. Unfortunately, with only 10 days left on my noob time, there is no way I am going to have the economy to build that army and complete the remaining buildings I need. I have a feeling the game is going to become very unbalanced once things start to pick up.

[MagGnome]

With how close everyone is, it makes sense to keep the pace fairly slow. Otherwise some players would build up quickly and rush attack.

Should I upgrade or improve my mines? I really don't understand how this works yet. It says that upgrading a mine makes improving unavailable, so should I improve and then upgrade?

I'm finally going to get some ranged attackers, whee!


Edit - Do you guys really think that we will all be attacked as soon as the "noob time" wears off? It's not like most of the other players are light years ahead of us. In fact they are probably afraid of the same thing. :p

[jpublic]

Here's the way it works:

Improving is waaay more expensive, slower, and puts the mine out of commission while you work, but nets you a slightly bigger boost, that's cumulative.

Upgrading is much cheaper and faster, but once you upgrade, you can't improve.

What I'm doing with my mines is improving them to level 3, because at the start the cost isn't THAT high, and then upgrading them after that.

[LordDon]

Fuck, really? I just sent a guy to upgrade my first gold mine.

[rein]

I've been upgrading my resource mines and improving my gold mine. I just went back to start upgrading my gold mine because it gets too expensive this early in the game to improve it. My new strategy is to upgrade all of them until I get some resources and gold banked and then go back and start them over with improvements one at a time. What I am finding is with the expense of improvement and the fact that it doesn't produce during the improvement, the cost is too high this early in the game.

[MagGnome]

I take it the improvements remain after the upgrade?

Are there multiple levels of upgrades?

I ask because I have two more buildings to construct and then I'm going to start on the mines for a bit.

[nnanji]

I upgraded my gold mine twice, because that gets you a nice 10% boost to income for a very reasonable price. After that I switched to upgrading. Now my produces 8800 gold a day at level 4(?), and will produce 11000k after the next upgrade. Combined with my 4k/day from the town hall, I am making out nicely in the gold department. Improving the resource mines is not worth it in the early game I think. Improving the wood or ore mines to level 4 or 5 would earn you 10/day plus a 20% bonus for a total of 12. I would rather use the gold it took to improve it and just buy the extra wood to ore from the auction house.

I think you should plan ahead and figure out if you want to focus on Domination, Honor or Wealth. Only if you are planning on a wealth victory should improving at every level be a concern,

I had my first success this morning with diplomacy! I attacked an outer ring square that had a small (11k power) haven army and I convinced 5 upgraded marksmen and an imperial griffin to switch sides!!! With my troops that generated overnight I now have an army worth about 16k. I am attacking an undead army now that's worth about 18k, but the enemy is all cavalry and infantry. With my all archer and infantry forces, the power bonuses should let me handle them fairly easily.

edit: MagGnome. Yes, there are levels to upgrade. Every upgrade adds 2000/day gold, or 2 wood or ore/day, or 1 expensive material/day for each level you upgrade. Any improvements you make before upgrading are permanent. In order to upgrade a mine you have to send a hero with a level at least equal to the current level of the mine.

[LordDon]

We've got a player, plumdawg, near us. He's a co-worker I got to play so add him to the mighty CoG empire.

[MagGnome]

Is there actually a way to win the game then?

Another question - Can I upgrade a mine and then do all of the improvements, or is there an advantage to improving each time you upgrade? In other words, are there say 5 improvements per upgrade level, or 5 improvements altogether? The 5 is made up, but I hope you get the idea.

Also, is there a way to upgrade the amount of wood and ore you can have?


I apologize for asking so many questions, but the in-game documentation isn't very good. I figure I can learn from those who came before me. :D

[nnanji]

There is an endgame. Once someone is powerful enough in the one of the three ranking areas (Dominion, Wealth, Honor) they can undergo a serious quest to retrieve a Tear of Asha. Upon receiving teh Tear they can return it to a city and use it to build a powerful Grail Structure. Once an alliance has built enough Grail Structures the game will end if they can hold it for 2 weeks (or something like that.) Your Tears can be stolen, so expect heavy attacks and have your alliance protect you.

next, upgrades disable improvements, so if you plan on doing any improvements do them first. A level of improvement gives you all of the benefits of a level of upgrade plus a 5% bonus per level. Once you switch to upgrading though, you have to lose all of your upgrades (and the gold and time spent on them) before you can begin improving again.

