No, not Warhammer (though that is on my list of games to play and review)… my Ikariam alliance!  We have gone to war!

I’d been idly playing Ikariam during the day, in between working on my magnum opus and checking the guild forums.  My five towns were doing well, but  the game was beginning to slow a bit for me.  I don’t have the military to start farming inactive people (which is the type of pillaging that my defense-oriented alliance generally supports), so I was left to just expand my population, beef up my defenses, upgrade buildings, and discover new technologies.  I was pretty much in maintenance mode hoping to eventually expand to a sixth town and maybe someday a seventh.  (This is *very* expensive and definitely a long term goal.)  I spent most of my time trading with my alliance and making sure me resources were well-protected.

Then, there were some rumblings in the last couple weeks.  Someone got pillaged by a member of an alliance that we had fought with in the past.  They called for aid, but our leadership said that the terms of the cease fire from the previous war stated that one-on-one battles (as this had been) were permitted between people with scores within 20K.  Additional retribution from our alliance could bring about another war, which they hoped to discourage.  The last one was very costly, apparently.

The pillaging victim backed down, but the needling continued.  There were additional reports of pillaging.  Then, the final straw: a 3:1 attack on one of our alliance members after he helped defend someone on his island who was being pillaged by our enemy.  Our leader contacted the enemy and explained the recent violations of the agreements that ended our last war, concluding: “Cease Attacks or War it is.”  In the hours that followed, we got our answer.  The attacks began.  War!  Raaar!

At first, I was afraid that we were not organized enough.  A lot of people were offering troops and resources toward the war effort, but it was unclear where to send them.  In the meantime, our membership unleashed herds of spies on the enemy’s towns to identify weak spots and possible points of entry.  Eventually, a few people offered their cities as staging grounds, giving us some coordinates to concentrate on.  It was not quite the organized assault I was expecting, but troops were deployed, cities near our enemies were infiltrated and occupied, and we began our own attacks.

I helped out by sending sulfur to those capable of making strong military units.  I have loads of good defensive units, but none of the advanced offensive units are available to me yet. Our alliance boards were updated with brief messages every few minutes to let us know how the battles were going.  One of our leaders described the cat and mouse game he had going with one of the enemy alliance’s leaders.  Troops were being shuffled and and mysteriously scattered, among other things.  As the evening’s battle intensified, the enemy leader sent this message to ours:

“You seem to be very fast and slippery. As of now you seem to be able to avoid my troops, but your [sic] going to sleep sometime.”

So, before I went to bed, I deployed 200 defensive troops, 100 to each of the staging sites that I had seen listed.  Initially I had decided I’d best stay off the radar, but really, what fun would that be?

(I don’t think I’d have the time to play it, but all of this makes me want to resub to EVE!)

Ikariam

World of wonders

if you are playing this please tell me

and which server?

Bye

Recently my lack of progress in terms of construction has frustrated me. Due to my initial reluctance to establish my new colony, it has been seiged with setbacks.

Corruption ran rampantly unchecked, and resources set aside for the construction began to gradually dissipate.

But finally, it was completed. A governor’s residence as grand as any other, newly expanded to the seventh level. A truly beautiful sight.

But construction is quite the setback in resources, and my coffers were in great need of being replenished. As I raided a nearby emperor, I oversaw the construction of a glass maker, to boost my production of the much sought crystal. My ships returned bringing scores of sulfur, mountains of marble, wages of wine, and wondrous wood.

Again and again my ships were sent out, to rid this lethargic emperor of material he would not use.

And then it was spotted. A large contingent of troops heading towards my city. My scouts informed me that it was a scarce army, laden with conscripts who would not fight for their king without fear.

As they approached the city, I grinned.

The crows will fly over the ten and two score bodies left in front of my gates, a testament to the futility of his assault.

Urghs! In Ikariam plagt mich langsam schon wieder das gefürchtete Simcity-Syndrom: Lange Zeiten voller Frieden, Freude und gemächlichem Städteausbau führen bei mir dazu, dass der Spielspaß enorm leidet. Viel lieber würde ich meine Einheiten gegen gut befestigte Stadtmauern schicken, zusammen mit meinen Freunden aus der M4H gewaltige Festungen stürmen und als Belohnung Haufen von Plündergut einstreifen, während die Besiegten im Forum herumweinen.* Ich brauche einen Krieg!

