Friday, December 24, 2010

Devil Sweep

Yesterday I reached 1000 rounds in Devil Sweep, but I also found that many players don't know how this work, so I'm writing this beginner's guide.

"Sweep the Devil Union" is what it is officially called, but most of the players call it 'devil sweep', or just 'sweep' for short. It is an event that happens every Thursday at 10am server time. The event lasts for 8 hours.

To participate, click on the "castle icon" at the top left to enter the neutral city.
Next, click on the "horse icon" on the left to enter the military office.
On this page, there are 2 events listed :
1. Attack the Floating Castles
2. Sweep the Devil Union

For the devil sweep, click on the second 'Join Activity' button.
On this page, during the event, it should show the number of rounds you have completed.
There are 2 buttons 'Requirement' and 'Rank'.
Click on the 'Requirement' button, and the pop up should show you a list of devils you need to kill to complete that round. For the first round, it should show 4 different devils.

Round Devils
1 - 5 4
6 - 10 5
11 - 15 6
16 - 20 7

It also describes the weaknesses of each of the devils :
Eg.
Dark Knight
Restraint by Lance Type Arms

That weakness is just informational, and not part of the requirement. You may kill that devil type with any troops to complete the requirement.
Now, go to the world view, find the devil type listed and send troops to kill them.

The page is cached, so if you are sure you have completed the requirement but it is not showing, get back to the town view and then go back in.

Every 5 rounds, you get a reward :

Round Reward
5 3 x Bronze Keys
10 Silver Key
15 Gold Key
20 Jewelry Chest

After you've completed 20 rounds, the cycle starts all over again. Round 21 is the same as round 1, and at Round 25, you get the same reward as round 5. This is one good way to get keys and jewelry chest.

Beside the 'Requirement' button, there is also a 'Rank' button. On that page, the 10 players with the highest rank in devil sweep are listed. On Friday, the top player receives a Tornado Horse Yes, I am looking forward to receiving mine some time today. :) The 2nd and 3rd placed players receives an Armored Horse. This ranking is cumulative, as are the rounds described above. It means you do not have to complete 20 rounds in a week to get a jewelry chest, you can do 10 rounds each week and get a jewelry chest every other.

Have fun with this event, and Merry Christmas. :)

Additional Notes :
This is the message you get when you get the reward for ranking :

Congratulate you on being 2nd in devil attacking activity on 2010-12-23, the reward is Tornado Horse, pls attention to receive.

Note that it actually says 2nd, even though I was ranked 1st, but the reward is the Tornado for ranking 1st. Likewise, when you are 2nd or 3rd, the message will say 3rd and 4th respectively, but the reward will be correct.

Saturday, December 18, 2010

Max Population

I thought I just write this, partly as a note to myself. I just reached max population on all my cities today.

The maximum population for the main city is 1855.
The maximum population for a sub city is 1835.
The difference is due to the Union Chamber, which can only be constructed in the main city.

Note that having the max population does not mean all constructions have completed, just that the last structure has started construction. It will be another 500 more hours before I have all constructions finished.

Now, when you look at the top cities ranking list, you will find some players having cities above 1855 population. This is due to a glitch that hithere didn't want to fix. When you start a construction, your population increment for that structure is awarded. However, if that construction is not completed, due to termination for striding crusade (world merge), that population is already awarded. When you start construction for the same structure again, after the crusade, you will be awarded the population for that structure again. This double accounting is what leads to the glitch, or the politically correct term, bug.

Now you know how you can trigger this bug, be warned, you will be paying for the extra food. If that does not bother you, the maximum you can gain for a single crusade is 55. Before a crusade begins, demolish the following 3 structures, and start their constructions such that it will not complete before the crusade. You will need to use a builder queue to have 3 constructions.
  • Infantry Barrack - Level 5 or 6 - 20 pop
  • Cavalry Barrack - Level 6 - 20 pop
  • BBQ/Water Wheel/Food Factory - Level 3 - 15 pop
When the crusade takes place, those construction will be terminated, but the pop is still awarded. You can start constructing those 3 structures again, and the pop will be awarded a 2nd time. And with that, when you max all your structures, you will have cities that out rank other players who do not exploit this bug.

Monday, December 6, 2010

Off-Race Hero

Yesterday, I dismissed a level 72 green hero for a purple off-race hero.
The hero is a human, and my race is orc.
Such heroes do not make a good military hero, since her specialty will be of troops in other races.

I have been asked if that hero will be political or contest. My answer is .. 'both'.
Here's my plan :
7 skills in contest (Center and left column) up to level 10 : 77 points - Skill Level 20
3 skills in political (Center column) up to level 10 : 33 points - 110 points total - Skill Level 28
2 skills in political (Local and Military Zeal) up to level 20 : 18 points - 128 points total - Skill Level 32
7 skills in contest (Center and left column) up to level 20 : 63 points - 191 points total - Skill Level 48
7 skills in political (Left and right column) up to level 10 : 77 points - 268 points total - Skill Level 67
3 skills in contest (Right column) up to level 10 : 33 points - 301 points total - Skill Level 76

Summary ::
10 points in all contest AND political skills.
20 points in (Local and Military Zeal).
20 points in center and left column in contest skills.

As you can see, if you don't raise all political skills to 20, there are plenty of points left for contest. I recommend putting contest points up front, since the hero won't make a good mayor at a lower level anyhow. With good contest skills, you can win more arena points and pagoda early. Once the hero is level 50 or higher, she will be ready to provide high defense bonus, that is when you really want to maximize the Local skill, and equip her with defense items. You also want Military Zeal to speed up troop production.