Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Aloriah: Midgard Progress Update #2.17

Farm, farm, farm, another milestone done!

There was no Mother Dragon attack this week, as she is still flying, up in the air. Her landing is dependent on the new patch, which is due any day now. We are all waiting with bated breath.

In the meantime, I am busy trying to get as much of the world explored so I can get to the eggs (which apparently will be dropped around the world) as soon as possible:
  • Searching many portal stones as I can.
  • Controlling lookout towers. I control 75 as of current count.
  • My Achievements statistics tell me I have explored 67.7% of the black fog.

As mentioned previously, I (and a few other alliance mates) are housing constrained. My maximum housing is 154,270 which means I can go over it by 40% to 215,978 before I hit "Mass Starvation". I sit at 187,224 units currently and I have not been training that hard this week. Thus, I am dropping to minimum training buildings and converting them to Taverns. My plan is to train only Sleipnir Horses and Sarimner Boars. Given they are trained by Uber Lairs, I can afford to drop most normal troop training buildings.

  • Aloriah is an online web browser based strategy game. More information can be found at my Aloriah Coverage page.
  • If you wish to jump straight in, you can sign up at http://www.aloriah.com/?ref=guzzer.
  • As best described by the creators of the game:
    "Aloriah is a free online web browser game based on mythologies of our time.
    Rule a civilization and experience epic events together with thousands of other players.
    • Play for free directly online through your internet browser
    • Expand villages, rally your armies and level your heroes
    • Explore the lands of Aloriah to find its mysteries
    • Journey on legendary quests together with your friends
    • Choose to worship the gods of good or evil"

Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Aloriah: Midgard Progress Update #2.16

I am still leading by a lot but my rate of black dragon farming seems to be decreasing a little. I do not have as much time nowadays and frankly, it is kind of boring.

Ragnarök's weekly attack on the Mother Dragon occurred as normal. This was attack #6 and we did 2% damage. If you are interested, you can read the battle report at:
We only needed 1.7% to get it to 75% so we did not take as many troops as usual, conserving them for later.
2% is cutting it too fine for my liking though. The reason is that the Mother Dragon breathed on us on our way to her, and we had to walk through several cells of fire beforehand. Thus, we got to her with a lot of our troops already lost. Anyhow, we got it to 75% regardless.
We do need the new patch before it lands and eggs become available, so here is hoping that it will not take too long.

This is what happens when you have too many troops, which pretty much seems to be the soft cap for troop size. I am having trouble staying below this limit as I have an abundance of resource. Going forward, I will be training mostly sleipnir horses are they are best for Mother Dragon attacks.

  • Aloriah is an online web browser based strategy game. More information can be found at my Aloriah Coverage page.
  • If you wish to jump straight in, you can sign up at http://www.aloriah.com/?ref=guzzer.
  • As best described by the creators of the game:
    "Aloriah is a free online web browser game based on mythologies of our time.
    Rule a civilization and experience epic events together with thousands of other players.
    • Play for free directly online through your internet browser
    • Expand villages, rally your armies and level your heroes
    • Explore the lands of Aloriah to find its mysteries
    • Journey on legendary quests together with your friends
    • Choose to worship the gods of good or evil"

Friday, March 18, 2011

Lord of Ultima: Warehouse City Layout V2

It has been a while since my warehouse layout so it is time to update it as the game has progressed. Things have certainly changed a lot, eg, trade minister and palaces. Lord Ultima has come leaps and bounds since I started playing back in June 2010.

There also is an improvement to the design pattern, thanks to a suggestion from an alliance member, Anon69. I now have 2 variants, default and palace build.

Here is my Default Warehouse City Layout which you can see in the LoU Flash City Planner.
Storage: 14,575,000 wood/stone and 18,575,000 iron/food
Shipping Capacity: 7,400 carts and 240 merchant ships

This is what I use for everyday life in Lord of Ultima. There is an option for you to balance out the wood/stone/iron/food or have more wood/stone then iron/food. However, I use the more iron/food option as I like to store more of such for times of war.

