Ikariam

Zeta .com

Ikariam is a browser-based game about building an empire on a bunch of islands. The site is made by Germans and consequently frequently features amusingly dubious English, as well as bizarre artwork with the most conspicuous spies in all of existence and people showing the sort of smile generally reserved for someone in the process of having fellatio performed on them by at least three people.

Spahs blend in seamlessly with the local populace by wearing a towel on their heads.

Some fa/tg/uys have started a "suptg" alliance on the "Zeta" world on the ikariam.com site, and are actively recruiting more fa/tg/uys to expand their alliance to ridiculous proportions and conquer the world Zerg-style. They can be often be found chatting in #tg-ikariam on Rizon.net. The following is a guide to how to get started and join the suptg alliance.

Starting up

First, go to ikariam.com. That is .COM, and not .ORG. This is a frequently made mistake, since the .org site is the first one to show up when you google Ikariam.

Then select server zeta, and sign up an account as normal. You can change your in-game name later if you wish.

Quick Guide Summary

If you hate tl;dr and would rather figure things out yourself, just do this checklist:

1. Build an academy
2. Start harvesting wood
3. Assign scientists to finished academy.
4. Research Well Digging. When finished, research seafaring techs.
5. Upgrade academy to level 4
6. Upgrade town hall to level 3
7. Build a Trading Port
8. Build 4 cargo ships.
9. Get 9000 gold.
10. Research Expansion.
11. Build a palace.
12. Get 1800 wood.
13. Ask where to build your colony
14. Build your colony
15. ????
16. Profit!

Addendum:

If you are attacked:

1. Build a shipyard
2. Research wealth to get 130 sulphur
3. Build a ramship to defend yourself
4. If this fails, contact the alliance via IRC and we’ll assist.

In Depth Tutorial

All of the fa/tg/uys in ikariam are all gathered together in a single place so that we can assist each other and quickly send our excess resource to those who need them. However, when you start your initial location is assigned randomly, and you will probably begin very far away from us. The first thing you want to do is to get to us so that the fa/tg/uy’s can help you out. This process will take about 3 to 5 days IRL, though you will only need to log on occasionally for a few minutes each day.

Day 1

After you log on, click on Show Town at the top of the screen. Then click on an empty space with a red flag in it. Build an academy. While waiting, click on Show Island (next to Show Town). Then click on the sawmill and assign all your workers to harvesting wood, and press confirm (even if you move the slider, they won’t do anything unless you press confirm. A common mistake is to move the slider to maximum, then change screen without confirming, thus doing nothing without realising). Go back to your town, and wait for your academy to finish. When your academy has finished, the build time will show as ‘-‘ or as the building itself. Click on your academy, and assign as many scientists as possible, and press confirm. Then choose to change your research area to science. In order to build a city and move towards us you want to research seafaring, however you should start by getting Well Digging (a science technology) first because it will significantly speed up the process. After doing this, go back to the island view and select the woodpile again. Decrease the number of men harvesting wood until your net income (in terms of gold) is positive. You can now log off, and come back later in the day or tomorrow. If you want to do more, keep upgrading your academy as soon as you receive enough wood. Once you finish researching Well Digging, go to the academy and change the research to seafaring.

Day 2-3

So now you’ve come back to your city the next day. You should have a nice bunch of wood stockpiled, Well Digging should have finished researching, and you will have more people in your town to do your bidding. First, go to your academy and switch to researching Seafaring technology. Then go to your forest, and assign your new peons to work in the lumber mill, keeping your net income of gold positive. Next, keep upgrading your academy until it is level 4 if you haven’t already. Each time it levels up, click on the academy and assign more scientists, and decrease the number of woodcutters to make up for the extra cost this incurs. Next, upgrade your town hall to level 3. Upgrading your town hall increases your maximum population limit. The last thing you need to build is a trading port (you will need Wealth, an economic technology to build this, you will probably have it by now). If you run out of wood while going through this process, log off and come back later when your peons have gotten more wood.

Day 4-5

• In order to expand, you will need:
• 4 cargo ships
• 9000 gold
• 1750-2000 wood. (you need 1250 to expand, but you want to take extra with you)
• Expansion (a seafaring technology)
• A Palace (you cannot build this until you have Expansion)

To get Expansion, just keep researching the seafaring tech tree. Some technologies cannot be researched until other technologies from a different area of research are complete, so if you tell them to research seafaring, this is why they researching an economy or military technology instead.

To get more wood, just assign more peons to the woodpile on the island view.

To get more gold, reduce the number of peons cutting wood. If you remove your scientists from your academy you will make a lot more gold, which I recommend after you have researched Expansion.

To build cargo ships, you can buy them from the Trading Port for a cost in gold.

Once you have all of these things, you are ready to build your colony. Get on IRC (Rizon, #tg-ikariam) and ask where a good location to put your first colony is. If this fails, or you don’t know how (I strongly recommend learning), go to diplomacy and send a message to Gorkamorka (or better yet get on the IRC) asking where you should go. The majority of fa/tg/uys are based around the bunch of islands at the co-ordinates 93:38 (go to Show World, and put those numbers into the boxes on the left). Your first town should be on an island with wine as its resource, and the first thing you should build is a governor’s residence. After that, it’s up to whatever you want to do. If you go on IRC, some of the higher level fa/tg/uys may be willing to give you extra resources to help quick start you.

Once you send out your colony, you should assign all of your peons to making gold (i.e. do nothing) or as scientists for more tech. You will eventually be destroying your starting city, so there is little point in upgrading it further. Technology and gold are both global and will not be lost when you abandon your city, so you want to focus on these. You could harvest more wood, and then send it to your new colony after it is built, however the distance will mean it will take a very long time (up to a day to arrive). Additionally, fa/tg/uys will probably give you a lot more wood very quickly when you arrive (or give you methods of acquiring it) which will make whatever you produce in your starting town redundant.

Joining The IRC

In order to really become a part of the alliance, the first thing you should do is get on IRC. If you don’t have the client or can’t be bothered to download it or figure it out, go to www.mibbit.com/chat. Once you are here, in the IRC: box, select Rizon Webirc (press r 4 times to find it quickly). Then put in your name, and for the channel box you want to type in #tg-ikariam. That’s it. Once you’re here, you can ask any of the local fa/tg/uys for advice or help on anything.

Joining The Alliance In-Game

In order to officially join the alliance in-game, first research Foreign Cultures. This is the seafaring technology that directly follows expansion. Once you have this, you will be able to build an embassy. Build it, but do not upgrade it. Level 1 is all you need. Once it is built, click on your embassy and you will have the option to send an application to an alliance. Use the search function and search for the words suptg. This should give you the Rogue Traders (suptg). Submit your application by clicking on the shaking hands symbols and writing a message, and Justesp should accept you quickly enough.

Alternatively, select show world, and go to co-ordinates 93:38. Select the city “The Capital” and click the shaking hands symbol to send a message to Justesp. Above the area where you write the message, there will be a drop down box. Change the type of message to ‘Application’, and then send the message. You can only do this if you have an embassy.

This concludes the basics for getting into the alliance. For the alliance's guide on detailed in-game information, you can download the full version of the guide here.