Leider hat die neue Spielversion 0.3.2 bei uns in der Ally aber zu großer Lethargie geführt :-/. Viele unserer alten Kämpen sind gerade mehr oder weniger inaktiv, weil sie mit den letzten Änderungen an der Spielmechanik nicht viel anfangen können oder weil sie sowieso langsam das Interesse an Ikariam verlieren. Nach allem, was ich so lese oder aus Gesprächen mit Leuten erfahre, die auf anderen Servern zocken, ist das aber nicht nur bei uns so. Überall wandern Spieler ab oder legen zumindest eine Spielpause ein, die Luft ist bei vielen raus. Heißt das vielleicht, dass Ikariam zu Tode gepatcht wurde? Das wäre wirklich schade :-/.

Naja, noch will ich die Flinte aber nicht ins Korn werfen. Gerade habe ich den Ausbau meines letzten Statthaltersitzes auf Level 8 gestartet, bald kann ich eine weitere Kolonie ohne Korruption siedeln.  Damit kann ich bis zu 9 Städte ohne Beeinträchtigungen verwalten, wobei aber immer einen Slot für eine Raidkolonie reserviert bleibt. Wo ich meine neue Perma-Kolonie hinsetzen soll, weiß ich aber noch nicht. Vielleicht platziere ich sie diesmal ein wenig weiter weg von meinen anderen Städten, so dass sich meine strategischen Möglichkeiten vergrößern…

* Im Nachhinein vergisst man ja gerne, dass einem diese Sachen umgekehrt genauso passieren, wenn man gegen ebenbürtige oder überlegene Gegner kämpft. Bis auf das Weinen, das spare ich mir, Indianer kennt keinen Schmerz .

Meine Leser sind sehr regeltreue und faire Spieler, wenn ich mir so das Ergebnis von der Umfrage von letzter Woche ansehe . Ich wollte ja wissen, ob ihr in euren Browsergames schonmal gecheatet oder Bugs ausgenutzt habt, um in den Ranglisten weiter nach oben zu wandern. Hier ist das Ergebnis dieser Befragung:

Die klare Mehrheit hält also nichts von Cheaten und lehnt das aus moralischen Gründen ab. Sehr gut, wirklich sehr brav, meine Lieben . Mein Glauben daran, dass es ohne Wiesel aber auch nicht gehen kann, bestätigt sich dagegen durch jene 5 Leute, die offen zugeben, dass sie andauernd betrügen. Ihr kleinen Teufelchen steht da einer großen Zahl von Hühnern gegenüber, also passt gut auf, dass euch der Bauer nicht das Fell über die Ohren zieht, wenn er euch in seinem Stall erwischt ^^.

Ich selber gehöre übrigens zu den Leuten, die schon einmal aus Unkenntnis die Regeln verletzt haben und dabei erwischt und bestraft wurden. Tatsächlich ist mir das schon in Travian passiert (Zu hohe Ressourcenlieferungen an einen Freund, der mit der selben IP spielte) und auch in Ikariam (mehr als 6 Angriffe auf eine Stadt am selben Tag). Wirklich schlimm waren die Konsequenzen aber nicht, in Travian wurden mir einige Gebäude abgestuft, in Ikariam habe ich einen 3-Tages-Ban ausgefasst ^^.

P.S: Die Gewinner der Paysafecard-Verlosung sind gezogen, ich habe sie wie üblich hier *klick* auf der Seite mit dem Gewinnspiel veröffentlicht.

stiu ca am zis ca nu o sa mai scriu despre tine…stiu asta!soarta a facut sa fie asa…nu ma gandeam ca marea mea pasiune ikariamu mi te va scoate in cale…nici nu mai stiu cum a inceput..dar stiu ca intru schimb de id pe ikariam am inceput sa vorbim..la inceput eram doar simpli prieteni..cu timpul lucrurile s-au schimbat …si…m-am indragostit…inca regret si acum dar neh inimi nu i te poti impotrivi…uite de atunci a trecut ceva timp…si acum inca suspin dupa acea perioada…acum fiecare are viata lui ..esti liber sa faci ce vrei..sper ca tie bine si esti fericit….dar sti care e chestia???m-am schimbat…desi tu refuzi sa o vezi…in inima mea nu mai este acel ceva frumos care era si tu continui sa ma faci sa suspin…mda ma rog nu am ce sa iti reprosez din moment ce nu insemn nimica pentru tine:))ce fraierica sunt…mda

Bienvenidos a este nuevo blog,en el cual publicaremos Tips, Novedades,  Informacion sobre ikariam,Informacion sobre la alianza & mucho más…

]]> http://curuya.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/comentarios-sobre-esta-pagina/ Wed, 28 Oct 2009 13:46:05 +0000 curuya http://curuya.wordpress.com/2009/10/28/comentarios-sobre-esta-pagina/