Here is my Palace Build Warehouse City Layout which you can see in the LoU Flash City Planner.
Storage: 27,375,000 wood/stone and 5,775,000 iron/food
Shipping Capacity: 7,400 carts and 240 merchant ships

This layout is essentially to store a lot of wood/stone for when your palaces get enlightened.

I see the following purposes for a warehouse city now:
  • To store resources for when they are needed, for example, new city build and war supply.
  • To ship resources to support new continent builds/invasions.
  • To consolidate food for feeding your armies. The trade minister has made this oh so easy now:
    • Farms feed the warehouses.
    • Excess food from military raiding cities is shipped to warehouses.
    • Cities that need food request shipment from warehouses.
  • To store excess wood/stone for when your palaces get enlightened. Please note you cannot just ship only from your warehouses but your resource/military raiding cities also, as high level palaces need a lot of wood/stone. If you ship from your warehouses only, filling up your palace will take a lot longer, and possibly span several enlightenment periods.

My design logic is:
  • If you do get excessive resources somehow, the moonglow tower allows for purification of them.
  • The City guard house is there to recruit city guard for defense.
  • There is a food cluster to feed your city guard. There are times whereby you might ship all the food out unintentionally, so this prevents starvation. Depending on your lake placements, you can roughly support 100,000 city guard without external food supply, if needs be.
  • There is no trinsic temple as I normally recruit barons in paladin military cities. It is a lot faster there anyhow. If I do have to send barons to another continent, I have a few paladin military cities on water with harbours to allow that. However, if you do not have that situation, and do want a trinsic temple in your warehouse city, you can always drop a marketplace for a trinsic temple.
  • You might notice there is a much higher shipping capacity here then in other warehouse cities you might have seen. It is all about resource flow with the trade minister and the more shipping you have, the more cities you can support per warehouse, and/or the faster you can ship to palaces.

For towers, I recommend:
  • Lookout tower x2 to give 20 hours of attack advanced warning. I find 1 tower/10 hours is not enough.
  • The remaining 22 towers depend on whatever defensive troops you have. For me personally, I use Ballista towers as my alliance has full continent control, so no one is there to plunder me from within the continent. Thus, Ballista towers are there in case someone decides to plunder from offshore, which is very rare anyhow.

  • Lord of Ultima is an online web browser based strategy game. More information can be found at my Lord of Ultima Coverage page.
  • If you wish to jump straight in, you can sign up at http://www.lordofultima.com/en/ref/2300431315.
  • As best described by the creators of the game:
    "Lord of Ultima is EA’s first game in the free Strategy MMO genre and is completely playable in a web browser. Developed by EA’s Phenomic studio, the game’s creator Volker Wertich (the genius behind strategy classics such as the Settlers) takes this genre to the next level. Lord of Ultima features deep strategic gameplay and multiple social features including an advanced trading system, alliance features, online chat, and forums. At launch it will be available in English and German language.

    Set in the legendary Ultima universe, the game takes you to the new world of Caledonia, formed from the remains of Sosaria which was shattered into countless islands. You start your journey with a humble village which you grow over time into a mighty and prosperous capital. On your path to glory you will have to expand your power by creating additional cities, exploring new continents and forging a vast empire. You must master the art of diplomacy and trade as well as the military activities of spying, plundering, attacking and sieging enemy cities to finally become the mighty and feared Lord of Ultima."

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Aloriah: Midgard Progress Update #2.15

20k scenario points came and went, 25k here I come. It is getting rather monotonous now. If you are wondering, Black Dragon farming still gives a lot more (per week) scenario points then Mother Dragon attacks. Thus, there is no let up in the Black Dragon grind, given I do want to maximize scenario points.

Ragnarök's weekly attack on the Mother Dragon occurred as normal. This was attack #5 and we did 7.4% damage. If you are interested, you can read the battle report at:
The Mother Dragon is now on 76.7%, so close!