Lastly, after you build a marketplace you can build resource silos at that same location. Silos increase the maximum numbers of resources you can hold.

[jpublic]

You can Improve then Upgrade, but not Upgrade then Improve.

If you have Upgraded a mine to say, level 3, and then you want to get the Improvement bonuses, you have to downgrade it back to level 1, and then you can Improve.

However, if you've Improved a mine to Level 3, and then you want to Upgrade, you get the Upgrade boost and keep the Improve.

Edit:

Do we want a Merchant/Spy/Army Chief? Any volunteers?

[MagGnome]

What do the chiefs do?

Thanks so much for your help everyone. I'm trying to convince Lithium Flower to join us as well.


Edit - Also, what's the point of upgrading if improvements grant the same bonuses?

[nnanji]

Upgrading is much, much cheaper.

[MagGnome]

Ah, that explains it. Thanks again for all of your help! I think I'm done with the incessant questions for now.

[EWolfmanD]

We need some more people joining up near jpublic. I tried to help him out, and I'm the one who ended up right beside another player and surrounded. Then I decided to check out everyone else's location. The large group seems nice. :p

[jpublic]

EWD - you're right near me, I'm like two spaces NE of you.

There is plenty of room near me, although most of it's to the NW of me.

We should get more people in, we can have up to 20 in the alliance.

[EWolfmanD]

Yeah, I know you're there. I meant that there is another player actually touching my border to the SW and then I have players on all sides of me besides you. :p

How do we grow the size of our region so we end up connected?

[BLeeP]

I joined the game, my user name is BLeeP. Feel free to add me to the Alliance while I wait for my hero to finish taking my first mine.

[MagGnome]

I can see what you guys mean when you say that the game slows down. I still have things to do, but there is certainly a lot of "waiting" time while resources accumulate.

[destoo]

I've just played my first challenge this morning. 5 hour game, time compression 200x.
It was awesome.
I hope we will be able to schedule closed games for friends and play with the settings, including a DM who would coordinate the event, but right now it doesn't look likely...

The english event is coming soon, btw.

I was able to use my account with a french proxy through TOR and register for the tournament server that way.

Here are the settings that were used for the "challenge" map.

Sylvans race was available. Max 200 players per world. no newbie protection
Speed x200, level xp chart easier, influence calculated each 30 minutes
Top players receive bonuses they will be able to use in their next games.

example of an in-game challenge I saw: "Please send a message to xxxx with the name of the 4th admin that was nominated to the might and magic support team"

Saison 2 (Hérédité et Sylvains activés).
200 joueurs par monde (plusieurs mondes pourront ouvrir si nécessaire).
PvP activé dès le début !
vitesse x200.
Paliers modifiés afin de progresser plus rapidement.
Les quêtes d'introduction restent activées.
L‘influence sera calculée toutes les 30 minutes.
Les mouvements, caravanes et autres durées ont été adaptées (haltes de 6 minutes par exemple, plutôt que 36 secondes).
Plus de ressources disponibles en cas de colonisation.

Ces mondes vous opposeront avec les règles classiques de combat. Les modifications autres de la saison 2 n'étant pas toutes activées. (La nouvelle maintenance l'est néanmoins.)

Les meilleures alliances et meilleurs joueurs recevront des récompenses en jeu, sur leurs futurs mondes de saison 2.

De plus, nous rajoutons quelques objectifs spéciaux ! Tous peuvent y participer, qu'ils soient ou non dans les meilleures alliances.

Pour cette première session, recevront des prix :
Celui qui aura la plus grosse production journalière de mercure à la fin de la partie.
Celui qui aura perdu le plus de troupes en raison de sa maintenance.
Celui qui aura revendu le plus de minerai sur le marché.
Celui qui aura l'influence la plus importante à la fin du monde.
Celui qui possède le plus de mines de gemmes à la fin du monde.
Celui qui aura lancé le plus grand nombre d'espionnages.

De plus, nous conservons la possibilité de proposer des challenges ponctuels, directement en jeu !

