OK - I'm still a noob, but I am learning fast.
1. This blog is a work in progress. I may make other entries, but this intro entry is updated regularly. Come back to learn more.
2. Dragon Wars is not like WoW. Less Interaction. If you don't know what that is - forget I said it.
3 BUY LAND - make every cent count - until you are making at least 2,000,000 an hour - that's right - TWO MILLION AN HOUR. (THis is a limited time offer. Must be over 18 to apply. Just kidding.)
4. I operate as a Paladin. I only attack those who attack me first, or I look for a small bounty from a low level character placed on a high level character. I do not require this behavior from any of my alliances. But if you are allied with one of those fiends, when I hit them, you also get hurt. If that happens enough times - I suggest you choose between they and me. I will not influence your decision.
NAVIGATION
you navigate to different parts of the game user interface using the tab bar - words like:
HOME - QUESTS - BATTLE - HIT LIST - ARMORY - LAND - THE GODS - TREASURY - TAVERN - MAGIC ITEMS - ALLIENCE (spelled alliance)
There is a mini-bar above that in the upper right portion of the game window. It looks like:
MY ALLIANCES - MY STATS - UPDATES - HELP - ToS
It's good, but they charge too much for those little bottles.
If you need more explanation than this - stop now, foo.
LEVELING UP
Your level is displayed in the upper right corner in yellow text. To the left of that you will see the Experience number. This changes in real time. The number on the right is the goal you need to reach in order to level up. Above that you will see "my stats". This is a report on the state of your Dragon Wars character.
The Experience Point Count never goes down, but the Health, Energy and Stamina do. Energy lets you play the quests - each quest costs energy. As you fight, Health goes down fast, - Stamina goes down once per attack.
Energy, Health and Stamina grow back over time, like a drip in a bathtub. Humans, Dwarfs, etc all have different rates of restoration (the drips). It takes 5 minutes to gain back 1 energy if you are a Dwarf. m That's 12 Energy Points earned an hour, so 288 in a 24 hour period. If you play daily, you don't need to set the Energy Maximum higher than that.
So this means - don't play for hours. Play for 30 minutes and walk away. Before you walk, close the web browser - don't waste bandwidth, or you'll bog down the game servers for no reason. If you get as hooked as I am, you will be waking up multiple times a night to play.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED - DON"T TOUCH THE DROCK (wars).
When you level up, you get 5 points to spread to your attributes that you can manage in the "my stats" area (upper right corner). They can be applied to Attack, Defense, Maximum Energy, Maxium Health, and Maximum Stamina. I can't give you any adivce on this. Whatever makes you most excited, put most of your points there.
Health, Energy and Stamina will hopefully reach maximum before you come back to play, but You can make them have huge maximums. The only reason I can see for doing so is if you are religious - that is, go to the section called "The Gods", and see if you want to use it.
QUESTS
If you want to level up fast, I recommend the Gates of Draconis Quest. Look at the ration between how much energy is required and how much experience points are recieved. The Gates of Dragonis costs 5 Energy points, but delivers 20 Experience points, BUT ONLY IF YOU WIN THE QUEST. That is a ratio of 1 to 4 - pretty good.
Check out my training video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O688rWsA3WI
There are 2 kinds of quests - Legendary and Magic Items Quests.
Legendary Quests allow you to pound on a virtual character controlled by the game. If you are familiar with online RPG, you'll be right at home. If not, pay some rent.
I will tell you this - get the loot that is dropped. When a virtual character dies, they disappear, and a bit of coinage appears in their place. This is referred to as "Dropping Loot". Step on the loot, and it gets sucked up into your legs and eventually makes it into Gold Count (top of screen, left side).
Magic Items Quests don't require much health, so I usually do several Magic Item Quests after I complete a legendary quest, until I run out of energy.
There are 2 kinds of Magic Items - those that have a "+1" or a "+2" after their name. Those are special - really nice to have. Take my word for it.
If you are trying to level up using Magic Item Quests - the "Banish Skeletons From A Graveyard" has the best ratio - one energy gets you two Experience.
"Shoot Down Harpies" is a good beginner quest to generate GOLD. Notice that it is neither a Legenday Quest NOR a Magic Item Quest. I lied. There are a few of these quests - there purpose is to spin time into gold.
The thing to remember - MAGIC ITEM QUESTS ALWAYS DELIVER. You always get the experience points.
TREASURY
When you are ready to leave the game, or during a long play session, you can go to the Treasury and drop a load - I mean - put your gold in a safe place - called a "Deposit". I know that most game players have no idea what a deposit is in real life because they are always playing games. Get a Job!