Decinos que se puede cambiar, mejorar o añadir

cmqw

Aqui expone tus quejas, enojos o criticas (tanto las constructivas como las “otras”)

Aqui se publican todas las novedades diplomaticas

hola a todos los miembros de Ikariam

Se que aun hay muchos que utilizan Internet Explorer como navegador predeterminado para realizar todas sus actividades en el mundo web, pero hoy les ago la invitacion para utilizar Mozilla Firefox viendolo desde el punto de la gran utilidad y servicios que aportaria para el juego Ikariam…

Se que aun hay muchos que utilizan Internet Explorer como navegador predeterminado para realizar todas sus actividades en el mundo web, pero hoy les ago la invitacion para utilizar Mozilla Firefox viendolo desde el punto de la gran utilidad y servicios que aportaria para el juego Ikariam.

sin mas rodeos dejos los pasos a seguir si te interesa cambiarte.

1. Descargar Mozilla haciendo click AQUI ( version en español mozilla.cl)

bien ahora seguiremos con la instalacion de Grease monkey para agregar Scripts para el juego Ikariam.

¿pero porque instalarlo?

bueno la respuesta es bien siempre existen una gran cantidad de Script que nos hacen un entorno mucho mas amable, con cambios de diseño, agregando opciones (tanto legales como ilegales )

2 instalacion de esta aplicacion.

Primero abrimos el Firefox (ya instalado xD) y vamos al menú Herramientas y ahí adentro a complementos (o agregados en la version chilensis )como indica la Foto 1.

Luego en la casilla de búsqueda de complementos ponemos “greasemonkey” (sin las comillas) y damos “enter”.

Ahí nos aparecerá una lista de complementos que coinciden aproximadamente con la búsqueda. Es prácticamente seguro que Greasemonkey estará primero.

En ese lugar nos aparecerá un botón de “Añadir a Firefox”, al que deberemos pulsar para instalar el complemento.

y ya… por fin todo instalado en menos de 5 minutos.

ahora les dejo un par de ejemplos de Scripts que de seguro seran muy utiles para ustedes, pero antes de proceder a Instalarlos deben tener habilitado el GreaseMonkey ( ver Herramientas >> GreaseMonkey >> Habilitado )

• Ver el mapa de la alianza ( muy bueno, con este pude darme cuenta como estamos repartidos en el mundo los Dokka)
• Mensajes circulares con encabezado ( la primera linea es el asunto que se mostrara)

pronto ire agregando mas a medida que encuentre algunos utiles..

saludos

chIKARIAM

Ein Lob an die Gameforge, ich reihe mich mal ein in den Chor der Speichelecker im Forum und ziehe den Hut: Die Entscheidung, sich bei der Community dafür zu entschuldigen, dass die Version 0.3.2 unausgegoren war, als sie eingespielt wurde, finde ich gut. Das ist allemal besser als die Probleme nicht anzuerkennen und einfach irgendwie weiterzugrundeln, vielleicht sogar mit heimlichen Stealth-Patches ^^.

Leider ist das Kampfsystem in der 0.3.2 nicht ausgereift, und das macht für viele Spieler eben doch den Kern ihres Spielspaßes aus. Den Ansatz mit den verschiedenen Schlachtreihen und Einheitenpositionen finde ich aber nach wie vor interessanter als das alte System. Wenn alles mal rund läuft, wird das sicher noch eine feine Sache und bis dahin komme ich auch noch über die Runden.

Außerdem sind nun ja bereits die ersten Sofortmaßnahmen am Laufen: Die Schussreihenfolge in der Schlacht wird zugunsten der Mörser geändert, wodurch Bombardiere ein wenig von ihrem Schrecken als unüberwindliche Beschützer von Stadtmauern verlieren. Ein teurer Spaß werden Angriffe aber weiterhin bleiben, wenn der Verteidiger Bombardiere hat, weil die Mörser ja trotzdem Runde für Runde nach ihren Angriffen zerstört werden.

Zur Verdeutlichung, was gerade schief läuft, hier ein paar Screenshots (Draufklicken für größere Bilder):

In dieser Schlacht hatte mein Gegner 100 Bombardiere, die aber nie das Schlachtfeld betreten haben, weil seine Gyrocopter den Slot belegten. Das habe ich natürlich schamlos ausgenützt und meine Artillerie ins Spiel gebracht, die seine Mauern ohne nennenswerte Gegenwehr zerstören konnte.