This is for the achievement lovers. I had a spare Replica of Frey's Ship so I sold it to complete this achievement. It is as what we suspected.

  • Aloriah is an online web browser based strategy game. More information can be found at my Aloriah Coverage page.
  • If you wish to jump straight in, you can sign up at http://www.aloriah.com/?ref=guzzer.
  • As best described by the creators of the game:
    "Aloriah is a free online web browser game based on mythologies of our time.
    Rule a civilization and experience epic events together with thousands of other players.
    • Play for free directly online through your internet browser
    • Expand villages, rally your armies and level your heroes
    • Explore the lands of Aloriah to find its mysteries
    • Journey on legendary quests together with your friends
    • Choose to worship the gods of good or evil"

Saturday, March 12, 2011

Lord of Ultima: Warlock Military City Layout

I use Warlocks over Mages as they make better farmers. Naturally, I have two city variants. However, you do have an option to recruit Mages instead for the attack variant. Once the continent is conquered, you can dismiss whatever Mages you have leftover and recruit Warlocks for farming.

The first variant is a full attack configuration for a contested continent. Here is the Attack Warlock Military City Layout which you can see in the LoU Flash City Planner:
Max Units: 138,000 Warlocks
Recruitment Speed: 18s
Storage: 975,000 wood/stone and 2,575,000 iron/food
Food Deficit: 115,000 per hour (need to restock every 22.4 hours)

As you can see, it is designed for maximum troop strength and reasonable recruiting speed. On a contested continent, you need to minimize castling and get the most out of the few castles you have.

Thus, there is no food production, ship it in via the trade minister.

I have kept the design simple, without deviation from the conventional military city layout in the middle. This allows for easy conversion to the farming configuration once the continent is conquered.

For towers, I use:
  • Lookout Tower x2 to give 20 hours of attack advanced warning. I find 1 tower/10 hours is not enough.
  • Ballista Tower x22 as the most risk is someone catapulting your city.

The second variant is a farming configuration for a controlled continent. Here is the Farm Warlock Military City Layout which you can see in the LoU Flash City Planner:
Max Units: 88,000 Warlocks
Recruitment Speed: 18s
Storage: 2,975,000 wood/stone/iron/food
Food Deficit: 73,333 per hour (need to restock every 40.6 hours)
Shipping Capacity: 4200 carts

There is no food production needed as you will have surplus food from dungeon raids. If there are no dungeon raids for whatever reason, ship in food via the trade minister.

There is a good amount of storage but not too much, as you will be shipping out the surplus with the trade minister anyhow.

There are a lot of marketplaces as shipping capacity is key:
  • You will be farming resources at a high rate, and need to be able to ship it to your warehouses/new cities.
  • Rapid shipping to palaces will be needed once palace building gets to higher levels.

For towers, I still would use:
  • Lookout Tower x2 to give 20 hours of attack advanced warning. I find 1 tower/10 hours is not enough.
  • Ballista Tower x22 as the most risk is someone catapulting your city.

  • Lord of Ultima is an online web browser based strategy game. More information can be found at my Lord of Ultima Coverage page.
  • If you wish to jump straight in, you can sign up at http://www.lordofultima.com/en/ref/2300431315.
  • As best described by the creators of the game:
    "Lord of Ultima is EA’s first game in the free Strategy MMO genre and is completely playable in a web browser. Developed by EA’s Phenomic studio, the game’s creator Volker Wertich (the genius behind strategy classics such as the Settlers) takes this genre to the next level. Lord of Ultima features deep strategic gameplay and multiple social features including an advanced trading system, alliance features, online chat, and forums. At launch it will be available in English and German language.

    Set in the legendary Ultima universe, the game takes you to the new world of Caledonia, formed from the remains of Sosaria which was shattered into countless islands. You start your journey with a humble village which you grow over time into a mighty and prosperous capital. On your path to glory you will have to expand your power by creating additional cities, exploring new continents and forging a vast empire. You must master the art of diplomacy and trade as well as the military activities of spying, plundering, attacking and sieging enemy cities to finally become the mighty and feared Lord of Ultima."