Le premier monde ouvrira ses portes à midi, un second étant prévu pour 14H. Chacun aura une durée de vie de 5H, à la fin de laquelle les scores de chacun seront enregistrés.

[MagGnome]

Sounds like fun!

I'm continuing to improve my mines while I recruit some much-needed ranged units. Once I have a few more I am going to capture more territory.

[jpublic]

So....anyone want to help me out with some ore and wood? I've got an income of like 13k/day now, but my wood/ore at 9/day are killing me.

[nnanji]

Wish I could, I am having similar problems. My extra gold income would be nice if anyone was offering common resources at the auction house. I am also not having much luck selling crystals on the market and I am at my max limit on them.

On the combat side, I have cleared 5 outer ring squares and gotten a couple of worthless items. The remaining squares are all too high power for me to attack until I start earning some griffins, which will take a while because I need more wood and ore... sigh.

[rein]

I wish I could spare some resources too but I have none to spare. I even got desperate enough to sell a few crystals to the merchant. The auction house is pretty pathetic right now. I'm not sure if the economy will ever work itself out or not.

[MagGnome]

I don't have a whole lot of resources to spare either. I've improved each of my mines once and a couple of them twice, but I'm still stretched to the max.

[Goronmon]

Crap, I was too slow signing up and now I can't play with you guys.

Oh well...

[MagGnome]

Are you sure about that? It tells me that our current server is only half full. Be sure to follow the latest link posted, and not the earlier ones before we migrated to a different server.

[Goronmon]

Yeah, it's definitely saying I can't join that server and tells me to join The Zombie Assembly.

[MagGnome]

That's too bad then. :/

[LordDon]

The level curve on the quests is ridiculous. Getting a hero to Attack level 6? Upgrade all your mines to level 5? (which you can't even do until your heroes are level 5) It feels like there should be two or three gradations in there.

[nnanji]

The attack level of 6 didn't seem to bad. My hero had a 6 at level 4 I believe.

[jpublic]

Did you try the link I posted or Rein? I think his area's full, but mine has some space....

*goes to check*

Or not. Gah, there's a lot of people signed up.

[rein]

I think I have a bug with my ore mine. My ore and wood mines are the same level and every thing I have to increase production applies to both. My ore mine is hardly producing anything while my sawmill seems to be fine. It's supposed to be producing 10 ore a day with no bonus applied and it's not even producing that with bonus. I have not done a 24 hour count but it looks like it produced about 6 ore since yesterday morning (23 hours ago). If it is bugged I am screwed. Maybe I can try to upgrade it again and see if that kicks it in gear. I guess I will upgrade it when I can save up enough gold.

I think I am having the same issue with Marksman. I am supposed to be able to recruit 10 per day. I only had 2 available to recruit this morning since recruiting about 10 hours ago.

I'm going to have to watch things more closely today. I would have never noticed if it was not for my wood out pacing my ore production by so much. I know things are moving slow now but this will make things much more difficult.

[jpublic]

rein, what faction are you?

I'm playing Wizard, and I've noticed every damn thing I build uses way more ore than wood.

[nnanji]

jpublic, what can you tell me about the wizard faction in this game? How effective are their creatures? How early did you build a magic guild, and how effective were the spells? What summoning spells did you get?

[rein]

I'm Haven. I think it depends on what you are building as to which resource requires more units.

The problem isn't that I have more wood than ore, it's that my ore mine is not producing as much ore as it should. The wood only comes into play because I noticed my sawmill produced more wood in the same time frame. It's seems to be at about 2/3 the rate it should be. at 10 ore per day (not counting bonus) I should be producing .42 ore per hour. In the last 23 hours I've produced 6 ore. It should be 9 (or 10 rounded up). I'm going to track it tonight.

[jpublic]

Hmm. The 'peon' unit are your archers, Imps, with your second unit being Gargoyles (infantry). They're about equal to other units. While I need bigger stacks to have as much as an effect as say, Haven critters, I get more of them produced and they're cheaper.

I've only got one spell right now, and it's a simple 'do damage in round 1' attack. Does about 2.5 points to each unit in the stack.