Die zweite Schlacht war ein Vergeltungsangriff auf mich. Mein Gegner hatte wieder Gyrocopter mit, während ich meine samt Artillerie vorher aus der Stadt geschafft hatte. Ergebnis nach 3 Runden: Der zahlenmäßig 5-fach überlegene Angreifer flieht vom Schlachtfeld, weil er die Mauern nicht beschädigen kann, und verliert bei der ganzen Aktion 54 Mörser (je 1250 Schwefel), ohne irgendwelchen Schaden anzurichten ^^.

In the last couple months, I’ve branched out a bit and started playing other games.  I’ve tried several other MMO’s and a few single player games that I’ll write about soon.  WoW still takes up most of my gaming time, but the game that is currently a close second place?  Ikariam.  Yes, really.

I first heard about Ikariam about a year ago.  I remember sitting there at my desk at work, daydreaming and listening to podcast, and something prompted me to check out this game.  (I can’t remember if it was a blog or a podcast, to be honest.) I glanced at the game site only briefly and it didn’t even interest me enough to make an account at the time. It just didn’t look appealing.  Things going against it included that it was a browser game, it was free-to-play (but with premium options available for cash), and that it looked like a Civ-type game.  Couldn’t possibly be as compelling as Civ, I thought.

When I joined up at MMO Voices, Beau chose Ikariam as one of the first site games.  With some reluctance, I made an account to play along with the other folks at the site.

Nuts and Bolts

My Mighty Empire

You start with a single colony on an island and some wood to construct your first building, either an academy to begin research or barracks to house your budding military.  Of course I chose to build the academy.  Back in my Civ days, I was always going after the space ship rather than the military victory.  After hiring a few researchers, I went to the island view to hire some workers in the lumber mill and crystal mine.  (This mine allowed me to collect glass, one of the four harvestable resources.)

Rather than being turn based like Civ (which it couldn’t be, since it’s an MMO), activities like building, research, and travel are all time-based.  It reminded me of EVE in that regard — set up your training and then go do something else for a while.  As with EVE, the early skills and lower level buildings don’t take long.  Unfortunately, there are no building queues available unless you pay for a premium account.  Research used to be queued (sort of), but they changed it in a recent patch so that you accumulate research points and then buy the discovery of your choice when you have enough.

Travel time, as far as I can tell, never changes (unless there is a miracle, which I’ll talk about later) .  This is where some of the challenge comes in if you want to play near your friends.  You begin in a random spot on the world map.  While you can certainly build your second colony anywhere and eventually make it your capital, it takes a while to gather the resources to accomplish this.  I’m sure plenty of folks do this, too.  My husband and one of our friends have both relocated their civilizations completely to some islands on the fringes of the map so that they can build their resources together.

To cope with the travel time issues, the MMO Voices folks initially set up trade routes together to help each other get started.  We plotted our locations on a map and posted it to the website.  Occasionally I’d get a note that said, “400 sulfur is on the way.  Please keep 200 and send 200 on to so-and-so at such-and-such location.”  Really fun, actually.  It made me wish there were a way to set up more permanent routes in the game like that.  Setting up a trade alliance with someone only means that when they add things for sale in their trading post, you can see it even if you’re far away from them.  Beyond that, trading is limited to nearby islands (the trade radius defined by how much you’ve leveled your trading post).

Gathering Resources…

Aside from building materials, the basic resources are marble, wine, glass, and sulfur.  Just for my own play purposes, I would prefer them in that order. Marble is used in higher level building upgrades and city walls.  Wine is made available in local taverns to keep your population happy and growing.  Glass goes toward upgrading academies and temples (recently added), military upgrades, and the training of spies.  Sulfur is used for the training of military units (a process that can be queued, thankfully).

The underdeveloped island that holds my capital.

The amount of a particular resource that you can harvest depends on how many you hire to work in the mine, vineyard, or mill on your island.  The number or workers you can hire is limited by your population, but also by the level of the node itself.  Here’s where the “MM” in MMO begins to creep in — the resource node is leveled through the contributions of all the other people with colonies on your island.  In the beginning, you’ll be scraping to have enough resources to get your basic buildings going.  Once you have a modest surplus, it’s good to start contributing to these shared nodes.  Not only will these contributions improve the island’s output and benefit you in the long run, it will make you look like a good citizen.  Some island residents make a particular point of attacking and pillaging leechers who don’t contribute, so it’s wise to help out.

Beyond gathering things yourself, you can trade with others that you know (as I mentioned above) or with people nearby through your trading post. The radius of available trades increases with every two upgrades of your trading post.  I didn’t see any traders at all until I was able to trade at least three islands away, though you may have better luck if you land in a more populated area.