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

Aloriah: Midgard Progress Update #2.14

Close to 20k scenario points, should be able to get it by next week, if not in the next few days.

Woot! It took some effort but I finally made it. If I am correct, I think I am the first to achieve such.Shout out goes to Mysterious who reminded me that I had not done the 'Public Announcer' and 'Patience Is a Virtue' as yet which took me to over the line.

Things do not always go my way. :( My treasure hunter ran into some ruby dragons in Molten Ashlands when I was not watching.
 
Ragnarök's weekly attack on the Mother Dragon occurred as normal. This was attack #4 and we did 4.3% damage. If you are interested, you can read the battle report at:
The Mother Dragon is now on 84.1%.

At the end of Midgard round one, I said that the Mother Dragon was way too easy. However, with the current incarnation, it does seem like it is too hard, ie, will take way too long to kill. I used to raid hardcore in the World of Warcraft and our weekly Mother Dragon outings so feel like a raid. The whole thing can take 4-6 hours.
  • Yell at everyone to turn up at the designated spot on time!
  • Ensure we get our relevant buffs.
  • Move together as we chase the Mother Dragon through her lair.
  • Engage and fight!
  • Receive the loot (scenario points and diamonds).
  • Res and port out.

The thing is, the way the current mechanics are, you have to attack all together to make a decent dent, ie, raid. I think maybe some thought should be given to allowing solo attacks to be effective, whether you are in an alliance or not.

  • Aloriah is an online web browser based strategy game. More information can be found at my Aloriah Coverage page.
  • If you wish to jump straight in, you can sign up at http://www.aloriah.com/?ref=guzzer.
  • As best described by the creators of the game:
    "Aloriah is a free online web browser game based on mythologies of our time.
    Rule a civilization and experience epic events together with thousands of other players.
    • Play for free directly online through your internet browser
    • Expand villages, rally your armies and level your heroes
    • Explore the lands of Aloriah to find its mysteries
    • Journey on legendary quests together with your friends
    • Choose to worship the gods of good or evil"

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Aloriah: Midgard Progress Update #2.13

Farm, farm, farm! 15k scenario points came and went by. 20k, here we come!

Ragnarök's weekly attack on the Mother Dragon occurred as normal. This was attack #3 and we did 5.9% damage. If you are interested, you can read the battle report at:

The Mother Dragon is now on 88.4%. At this rate, we should unlock the 75% effects within 2-3 weeks.

The other main activity I have been doing is attacking anyone (not allied) that poses a current or future threat to us. Dry Steppes is bit of a scorched earth. As a result, some people have quit the round as they see no chance of beating us, and it is unfortunate, but that is the nature of a war game. I do agree it can be quite harsh on players behind us, but end of the day, we are here to win. I will not jeopardize that by letting competitive players build up. So, if you do get attacked by me, think of it as a compliment. :)

Villages are quite hard to defend. I remember early on, Tweezer stole 3 items from my Dry Steppes village whilst my main armies were out and about, and I was asleep. I had overall superior forces but I had to peace him as I did not want to slow my build. Aloriah is pretty much a build game. You need to out build and smash your opposition before they get a foothold. This is especially important given that each week, we lose a lot of troops on our Mother Dragon attack.

Furthermore, there is a ongoing discussion on Aloriah pvp on the forums if you are interested:

  • Aloriah is an online web browser based strategy game. More information can be found at my Aloriah Coverage page.
  • If you wish to jump straight in, you can sign up at http://www.aloriah.com/?ref=guzzer.
  • As best described by the creators of the game:
    "Aloriah is a free online web browser game based on mythologies of our time.
    Rule a civilization and experience epic events together with thousands of other players.
    • Play for free directly online through your internet browser
    • Expand villages, rally your armies and level your heroes
    • Explore the lands of Aloriah to find its mysteries
    • Journey on legendary quests together with your friends
    • Choose to worship the gods of good or evil"