[nnanji]

Well, I am loving the diplomacy skill. I cleared 4 squares in my outer territories without losing a unit, I even gained units from the skill. This led to huge swings in my dominion score and I got to level 2, which gave me a squad of sweet griffin cavalry. That's really going to give me an edge in taking out the demonic succubi archers in the rest of the outer regions.

holy crap! I'm in the top 10 players on that world right now.

[rein]

Well, I am loving the diplomacy skill. I cleared 4 squares in my outer territories without losing a unit, I even gained units from the skill. This led to huge swings in my dominion score and I got to level 2, which gave me a squad of sweet griffin cavalry. That's really going to give me an edge in taking out the demonic succubi archers in the rest of the outer regions.

holy crap! I'm in the top 10 players on that world right now.
That is awesome. I'm still poking along. I only have one point in diplomacy. I might pump it up a little more when I get the chance. I think I screwed up by not concentrating on one job. Probably better to work on one job and build up useful skills than to spread out multiple jobs that really do not net much gain in the early going. Oh well... ...lessons learned for the next season.

[nnanji]

I feel it was definitely worth it to concentrate on my skill. With one point I didn't notice anything, but with 2 points I started getting the bonus every time.

[Ink Asylum]

Woo! Earned my first griffins completing a quest. That should help me root out some of those pesky archers.

[jpublic]

Wow. Level 5 Gold mine plus Architect Class plus Town Hall = 16200 gold/day.

Yeah, I have my Level 3 building in prgress now. Too bad it takes a DAY to build.

[rein]

I'm saving up to build my griffin tower. Then I am going to have to save up to buy some griffin units. I've been in the top 10 on the server for wealth since the beginning of the game. You would think I would have enough gold to do something. :(

Some things I am learning (and will put to good use next time around)
Use the auction house to store resources if you get in a bind. I was waiting for a silo upgrade this morning and going to max out for wood storage. I threw a few above what I need for the griffin tower on the auction house and it deducted them from my total. I figure if they sale, I get my griffin tower earlier. If the don't, I get my wood back with enough storage. :)

Limit heroes to two in the beginning. I ran out of things for my heroes to do pretty early on. In the beginning I think the exp is best put to use on leveling two heroes at most. One for town improvements/mine upgrades and one for battle/capturing zones.

Focus on one job for each hero in the beginning. I wasted precious skill points by grabbing multiple jobs for my heroes. Big mistake because now they can't really do much that is useful. I think next time around I am going to focus my battle hero on leadership for the diplomacy skill in the beginning and my town leveling hero on builder for the production skills.

Don't bother improving resource mines early on with the exception of the gold mine. While being improved production comes to a halt and it is way too expensive for the early game. By the time you get an extra unit of ore or wood (since it is based on a percentage) the cost and time investment is too high. Upgrading does not stop production and is much less expensive.

I'm going to have to research the gold mine a bit. I think improving to get a 10% bonus might be worth it even for the early game. You start seeing a small return on the gold improvement right away. I guess I will need to look into how much gold is lost during an improvement vs how much the 10% gold increase will help in the long run.

If anyone else has any tips, or want to refute anything I have said, please do. It might help some of the newer people and it should help in the next game.

[nnanji]

I would agree with most of what you have said. I think improving the wood and ore mines to a 10% bonus might be acceptable as well. frankly, the fact that they stop producing for a few hours in the early game isn't going to set you back that far. In the early game you are only generating a wood every 3-4 hours, so having it offline for 3 hours only costs you one wood, and in the long run the extra unit or two of wood you get a day will really help construct that second or third town. I don't think being number 1 in the first couple of weeks of a game that lasts for months is that critical, so plan for the long run.

The other tip I would have is maybe put some ranger skills on the secondary hero. That way they can productively scout and earn XP even when you can't spare the gold for mine upgrading.

I noticed you put that wood up for sale in the auction. It made me seriously think about the merchant master position in the clan. I think it might be a good idea for us to offer first dibs on sales of resources to clan members. None of us are rich enough yet to just give resources away, but at least if we are selling to each other, we are keeping the gold and the resources in the clan, and not benefiting other players.

What was the build order for your town, if you recall? I am still several days away from a griffin tower, but I will have a barracks built tomorrow. If we could come up some strategies for efficient town building that would help a lot in future games.

Lastly, where are we standing on recruitment? If you scroll southwest from our main group, there is quite a large group called the Czech Team establishing ground. They are the #10 ranked clan in the game, and we should be prepared for aggression from them.