…and Getting Pillaged

I, like many of my MMO Voices compatriots, got pillaged within the first week of playing.  Someone marched their army into my town, killed the two slingers I had in my barracks, and cleaned out the majority of what I had in my warehouse.  A percentage of your stuff is protected in your warehouse (again, this is building level dependent), but everything else is game for anyone that decides to rob you.  My husband’s first colony got pillaged repeatedly when he first started playing, so he started changing his production schedule to make sure he never got too big of a surplus when he thought his neighbor might be active.  (He then moved to another island.)  Not a very friendly welcome to the game.

My much better developed wine island.

I didn’t get pillaged more than once or twice early on, but it was enough to make me build some extra warehouses until I got a few defensive units and city walls built.  I have managed to fend off some medium-sized attacks, but once or twice, the enemy has come in with more than 1000 troops to my 20-30. Some alliances in the game seem to have rules about attacking people way below your level, but others don’t care.   The mottos on the guild pages of the latter are usually to the tune of “if you’re not armed, you will be farmed.” This is the nature of MMO’s anywhere, I suppose.  There will be griefing.

Unfortunately, this caused of few folks in MMO Voices to lose interest right away.  To my surprise, I didn’t quit when I got pillaged.  I once got pillaged very badly, too, in fact.  I lost about 10,000 building material, 5,000 marble, and 1,000 sulfur.  I was so furious.  But, the fact was that I had been sloppy.  I had forwarded all this material to a new colony that I was founding. (I needed it to upgrade the governor’s residence to kill the corruption there.)  An enterprising individual had occupied a nearby town and I imagine he giggled with glee when he discovered all the unprotected goodies in my warehouse, waiting for the rest of the boats to arrive.  I was furious, but I knew I’d done something really stupid, too, and assumed the stuff would be safe long enough for me to get the stupid building built.  That’s part of the game.

I’ve never pillaged anyone, but I’ve certainly reaped the benefits of being occupied.  When your town is occupied by enemy forces, they can’t pillage you, but they can use your town as a base to pillage everyone else on the island.  For hosting the army, you get 10% of everything they pillage. I happened to get occupied on the best of the islands I have colonies on and I got a TON of stuff out of it.  So in the end, it all balances out, I suppose.

They recently added some features to make the game friendlier to new players, in this regard.  Now, new players cannot be attacked or pillaged right out of the starting gate.  Until their town hall is level 4 or they’ve built a second colony, they are immune to any attacks my other players.  (If they attack someone else, all bets are off, of course.)  This is a nice change, I think — they’ll keep many more players this way.

Cultivating a Civilization

A closer look at my capital.

Your first colony will take a while to get going.  Building materials will always feel like they are in short supply unless you have a friend to help you get started.  (By the way, if you decide to start playing, I’d be glad to send you a welcome package.  I’m on the US Iota server — send me an e-mail with your coordinates and I’ll put my fleet in motion!)  But once you create your second colony, things really start cooking.  You’ll find yourself with occasional surpluses to send to friends or sell at your trading post.  There will always be little things to tweak and things to build.  Small goals will be met, new goals will be made.

Checking in on the game can become a habit very easily, especially if you work at a computer all day.  Here’s the part where I have to admit that all those things that turned me off in the beginning are the things that now keep me playing.  The game is browser based, so I can keep it going while I’m doing other stuff on the internet.  It’s free-to-play, so I can do as much or as little as I feel like from day to day without feeling like I have a big commitment to it or need to get my money’s worth. In fact, if I take a day or two away from the game, I return to find that I have a huge surplus of resources to play with.  Fun!

Finally, because it is a Civ-type game, there’s a great sense of progress as you watch a dumpy little town in the sticks turn into the cultural center of your empire.  The fact that it’s time-based and not turn-based is what allows you to get other things done during the day, too.  When I take writing breaks, I might check in, send out some ships, set a few buildings to upgrade, and then determine that there’s not much more for me to do for the next two hours.  I can then write or work for two hours, come back, and check in.  It’s also a great game to play in between other games.  There is as much or as little to do as you wish to do.

Finding Community

After our short-lived (and miniscule) MMO Voices alliance dissolved, I decided to look for a larger, more established alliance to join.  An alliance’s size is limited by the number of diplomacy points available, which is based on the robustness of the leader’s civilization (as I understand it, anyway), so it seemed like this would put less pressure on one of the bloggers, in case they wanted to wander to a different game.  It would also give us a chance to see how established alliances run themselves.

