Tips and Tricks from fellow TE Players!
Get to know all your people, your directs and all of their subjects too. The more involved you are, the more involved they are--and the more informed you are. When you know your downline, they feel more comfortable coming to you for help, with suggestions or ideas. Plus they make some pretty great friends.
Keep in contact with your subjects often, share their successes with the group. Everyone likes to be recognized for their efforts and feel supported and encouraged.
Pass out the Trial HUD and hook as many people as you can before you get 25 acres! After that you can't take brand new players under you and have to put them under your subjects.
When you first start out with the Full HUD, buy 5 acres, then spend a full year (12 turns) not buying any acres and earning gold. Then you have a little bit of gold set aside for upgrades. Repeat all the way to 25 acres.
Miss an upgrade? Don't worry! Upgrades will keep coming around on the HUD until you actually pay for the upgrade.
If you have a SL job or don't pay attention to the HUD often, it's better to wait to get the Federation HUD. Once you get it you can't go back, and it requires more attention and has negative effects when you miss things. On the Full HUD they are nuetral effects.
When you hit 25 acres, it's a good idea to spend a couple of years not buying anything, so you have a gold buffer built up. 13x the amount of an acre is perfect to keep on hand at all times- for example, if an acre costs you 1,000gold to buy, don't buy land until you have over 13,000 gold saved up. That way you always have enough money to pay for the Trader AND buy land, plus a little left over (especially if you have a disaster hit). It's hard to get the buffer because it takes a little bit of time, but once you have it it is easy to keep.
Need more subjects? Have a hooking party! Get together with some of your line (up and downline is good, it benefits everyone!) and invite your friends list---family, friends, and all those friends list squatters (they're there...put them to good use!). Spur of the moment and informal is fine...pass out trial HUDs and cute fluffy chicks as party favors, keep the talk light and fun and mostly about Tiny Empires, and hook 'em!
If you find yourself struggling to find people in your line readily available to take a new player (whether because they are too high in rank or not online), consider using an alt. Give them the Trial HUD, keep them at only 3 personal acres. Then you always have someone you can use to bring in new players...just be sure that once the new player reaches 5 or 6 acres of their own, you need to help them move to a different subject (the Trial HUD expires at 10 acres total).
And don't forget that players on the Trial HUD often are wiped out after so long...they have to start all over, so don't spend too much time buying acres for them or granting your own personal ones.
There are all kinds of people who play TE, and for all kinds of reasons. Some are slow and steady, some rise fast. All of them need attention and recognition for hard work.
Federation HUD:
Use your allies to pass citizens and earn more gold. You can have up to 5000% of your population, and you get paid a bonus for them each time the census comes around.
Sending your allies a gift now and then helps with passing citizens. More citizens are sent and fewer are angered and move away each time.
Keep in contact with your subjects often, share their successes with the group. Everyone likes to be recognized for their efforts and feel supported and encouraged.
Pass out the Trial HUD and hook as many people as you can before you get 25 acres! After that you can't take brand new players under you and have to put them under your subjects.
When you first start out with the Full HUD, buy 5 acres, then spend a full year (12 turns) not buying any acres and earning gold. Then you have a little bit of gold set aside for upgrades. Repeat all the way to 25 acres.
Miss an upgrade? Don't worry! Upgrades will keep coming around on the HUD until you actually pay for the upgrade.
If you have a SL job or don't pay attention to the HUD often, it's better to wait to get the Federation HUD. Once you get it you can't go back, and it requires more attention and has negative effects when you miss things. On the Full HUD they are nuetral effects.
When you hit 25 acres, it's a good idea to spend a couple of years not buying anything, so you have a gold buffer built up. 13x the amount of an acre is perfect to keep on hand at all times- for example, if an acre costs you 1,000gold to buy, don't buy land until you have over 13,000 gold saved up. That way you always have enough money to pay for the Trader AND buy land, plus a little left over (especially if you have a disaster hit). It's hard to get the buffer because it takes a little bit of time, but once you have it it is easy to keep.