[jpublic]

My only caveat on the skills for the 'battle' hero, is if you're a Wizard/Necro and have high magic heroes. Then take a point and buy a mage class so you can cast L1 spells, they're stupidly useful.

[rein]

Yea, I should have put the wood at a higher price because I really don't want it to sell. For whatever reason when I was listing it I started thinking... "..but if it did sale I would have enough gold..." and lowered the price. That would probably mess me up in the long run though because I have other things to build in the next week or so before I get attacked. Also, throwing things on auction will cost a small amount of gold but it did save me from capping out.

I still don't have a barracks believe it or not. It was next on my list but I decided to hold out for enough gold to build the griffin tower first. I have zero calvary units and it's killing me. I hope to get the Barracks next if my ore (and gold) situation straightens out.

I'm not very confident in my ability to defend myself if I get nailed. I'm thinking pretty hard about how many units I should keep in the city. I'm not planning on assaulting anyone any time soon but I do need to defend myself (or one of you guys if we get attacked). I'm chalking this game up to a learning experience. Not that I'm not going to try to move forward but I have made a ton of mistakes that I wish I could take back. That is part of why I wanted people to start posting tips. I figure, even if I post something wrong, someone can point it out. Kind of like the Wizard/Necro thing. I would agree that having a mage it would be important to get spells pretty quickly.

[jpublic]

Also, once you've figured out the trick to combat, those scary-looking 30k+ border regions don't look so bad.

Example:
Yeah, it's 30k+, but the first two units are 10k cavalry, and the last two are 5k of infantry and 5k of archer.

You happen to have 8k of infantry that will *happily* demolish those first two ranks, and the probably demolish a good chunk of the third before your archers even have to fire an arrow.

Not so bad, in that case.

[nnanji]

Hmm, for some reason my town is only showing at level 8, so the game won't let me build griffins. I know I have built more than 8 structures though, so some must not count towards city level.

The lack of cavalry is hurting me too, because the last 3 squares in my outer ring have over 20k worth of archers each and 80% of my forces are infantry. I still have a week before I am out of newbie protection mode though, so I am not too worried about being assaulted.

[jpublic]

1) Did you upgrade your silo to L3?
2) Did you upgrade to Town Hall?
3) Did you upgrade your first two recruit buildings?
4) Do you have a mage guild? (I think you need that for griffins)

[nnanji]

I did all of those except for #3. I am assuming that the barracks will put me at level 9 when I build it, but if not then I'll try upgrading those.

[nnanji]

Last night I had my biggest defeat ever. I tried to do the math in my head and I must have messed up. I failed to kill a single Titan, and then he just walked through the entire rest of my army. I ended up losing almost 5k worth of units.

[EWolfmanD]

While I was looking for some info last night, I found this battle calculator (http://mmhk.jactari.info/fight). It seems like it would be decent for seeing how many troops you need or how many will be left after each round.

[rein]

That calculator is awesome but I just found out I am going to lose bad on my current battle. :(

[jpublic]

Oh crud. I'm doomed in my current attack.

In other news, I achieved a Dominion level. Other than some troops, what does this get me?

[nnanji]

Not much, but level 2 of dominion will get you the ability to have a second city.

[jpublic]

Yup. Doomed. It was three infantry groups. I had more than enough to take out the first, but I took so many losses the second tuned me.

[Ink Asylum]

Interesting calculator, but I can't find any way to add in my hero's abilities, which look like they'll allow me to squeak out a win.

[EWolfmanD]

Interesting calculator, but I can't find any way to add in my hero's abilities, which look like they'll allow me to squeak out a win.

I didn't see a way to do it at first either, and then when I was about to post, I clicked the box next to "hero" at the top, and a lot of options appeared. I'm not sure why that isn't displayed by default.

[Ink Asylum]

Ah. I'll have to check that out. At least I won the battle I wanted to test.

[nnanji]

Well, that calculator shows that one of my last two battles is unwinnable with the forces I have, and the other one is barely winnable if I think losing another 7k worth of troops is acceptable. I guess I'll just sit tight and continue to build up.

