City Development For New Players

Llyr wrote: Thanks Gossip! As I said originally, there's obviously no "right" approach, but here are some additional reasons to support what I wrote: 1. I can't imagine building 10-15 cottages; I've never built more than 4 in a new town. I don't build them to sell the resources, but to retain them for future use. New players don't need gold, and I've always just gradually raised my taxes from 0% at the start when I do.

Building those cotters and making gold will allow new players to keep that tax rate at 0% for an extended period of time which means more res generation for longer time

Llyr wrote: Disclaimer: City development decisions are often controversial, and I don't claim to have all the right answers for all new players under all circumstances. After all, I've only been playing for three months. However, I have used these guidelines to build and develop eight towns (between my two accounts) and I've been happy with the results so far. Your mileage may vary. Not to be taken internally. Do not read while operating heavy machinery. Part One: Your First Settlement Your first settlement should have the following buildings as soon as possible: Library Market Storehouse Barracks Mage Tower Consulate Your first settlement should also have the following buildings, but there isn't a big rush to construct them: Book Binder Flour Mill Stonemason City Wall (requires Stonemason) Cottages (I'd suggest 3 or 4 of these) Your first settlement also needs the following buildings, but they are (or may be) temporary, so don't upgrade them too much: Saddlemaker Brewery Tavern (don't upgrade past level 2, there's no point to it) Resource Bonus Buildings Each basic resource has a building that gives you a bonus. The Flour Mill gives a food bonus and the Stonemason gives a stone bonus, but you should build those anyway. If you have a resource with more than 5 plots (that isn't food or stone), consider constructing the bonus building for that resource (Carpenter for wood, Kiln for clay, Foundry for iron). This increases your existing advantage. Some players choose to construct the bonus building for resources that have fewer than 5 plots to reduce the disadvantage. Personally I don't agree; I try to locate new settlements to compensate. So if my first town has 3 clay plots, I try to get 7 clay plots in my second town. Again, there's no truly correct answer; do what seems right for you. Also, resource bonus buildings may be prerequisites for other needed buildings as described below. Look ahead on the Research Tree to see if you need them or not. In addition, upgrade your Paddock and Common Ground (but there's no big rush to do those either). I don't recommend constructing any other buildings until you relocate your capital out of the newbie ring. And I don't recommend starting a second town until you have relocated. Part Two: Relocation This is a very controversial topic for many players, so I won't say much about it. Except that I'd recommend relocating your capital to a relatively isolated spot so that you can build additional towns nearby without crowding existing players. Personally I think that concentrating your towns in the same area is best, but others may disagree. If you have or plan to join an alliance, they may you to locate in a specific area. Part Three: What To Build After Relocation Before deciding on additional buildings, first determine your sovereignty bonuses available on all squares within a 2-square radius of your town. If you don't know anything about sovereignty, there are postings in the forum that explain it. Go through the research tree on Sovereignty to see what buildings your town needs to take advantage of these bonuses, and consider constructing those. Some of those buildings may have prerequisite buildings that you will need first (for example, you can't build a Blacksmith unless you first build a Foundry). This may mean adding resource bonus buildings that you don't already have. Next, I'd recommend that your first town specialize in harvesting and trade (subsequent towns can handle weapons and armour; see below). To fully take advantage of harvesting, you will need a Skinners Guild, Herbalist Guild, and Miners Guild. To use trade hubs, you will need a Merchants Guild and Trade Office. Next, make sure to save one plot for a Warehouse; you'll need it later. Also consider saving one plot for a Chancery of Estates (some players think the Chancery isn't worth it, but I build one in every town). Now, write down all the buildings you need and see if you have enough vacant spots. If you are short of spots, here are some possible solutions: 1. Demolish your tavern if you have received the Block and Tackle discovery for doing level 1 quests. There's also a discovery for level 2 quests (Inquisitive Populace), but it's of minimal value (in my opinion). Besides, level 2 quests usually kill scouts, which then have to be replaced, using up resources for very little reward. 2. If you stop doing quests, you don't need the brewery. You will need beer to build ranged units (archers), but that can wait until you have a second town, and you start this all over again. 3. If you're still short of plots, demolish the cottages and abandon the cotters. However, you will need the hides, basic herbs and basic minerals that cotters provide in order to build skinners, herbalists and miners, so make sure you've stockpiled enough. Again, your next town can have more cotters. 4. Still short of plots? Then you have to eliminate something. Look at your sovereignty bonuses again, and delete the buildings that give you the smallest bonus. 5. If you have room to keep a Saddlemaker in a second or third town, you can demolish the one in your first town. But you should always have a Saddlemaker available somewhere. Part Four: Considerations for Second and Third Towns Basic buildings remain the same; the only difference is that your second and third towns don't need to focus on harvesting and trade. Instead, I suggest specializing one town for weapons (spears, bows and swords) and the other for armour (leather, chain and plate). Elves can't use plate armour, but can still produce it for sale if desired. Each weapon and armour type has a "basic" building and a "specialist" building; make room for both. Finally, one of your three towns should include a Horse Trainer. By this time you will almost certainly have some empty building plots. Save these for the advanced buildings that benefit diplomatic and military units, or increase your magic potential. These buildings won't be available until you've done some pretty advanced research, at which point you should be familiar enough with the game to decide which ones are right for you. Part Five: Buildings To Avoid This may be the most controversial part. Most players will recommend a Vault and an Architect. In my view, these are a waste. New players rarely have to worry about thieves, so a Vault is unnecessary. An Architect reduces construction time for other buildings, but that's not much of a benefit. Construction time is rarely an issue; if you do need something built right away, use prestige to "instant build". Otherwise, just be patient. An Architect consumes a lot of resources to construct and upgrade, and doesn't give much benefit until it's at a high level. If you do have a building spot that you don't need for anything else, go ahead and build an Architect if you want to. Personally, I don't. Final Words Please feel free to IGM me if you'd like more clarification on anything I've written here. If you disagree, constructive feedback is always welcome. Again, I'm fairly new but I've thought a great deal about city development (because I initially made mistakes that took time and effort to fix). This article isn't meant to be taken as any kind of gospel, but hopefully it will help new players who find the building choices a bit overwhelming. Final Final Words Think and plan ahead before constructing anything. Don't just think about your first settlement; think ahead to what can wait for your second or third. There's no rush for a new player to build military units, or diplomatic units other than basic scouts and basic spies (and even basic scouts aren't needed until you relocate). Hint: basic spies are for the Statue Mystery.