Need more subjects? Have a hooking party! Get together with some of your line (up and downline is good, it benefits everyone!) and invite your friends list---family, friends, and all those friends list squatters (they're there...put them to good use!). Spur of the moment and informal is fine...pass out trial HUDs and cute fluffy chicks as party favors, keep the talk light and fun and mostly about Tiny Empires, and hook 'em!
If you find yourself struggling to find people in your line readily available to take a new player (whether because they are too high in rank or not online), consider using an alt. Give them the Trial HUD, keep them at only 3 personal acres. Then you always have someone you can use to bring in new players...just be sure that once the new player reaches 5 or 6 acres of their own, you need to help them move to a different subject (the Trial HUD expires at 10 acres total).
And don't forget that players on the Trial HUD often are wiped out after so long...they have to start all over, so don't spend too much time buying acres for them or granting your own personal ones.
There are all kinds of people who play TE, and for all kinds of reasons. Some are slow and steady, some rise fast. All of them need attention and recognition for hard work.
Federation HUD:
Use your allies to pass citizens and earn more gold. You can have up to 5000% of your population, and you get paid a bonus for them each time the census comes around.
Sending your allies a gift now and then helps with passing citizens. More citizens are sent and fewer are angered and move away each time.
All about Land Production
Land production, or the amount of gold each acre produces per turn, starts at 10 gold per acre. The goal is to buy all the upgrades on the land (a shovel, an ox, a tent, etc) until you get your land production to 26g per acre, and then buy the castle to get to 28g.
You can view your current land production rate by clicking on the Accounting tab in the HUD.
There are also the following housing upgrades that will progressively appear on the HUD:
Cottage - costs 2,000 gold - Will increase your land production by +1g
Manor - costs 16,000 gold - Will gain 2 personal acres
Keep - costs 100,000 gold - Will pay back 50,000g
Castle - 1 million gold - Will increase your land production by +2g.
You can buy the cottage and manor whenever you can afford them. It is recommended that you don't buy the castle (1 million gold) until you get your land production to 26g.
Note that each upgrade is 'unlocked' based on how many personal acres you have. A new land upgrade is unlocked at 3 acre intervals. You need a minimum of 89 personal acres to unlock all the upgrades. If you have multiple land upgrades unlocked, they will appear in the HUD every 57 minutes (19 turns). You can know ahead of time when they will appear if you keep track of your HUD time in this situation.
Land Production= amount of gold each acre produces per turn
Personal Acres = minimum personal acres needed to unlock the upgrade
Land Personal
Production Acres Upgrade
-----------------------------------------------------------------
10.5 - 2 - Buy shovel cost: 20g
11.0 - 5 - Buy plow cost: 80g
11.5 - 8 - Hire peasant cost: 180g
12.0 - 11 - Buy ox cost: 320g
12.5 - 14 - Hire more help cost: 500g
13.0 - 17 - Buy plow cost:
13.5 - 20 - Buy 2nd ox cost: 720g
(14.5) +1 - Cottage cost: 2000g
Note: when the cottage is bought will vary from player to player
15.0 - 23 - Build barn cost: 1127g
15.5 - 26 - Build hut cost: 1536g
16.0 - 29 - Demolish hut cost: 3100g
16.5 - 32 - Hire doctor cost: 3993g
17.0 - 35 - Hire taskmaster cost: 5187g
17.5 - 38 - Buy horse cost: 6422g
18.0 - 41 - Build shelter cost: 8232g
18.5 - 44 - Buy another horse cost: 9900g
19.0 - 47 - Buy horseshoes cost: 12544g
19.5 - 50 - Hire more peasants cost: 14739g
20.0 - 53 - Buy more horses cost: 17172g
20.5 - 56 - Buy better plow cost: 20577g
21.0 - 59 - Buy seeds cost: 24800g
21.5 - 62 - Upgrade barn cost: 28665g
22.0 - 65 - Upgrade shelter cost: 33880g
22.5 - 68 - Rent storage bin cost: 36501g
23.0 - 71 - Buy more horses cost: 42048g
23.5 - 74 - Hire more help cost: 48125g