[Ink Asylum]

Using the calculator I was able to figure out a way to win a battle that looked a lot more difficult than it was. My first line of Peasants was too weak to finish their first units, but even though the Peasants disbanded the enemy unit was weakened enough for my Archers to overrun them with no casualties, then safely cleaned up the other two units without needing any help.

I also broke out an old copy of Heroes of Might and Magic III I hadn't played in years. Fun game, though I haven't played IV or V yet. I just needed some of the Heroes gameplay that didn't involve waiting 4 hours for combat resolution.

[nnanji]

If you're playing HoMM, I'd recommend skipping 4 and going right to 5. Really though, I'd say stick with 3, it's got the best random map generator in the series and can really provide you with endless entertainment.

[jpublic]

Why does 4 have so much hate for it?

[nnanji]

I was going to post a larger response to this, but I will sum up my two main points. Lack of a random map generator and a lack of movement spells. The one limited you to campaign maps which I did not enjoy, and the other slowed down the endgame, especially on the larger maps. Plus it sucked balls when your hero died.

[jpublic]

Eh. Fair enough.

I ranked up in Wealth today. I doubt I'm ever going to rank up in Honor, I don't like having near victories, which gets you Honor. I like having stupidly overwhelming victories, which gets you none.

[MagGnome]

I don't think I've gained any Honor. The closest victories I've had have been "Limited".

I was gone for a couple of days, so I'm definitely behind now. However, I now have a ton of gold, wood, ore, and sulfur, so I can hopefully build a bunch over the next day or two. I'm shooting for hellhounds (cavalry) next.

[nnanji]

There is an unaligned player named FireAutumns who is eating into the control zones of Ink Asylum and lorddon. Since it is too early to begin beatdowns, maybe we should consider recruiting them? lessnessman is doing the same thing by rein and I, but as he has already chosen sides his doom is certain.

[jpublic]

Since I'm new at this whole leading a clan thing, can someone tell me how I would best go about recruiting this FireAutumns?

[Ink Asylum]

Incidentally, how does your control zone expand? Do you have to clear every space in your current zone?

Also, is the only way to clear or claim any tiles in another zone to settle a new city there? I can't seem to send an army into any zone under my control except the one with my city.

Also also, is there any way to upgrade units? Finally built a second-tier residence but I can't upgrade all the existing peasants I have like you can in other HoMM games.

[jpublic]

Incidentally, how does your control zone expand? Do you have to clear every space in your current zone?


Mine expanded when I went up a level of Wealth and Domination, I think. It didn't after the Wealth level.


Also, is the only way to clear or claim any tiles in another zone to settle a new city there? I can't seem to send an army into any zone under my control except the one with my city.

If I click on a zone adjacent to my city, I get the option to settle for 20k.


Also also, is there any way to upgrade units? Finally built a second-tier residence but I can't upgrade all the existing peasants I have like you can in other HoMM games.

You should be able to. Go into the recruit interface, and there'll be a button beside the peasants to upgrade them.

[Ink Asylum]

I probably need to go up another level in Domination. I've already leveled in Wealth and Honor. I'll have to look up those other features, too.

[nnanji]

Since I'm new at this whole leading a clan thing, can someone tell me how I would best go about recruiting this FireAutumns?

I have gotten letters from other clans inviting me to join in the first world. I imagine there is a button in the clan panel that lets the leader send out invites to people. Without access to that panel though I don't know for sure where it would be.


Incidentally, how does your control zone expand? Do you have to clear every space in your current zone?

Also, is the only way to clear or claim any tiles in another zone to settle a new city there? I can't seem to send an army into any zone under my control except the one with my city.

Also also, is there any way to upgrade units? Finally built a second-tier residence but I can't upgrade all the existing peasants I have like you can in other HoMM games.

I read on the forums that increases to your control zone happen after 4 days. So if you just ranked up recently it may take a couple of days for the changes to show up on the map. I also don't think you can attack or be attacked while you are still in newbie protection mode, so sending out an army before then might be impossible. Once newbie protection is over we will be attacking and raiding other cities primarily. I don't think clearing out NPCs is typical unless you are just settling a new city.