Hey Llyr, I admire the effort you 've put in there.

I would like to propose some changes in the part one.

I think the cottage is the most useful building for a newB as he/she can harvest herbs/hides and sell them in the market to gain gold.Thus I recommend building as many of them as possible (10-15 for towns less than 3k pop).
I would not advise a newB to build a consulate or a barrack at first.
There are two reasons for that. 
First Illy is quite a peaceful game and you won't get attacked in your first 6 months here unless you piss somebody off 
Second is even if you build them they won't be that useful for newBs as they won't be able to build either troops or diplos in any significant amount.

I don't support building stonemason or wall on the same grounds.

The book binder is again another building a newB shouldn't build (and those who know the game quite well will tell you that no main account should build this building). The reason is simple why would a newB wanna convert his 25 res points into 20 res points. Some people would say for gold.But wouldn't it be more efficient to build a cottage instead of the book binder in the first place.

Again there is no rush to build a saddle maker ( i would recommend building one when you have atleast 5k cows) but if you do don't demolish it.

The architect's office is a must have building for people who don't want to put large amount of RL money into the game. Again when to build it is a point of debate.my advise is to start building it once you are self sufficient (i.e you can produce the basic res you require). This building can be demolished once you 've levelled up all other building in your town

Do I need to say sorry for writing such a long post??

Edited to enter some fancy emoticons 

Edited by Gossip Boy - 28 Dec 2012 at 17:51

agree with rorgash, illy plays best when playing as a team, there is too many variables, no set way to do anything, it what makes it so interesting

first: Thanks. Loads of! 

Edited by Llyr - 30 Jun 2013 at 02:48