Newb Diaries

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Today is the big day, the day my rainbow disappears.  (If you are wondering why it is happening on Day 8, it is because I am counting days in the is diary as calendar days; I started in the late evening of Day 1, so my rainbow goes away late tonight.)

My saddlemaker and brewery are cooking up saddles and beers to make my settler; the Pioneering research has finished, so I should be able to start the settler this evening.

In anticipation of my rainbow vanishing, I begin to build a vault.  I'll build it to level 3, which will give me plenty of protection for basic resources.  So far I don't have any advanced resources to speak of, other than the saddles and beer I'm making for my settler.  I'm pretty comfortable in not having a rune up yet, although I'll probably want to get one up sometime next week, if only for the pleasure of zapping anything that crosses my threshold.

My resource production is 4 gold, 206 wood, 183 clay, 177 iron, 185 stone, 9 food and 45 research points.  I have enough resource production to upgrade pretty much continuously now; I'm focusing on getting the rest of my resource plots up to level 7.