[rein]

With only 3 zones left to capture I can't seem to find a way to get an outstanding victory (or the crushing victory for that matter). It's funny, because prior to getting that quest I got two when fighting low level units. I've used that little calculator thing and no matter how I organize troops I go back and forth between minor and major victories. You would think if adding some units makes it change from minor to major adding more would increase it to outstanding. Instead, it drops it back down to minor. That, or that little calculator is wrong.

..nnanji, you're kicking ass in Domination. You are about to hit rank 2? Wow.

[nnanji]

Getting an outstanding victory isn't only about more bodies, it's also about fewer deaths. Mixing your unit types properly and using higher power units will get you that. I'm less certain about how to get the crushing victory. One post on the forum I read compared it to getting a double overrun, ie: the type bonus should be double the power of the entire enemy stack. The suggestion was to split your stacks so that the first attack reduces them to just a creature or two, and then the follow up attack is just crushingly disproportionate.

Of course, I didn't get either quest completed because I just decided to finish the job. I cleared my entire region and now I am just sitting around collecting resources and building structures. With both griffins and footmen online the costs of recruitment are prohibitive. I'm also saving up for my fort and then to build forts in the squares next to my mines. Until my newbie period ends there isn't much for me to do.

On that note, I noticed that a third world opened up. So I unregistered from the first world and started an academy city in the third world. If anyone is interested in starting out there I can put out a referral link.

edit: Here is the link if anyone wants it.

http://mm-hk.com/referral/8c3a5ef678c493415328a3684bca0c04dc9083e3

[jpublic]

I'm joining. Nnanji, you get to start the Alliance this time.

In our other game, I've given up on the massive ludicrous victories, and am just going for clearning the region. I spend a couple days clearing and building stuff, and then a couple rebuilding my forces.

[nnanji]

Hmm... for some reason it won't let me use the full number of characters for the alliance name so I improvised a bit. I'll see if I can edit it later.

[rein]

I created an Inferno city. I see you NW of me. I didn't see jpublic. Is he close by?

[nnanji]

Yeah, he is just a bit further NW of me. Looks like he's undead.

[EWolfmanD]

Awesome, I managed to start near more than just one other player this time. Player name is the same.

[MagGnome]

I've joined the new world as well. MagGnome, of course.

[Clark]

Joined up via Nnanji's link.

Clark352

[nnanji]

OK, invites have been sent for Clark and MagGnome.

[rein]

Hey guys. I'm about to get a bit busier than I expected (taking on more at work) and I'm not sure I want to check in on my cities too often. I've played better web based games and with the schedule tightening up it's not worth the hassle. Rather than deleting them, I noticed that I can turn control over to someone in the alliance. Anyone up for taking over one or both? I believe you have to be in the alliance for me to assign control. I honestly have no idea how me turning over the city works but I figured it might be a way for you guys to resource farm them or something.

[nnanji]

Well, tonight is the night. In the first world I will be out of newbie protection starting around 9, and I have assembled an army of about 90k power. I am hoping that is enough to start pillaging local towns while leaving a modest self-defense force at home. Any suggestions as to targets?

[jpublic]

Oh CRAP. I forgot about that. I'm doomed.

[nnanji]

Not everyone is getting out of protection at the same time, so hopefully there aren't too many people around you who are. Maybe they'll go after weaker cities owned by people who have already quit. In games of this type attrition is high, so there should be plenty of easy 'farms' around you for them to concentrate on.

[EWolfmanD]

I think the three or four cities next to me already quit. They seem to all have the same stats, which must be right after the tutorial or so. Of course on jpublic's side of our area, there's an alliance of at least three people, and the two next to him have expanded regions.

[Ink Asylum]

One of my nearest neighbors seems to only have a level 1 hero at their base. I don't think I'm going to be the only one seiging him when his newbie protection wears off. Mine wears off tomorrow afternoon.

[jpublic]

Yeah, I'm hoping those guys go after someone else. I've started a defender hero to patrol my region and build some forts.

[nnanji]

Whelp, it looks like my first pillage was a total failure. The small, un-built up towns will not be useful pillage targets. The report said that I was not able to loot the wood or gold mines because they were still occupied by monsters! I guess my next target will be the town in the middle of our alliance. he looks fairly well built up but he has no alliance to help him out. I am also looking at lessnessman, but I don't know if the Demon alliance will come to his aid.

[jpublic]

I invited that guy, but he didn't respond.