After a bit of shopping around, I happened across an alliance called Art of Defence (AoD) , an alliance based on trading, mutual defense, and expansion.  They do allow pillaging, but military play is not their primary focus.  It sounded perfect.  I applied and was accepted, and now I watch the day to day ramblings and tradings of an Ikariam alliance.  Folks are helpful to one another, trading vast quantities of materials in 1:1 trades.  Once you are able to build museums, you can arrange cultural treaties with people, too, displaying your cultural artifacts in one another’s museums to raise happiness (an alternative to wine).  I’ve also seen some come to the defense of one another.  Another particularly appealing thing about this alliance is their impressive list of peace treaties.  Aside from the person that ran off with all the goods for my governor’s residence (who could resist such a mother lode?), I haven’t been bothered by anyone since I joined them.

The Addition of Miracles

In this recent patch, they added “miracles” to the game, which can do things like boost your population or make your ships go a little faster for a brief time depending on which god has a statue on your island.  The statue itself is also a node on the island where you can contribute resources (anything but building materials and the resource available on the same island).  The quality of the miracle increases based on the statue’s level. You need to have a certain amount of your population converted (through temples and the hiring of priests) in order for the miracle to become available.

It’s been interesting to see the community’s response to this addition.  Certainly some miracles are going to be more desirable than others depending on what aspects of the game you enjoy.  I wouldn’t say I have my finger on the pulse of the community at large, but some in our alliance have dismissed them as useless.  One of them will allow your ships to load faster for 30 minutes every 20 hours, for example.  One of our members said, “Only every 20 hours?  What’s the point of that?”  Well, the point is to make it so that it’s not so incredibly overpowered that everyone will evacuate their current location for the islands that have the best miracles available.  I imagine folks will be selecting locations for new colonies with the miracles in mind (since they do act upon your entire population), but it seems they’ve tried to make things beneficial without being too gamebreaking.  I’ll be curious to see what people will think about them once they actually try using the miracles.

A Few Rules

I mentioned before that my husband started playing, as well.  This has been fun, because it means we’ve been able to talk about the game, daydream about colonization plans, and sympathize with each other’s resource losses.  As it turns out, we cannot actually play together, however, since we both play from home.  Playing two accounts on the same IP from the same server will get you banned.  This rule is no doubt in play to make sure that one person with too much time on their hands doesn’t make a ton of accounts and take over the world in one fell swoop.

It turns out that if you officially let them know that you are two different people at the same IP and you agree never to have fleet contact with one another, then it is fine.  You just need to submit a ticket.  “No fleet contact” means we can’t jointly attack an enemy, but most unfortunately, it means we can’t trade resources directly.  It’s been okay because we’ve managed to lure in a few friends on different IP’s (living in different states, actually) to play with us and they were able to help him get started.  It kind of sucks that we can’t trade and help one another out, but I think it would suck more if other folks were allowed to multi-account.  I imagine that could make it unplayable for the rest of us.  Anyway, it’s something to be aware of if you game with someone you live with.

More Addictive than you Might Think

Games like this are a terribly slippery slope if you have to be a productive person at your computer during the day.  I’m sure if I weren’t playing this, however, I’d be doing something equally distracting.  Ikariam effectively takes the place of daytime Facebook checking, social e-mailing, and all the other little things most folks do during their work breaks.  Instead of reading about who needs what for their next Mafia hit, I peek in to find out, “Do I need to send out another wine shipment?  Did that person in my alliance accept my cultural asset treaty?  Are there enemy forces on their way to pillage my towns?”  I currently have four towns to look after, which means there’s usually something to do if I have a few minutes to check the game.  Although it will be expensive as hell to build a fifth, I’m already scoping out locations.

So, I am completely addicted to this game.  In total, I didn’t even play Chronicles of Spellborn this much and I really loved that.  (Runes of Magic has been deleted from the hard drive to make room for other stuff.)  In fact, one thing that has held up my writing a review of Ikariam is the fact that I play it so much during the day, during times that would otherwise have gone to blogging.  (All those people on Facebook haven’t heard from me in eons either.  Heh…)

Definitely check this one out.  Again, find me on the US Iota server.  (Be sure you’re at ikariam.com and not .org, too.)  E-mail me to let me know where to send the welcome wagon. Join ussss…

Hello there! My name is Jaylogs and I’m starting a new blog! (Obviously)

I got tired of studying all the FTP-related stuff needed to change the theme of my blog. 20 hours have passed and not a single spec of success. I am beginning to doubt why the Default setting was ever created. The development guys might have thought about the possible existence of noobs in the universe. And here I am, the living manifestation of such frivolity.

In any case, feel free to read all the announcements pertaining, but not limited to, ikariam, online gaming, video games, anime, manga, and my boring life.