24.0 - 77 - Hire foreman cost: 55432g
24.5 - 80 - Build dormitory cost: 60507g
25.0 - 83 - Overworked, Fallow land cost: 68992g
25.5 - 86 - Buy chemicals cost: 76531g
26.0 - 89 - Farming guru cost: 83700g
The best strategy for the new player is to buy acres AND the land upgrades. Give priority to buying the land upgrades, since they appear less often in the HUD. Do not buy the 100,000g Keep or the 1 million gold Castle until your land production is 26g. When you do buy the Keep, you get 50,000g of it back. After getting the Keep, start saving up for the Castle (1 milllion gold). When you reach 1 million gold, continue saving up gold until you have a 5x reserve minus the 1 million. THEN buy the Castle. Your land production will be increased to 28g when you get the Castle. The Trader can then further upgrade your land production to 30g, with a couple of +1g forevermore bonuses. It is possible to get the Trader +1g forevermore bonus before you get to 26g, so keep track of how many of those Trader bonuses you get, and subtract them out when you are determining when to buy the Keep and Castle (26g without any Trader bonuses). If you've lost track of the Trader bonuses, just remember that the last land upgrade is the 'farming guru'. Once you do get the castle, then start maintaining your gold reserve at 13x the amount an acre costs you.
Special Note: If you're getting close to being promoted to a Prince or Princess, make sure you have at least 200 personal acres. Your land production will start to drop otherwise. See the DROPPING LAND PRODUCTION section below.
With the Full Version HUD, the maximum land producttion you can get is 30g, which includes buying all the land upgrades listed above, the 1 million gold castle and two of the Trader +1 forever more bonues. With the Federation HUD, the land production can be as high as 37g, with the following additional bonuses:
+2g bonus - complete the Trader Book quest (obtain book from the Trader, obtain key from the Fortune Teller during the festival, have the book translated by the abbot).
+1g bonus - build 4 embassies
+1g bonus - win 10 jousting tournaments. You win a tournament if you win 3 jousting matches during a single festival.
+3g bonus - research the famine disaster 20 times.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
DROPPING LAND PRODUCTION
In August 2008, a new change was put into place that checks your personal acres against your rank, and your land production may start to drop if you don't have enough personal acres. Since this is relatively new, we are still learning the full ramifications of this change.
Here's a sample message that appeared in the HUD of a Princess who had 195 personal acres:
"Although you have reached the rank of Princess, your personal acreage is that of a mere Count. This disheartens your farm workers, and your gold production on personal land has dropped to 27.5 gold per acre."
The emperor did make the following comment:
Ultralite Soleil: There is a grandfathering situation involved, so some won't be affected....unless they drop in rank. That removes the grandfathering
It has been observed though that any rank change will remove the grandfathering, including promotion to Prince or Princess.
Also, Misbehaved Brummer provided some additional data that indicates that a ratio of 20% (personal acres/acres needed for the rank) is what triggers the land production to start to drop. So, if you have less personal acres than the 20% level, and are not grandfathered in, then your land production will start to drop. See the table below for the minimum personal acres. To date, I've heard only reports of a Princess and Duke being affected. Misbehaved also reported he did not see the land production drop in the lower ranks.
Rank Minium Personal Acres (20%)
Prince/Princess 200
Duke/Duchess 80
It has not been determined how low the land production rate will drop once it is triggered. Any lost land production is recovered by buying it back once the minium personal acres is reached, but at a much higher cost, since the personal acres are now higher.
Have a tip/trick to share? Notecard it and drop it to Gaelyn Seomun in-world, or email us!