[nnanji]

Turned out I couldn't attack him anyway because he was newbed. So I attacked lessnessman. If the Demons towns want a fight, I say we give it to them.

OK. It's just me. I want the fight. But I still say we give it to them.

[MalReynolds]

is anyone wanna be my ally ?

[jpublic]

Mal, you want in on the alliance? What world are you in and what's your nick?

[MalReynolds]

Dragons Legacy im pretty sure and Greenhorn

[Ink Asylum]

I settled a second city today. Some things I've learned so far about doing so:


Each city has distinct heroes, armies, and resources, including gold.
The npc-filled squares around the new city will be much harder than the first squares you cleared around your first city.


I'm hoping my original city isn't sacked as I move the bulk of my army to my second city in order to clear some squares and get resources flowing.

[jpublic]

Dragons Legacy im pretty sure and Greenhorn

We're on Ravaged Lands and Roar of the Griffin.

If you want a ref to start over on one of those, we can post one.

[MalReynolds]

sure if you want

[jpublic]

Mal - use this link to join Roar of the Griffin near us.

MM:HK (http://mm-hk.com/referral/ad46ce7f822b341e78451d1f6ad7b89283880c16)

[MalReynolds]

it wont let me join that server says its full

[MalReynolds]

MM:HK (http://mm-hk.com/referral/e19a8d5ca5fd30815e1514deeb88fed531af5603)

if anyone wants to join me!

[nnanji]

Starting to get really frustrated with the shoddy code in this game. Ever since I built a second city the game keeps freezing up and losing connections, then I can't log back on for an hour. I assume their is a ghost of me showing on the server or something.

[jpublic]

I've been having that problem for the last day or so.

[jpublic]

Mal (or whomever wants to join):

I have won a special invite to have someone join the game, that gets around the 'too full' rules. It automatically places you in the alliance.

First person to PM me with their email addy gets it.

[Panthera]

I've officially given up on this.

[jpublic]

There a particular reason? I mean, from my PoV, it was just getting good. On my Ravaged Lands game, I almost cleared my territory, I've got Tier 5 units, and I'm looking pretty badass.

On my Roar of the Griffin, I'm admittedly stalled, but that was because I managed to wipe out my forces by overreaching. But still, things are going swimmingly.

[Panthera]

It's just not very interesting, not to mention slow and buggy and full of strange design decisions.

[LordDon]

I'm still kind of enjoying it, though I don't have a second city yet and I'm just barely getting vampires.

[rein]

I screwed up my second city by being distracted with multi-tasking and selecting the wrong tile to settle. They really need to implement a way to recall a hero from completing an action. I am waiting on my resources to build up for a third city. I should have enough tomorrow. I'm not sure what to do with the second city. I'm just going to leave it idle for now.

[jpublic]

Okay, I'm done with this game. I'm told I can't even use the equalization function anymore in battle unless I pay, and that's not happening.

Uness that disappears in a day or so, I'm going to delete my characters and quit.

[MagGnome]

I've noticed that hardly anyone in our alliance seems to be playing, and someone left. :(

Oh well, this game was fun for a bit. It's sad to see it go so quickly. I was there was some sort of alternative that we could all play together. The Civ IV games didn't pan out all that well, IMHO.

[Ink Asylum]

Okay, I'm done with this game. I'm told I can't even use the equalization function anymore in battle unless I pay, and that's not happening.

Yup. That's why I quit playing. I guess they weren't getting enough subscribers just limiting people to 3 cities and 3 heroes, they decided to start turning off other features, too.

[jpublic]

Yep, I'm out. Screw 'em.

[destoo]

I'm still in.
It's better to use the combat calculator anyway, you sometimes get screwed using the equal sign.

[LordDon]

I'm still kind of playing, though the equals thing annoys me.

[MagGnome]

Some guy just attacked my city with an army 10x stronger than my own. I have no idea how he could even build up that fast.

I've decided to just quit. It seems like the COG "alliance" is dead anyway.

[rein]

Well... ...if everyone else is leaving. I'm going to build up my army before I quit though. I'm at least going to make it a challenge for whoever tries to take it over. :D

[MagGnome]

Is my city still there, or did it disappear? I certainly hope that bastard who attacked me doesn't end up with it.