With the madness of the last few days, the pirate’s life has become much more precarious.

Walls that had been easily breached have been fortified by the power of gods, removing all traces of weakness. My mortar teams battered away at a wall for the better part of an hour, before finally pillaging the contents.  

Reports of failed occupations have been steaming in for the last few days, and the Gods refuse to listen to reason. Instead they expect us to worship them blindly.

Gods or not, they will fall.

It’s always refreshingly nice to remember why you stepped down the path chosen a long time ago.

I had almost forgotten why I had deemed myself a pirate. Lately warfare has reached my alliance, and my troops had been quickly mobilized to defend another town. However when the enemy turned out to be nothing more then cowards, I packed my troops and sent them home. I simply hadn’t undergone my daily ritual of reaping resources from my neighbors.

My spies had spotted a fledgling empire. Small as it was, it appeared abandoned. They reported that the streets of the cities had never been graced by the presence of soldiers.

And they reported mountains of resources. Five towns, each overflowing with over 50,000 total resources.

My troops will be busy tonight.

Narf! Auf Alpha wurde die neue Version 0.3.2 schon vor einer Woche eingespielt. Ansonsten hat bis jetzt kein deutschsprachiger Server das Update erhalten und die ORG-Server dümpeln genauso noch auf der 0.3.1 herum. Vielleicht ist das aber auch ganz gut so, wenn ich mir so die Beiträge im Board durchlese. Alpha scheint ja regelrecht als zweiter Test-Server missbraucht zu werden, da werden zwischendurch die Barbarendörfer abgeschaltet und weiter fest die Zukunftsforschungen optimiert.

Vorerst werden keine weiteren Server mehr gepatcht werden, bis die gröbsten Bugs ausgemerzt sind. Dass nachher trotzdem noch immer genug Fehler übrig bleiben werden, daran zweifle ich aber nicht, schließlich habe ich schon genügend neue Versionen in Ikariam erlebt ^^. Aber gut, man ist ja leidensfähig.

Währenddessen bin ich noch immer am Test Server aktiv. Der Account dort hat jetzt zumindest 2 Städte und wächst so langsam vor sich hin. Seit heute können Horace und ich Bogenschützen bauen, yeah .

Hier ist ein Bild vom Inselforum – neues Feature! – , wo jeder Spieler eine Nachricht hinterlassen kann:

Bei uns gehts also sehr international zu, wenn auch mit wenig Inhalt ^^. Auf Theta könnte ich das Forum aber gut brauchen, zB. als öffentlichen Pranger für Leute, die wenig in den Minen spenden .

Ein weiteres neues Feature, was ich cool finde, ist übrigens der neue Urlaubsmodus. Ich war es gewohnt, dass ich im Krieg andauernd blockiert wurde. Meistens hat irgendein Spieler, der weit entfernt liegt, einfach ein langsames Schiff zu mir geschickt und ich konnte meinen Account nie in den Dornröschenschlaf schicken, wenn ich ein paar Tage nicht online gehen konnte. Dasselbe haben wir natürlich auch mit unseren Gegnern gemacht, sind ja keine Lämmer . In der 0.3.2 kann ich aber jederzeit den Urlaubsmodus aktivieren und das ist super.

Zum Schluss noch ein paar Bilder von einem kleinen Angriff auf das Barbarendorf, wo man sehen kann, wie die Schlachtreihen funktionieren. Zum Vergrößern anklicken:

Von links nach rechts sind das die einzelnen Runden. Am Anfang zerstört meine Armee mit dem Belagerungsgerät die Mauer. Wo Lücken entstehen, springen Nahkämpfer in die Bresche. Die Barbaren haben keine Fernkämpfer und nehmen deswegen Feuer von meinen Bognern aus der zweiten Reihe, ohne sich wehren zu können. Dafür hauen sie meine Steinschleuderer platt, die ganz vorne stehen, weil ich zu wenig schwere Infanterie mitgeschickt habe, um die ganze Schlachtlinie aufzufüllen.

Es ist mal wieder so weit, der Krieg ist vorbei. Alle Parteien, also vor allem THOR und M4H auf der einen Seite und das ganze FIA-Konglomerat auf der anderen hatten genug und haben beschlossen, die Kampfhandlungen einzustellen. Gewinner oder Verlierer gab es diesmal keine, beide Parteien haben viel eingesteckt und viel ausgeteilt und M4H hat sich weiter Respekt erworben. Ich werde nun erstmal weiter meine Städtchen ausbauen, irgendwann soll schließlich die 9. Stadt ohne Korruption möglich sein, und auf die angekündigte Version 0.3.2 warten.

Nur abwarten ist allerdings auch fad, deswegen habe ich mir einen Account auf dem englischsprachigen Testserver erstellt. Gemeinsam mit meinem Allykollegen von Theta, Horace, habe ich vor ein paar Tagen neu angefangen und teste mich so durch. Wirklich viel machen können wir zwar noch nicht, aber zumindest ein kleiner Einblick in das neue Kampfsystem ist so schon mal möglich.

Hier sieht man einen Angriff auf ein kleines Barbarendorf auf meiner Insel. Ohne aufgefüllte Schlachtreihen lässt sich aber noch nicht viel über die Kampf-Mechanik sagen. Ich arbeite aber schon daran, bald steht unsere Marmor-Kolonie, wodurch sich das Wachstum um einiges beschleunigen sollte ^^.

Das Forschungssystem wurde ebenfalls umgekrempelt und funktioniert jetzt so, dass Forschungspunkte angesammelt werden müssen, die dann gegen einen bestimmten technologischen Fortschritt eingelöst werden können. Ob ich diese Änderungen jetzt gut oder schlecht finde, kann ich aber noch gar nicht sagen. Funktionieren tut es jedenfalls .

Pessoal, eu consegui um pacote com todas os 24 níveis do Ikariam, inédito, lembrando que é exclusivo da Max Jogos. Não deixem de conferir

Tá ai uma coisa pra dizer; o ADM da Max Jogos não é qualquer um não, consiguir as imagens de todas as fazes do Ikarim não é fácil, não e pra qualquer um.

Todos os créditos deste post vão á mim “Felipe”

So, I saw in my blogs’ stats that someone came by, by searching for “how to install ikariam sexy theme”. Once more this saws how people, even if they don’t express in words, are easily read. Google owns us all. But what if we own google? I advise you to find out how to use smart keywords in order to find really useful things like top secret documents of governments, or databases with user names and passwords, or even online webcams with no security.

Anyway, back to our subject. First of all you have to use Firefox to install a script that will make your life easier. Then you shall add the greasemonkey add-on (by the way, as a good (wo)man that you are, think of a donation you cheater). Now to the most interesting part, by searching in google for “greasemonkey scripts” you will find what you want, but that would compromise you! So here is the direct link. You can thank me in comments by the way. Note here that these scripts are illegal by the games’ moderators, also known as wankers.

This will be your academy from now on

Now, as for the useful ikariam scripts here are some. Ikariam Reloaded removes the silly ads, and replaces them with some useful stats like your selected city generals. But be careful with that! You can be found because you use too much bandwidth of their servers. Ikariam Empire Board, adds a table in the bottom of the page with information about all of your colonies. By using that you are not able to be found since it only reveals information once you’ve opened the exact page that it wants. Ika-core-SearchTools, adds an information bar on your left, with search capabilities, but you should be aware that you are easily spotted by using the search tool to find a players’ cities. However Ika-core-SerchTools are useful for their feature to inform you about you total army in your cities page, without going to your barracks, and also adds information on your city, about which buildings are available for your resources to upgrade.

And finally our most interesting part, the Sexy Theme. You can use it freely and no one will find that. I guess the wankers are using it already. Happy gaming fellow humanoids. God be with you!

Update: The problem for finding a players’ cities is solved with that tool. The wankers can’t simply find you with this, so use it freely.

Update 2: Seems that for some reason that page is down. But we were winning and without it, so…

Update 3: Here is the list of the legal scripts. Not that you want it anyway…

The new version is coming out soon! Here’s what’s new:

I signed up for an account on the test server and this is what I’ve gathered so far.

YOU DON’T HAVE TO WAIT FOR HOURS OR DAYS TO RESEARCH SOMETHING!
You can click on as many research as you want provided you have enough Research points!

1 Scientist = 1 Research points per hour

I just started. I currently have 12 Scientists = 12 Research points per hour.

Also, you have to click the Research Advisor in order for you to research something. The Academy is where you set the number of scientists you want to have gathering research points.

It is also again possible to exchange crystal glass for research points.

They integrated a new research called “experiments“. If you finish it you will have the possibility to start experiments to create research points. One research point costs 2 crystals. The number of research points is calculated with the following formula:

Experiment points = (previously invested research points + not yet invested research points) / 30

Example:

You invested 55000 research points into the research and there are 11000 left, so you created 66000 research points. An experiment would give 66000 / 30 => 2200 research points. This would cost 4400 crystal.

After the experiment, someone has to clean up the academy and prepare the next experiment. Thus you can only start an experiment per academy every 4 hours.