This is how you save up for those expensive things, like that really pimped-out draaaaagoon. When you are attacked, your money in the Treasury is safe. That's why I get up at night, to make a deposit - in Dragon Wars and in the bathroom.
I usually put as much as possible in land, but there is good reason to put money in the treasury. When you go to the Tavern and buy a tall, cool one - it can come directly out of your Treasury. So you don't have to expose your cash to your enemies when you are in the need of a fix.
It is a good idea to leave a small amount of money in the gold counter - and not put all of it in the Treasury. When pillagers come, if they see a ZERO amount is pillaged, they will just assume that they are there at the wrong time, and they will come back later to get the easy money. But if they get a small amount, like $23. then they will assume you are poor, and are less likely to come back.
TAVERN
I love this place - bottoms up! Go there often - this is where you turn gold into Health. That's right, you can buy health. It's not snake oil - it really works and tastes great.
The coolest thing about the Tavern is not having to have ready cash. If you gold is all in the treasury, the barkeep will be happy to take it from you. You don't have to go to the bank to withdraw it. This is, after all, a business. Convience is the key to Point-Of-Sale marketing.
So - always remember to go to the tavern after a legendary quest, to restore your health and relieve your.....
Just ask for a flask of Red Bubble, I'm buyin'
I own several taverns. I wish they would let us name them. Like "The Peep Ought"
Actually, the reason to always go to the Tavern after a Quest is to restore your health, and hopefully, clear the Gold Count. If not, then go to the Treasury and deposit all gold. This will keep the parasites away. when they use a precious stamina point to attack you and get zero dollars in return, they'll go after someone else.
Actually, it is better to leave a small amount in the Gold Count - don't put it all in the bank. When you enter the treasury, type zeroes over the last 3 digits, then hit DEPOSIT. This will leave less than 1000 in the bank. When the parasites come, they will get a really small number, but not zero.
The reason to do this is that parasite's aren't dumb. When they attack you for money, and see zero, they KNOW you are hiding it - which means you must have A LOT O F IT. If the see only a trickle, they will be led to believe that you aren't making much money, so there is less chance of them coming back.
LAND MANAGEMENT
That's right - you have to manage your land - but I don't mean cutting lawns or pulling weeds. I mean getting land for the best price possible - stretch those dollars.
But why do you want all that responsibility - because land generates GOLD every 54 minutes. Why not every 60 minutes? Don't ask me - Maybe it has something to do with Metric.
There are 4 kinds of basic land plots: Meadow, Town, Fiefdom and Country. Then later, you can invest more money in them and convert them into things that make more money per hour.
Never buy multiple plots of the same type at one time. Each one you buy of the same type costs a little bit more than the previous. I always try to have 1 meadow, 1 town lot, 1 fiefdom and 1 country ready to be converted. When I convert one, I immediately purchase a replacement plot at the original low, low price. Come on down!
You can convert plots into multiple things - but once converted - it stays that way forever - kind of like Catholics.
When you sell something, you sell it for 50% of what you bought it for - WHAT A RIPOFF!
There is a mathematical way to determine what it the best thing to convert to at the time. So unless you are a genius like me, that will suck all the fun out of the game. It is done by - ahhh, forget it.
ATTACKS
You are going to be attacked as soon as you start playing. When attacks occur, the most important factor is: HOW BIG IS YOUR ALLIANCE? How powerful are they? You can build your alliance at the Facebook Discussion Boards - look for a topic with DRAGON WARS in the title. Don't bother doing a search - it will only find EXACT name matches.
http://www.facebook.com/board.php?uid=2373072738
I use this one a lot:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=2373072738&topic=16871
When an attack happens, Dragon Wars looks at each person in your alliance, and looks at 3 things: What is your highest WEAPON count, What is your highest ARMOR count and what is your highest DRAGON count.
This means you need to specialize as soon as you can in each of those 3 areas. But you have to get a little bit of everything in order to do all the quests, so it takes awhile. So until you are making tons of cash, never buy more than the highest Quest entry requirement, except for the weapon, armor and dragon you have chosen to specialize in.
The alliance needs a spread of weapons, armors and dragons - you shouldn't all pick the same thing. The problem is, we really shouldn't be communicating with our alliance members - the volume of messages would be a nuisance. Zygna actually detects this and warns you that if you continue, your account will be blocked. The reason for this is that people are abusing the facebook friend relationship for business purposes - sending ADS.
So that means - make a good guess. Everyone shouldn't speicalize in the most powerful or most expensive weapon. Make a guess and stick with it.
I don't have a lot of data, but there are upper limits to weapon counts. Dragon Wars will happily let you buy more of those weapons if you exceed the upper limit. The only way to tell is by comparing the attack log over time. I am not going to explain that - figure that out on your own. I am pretty sure that a single individual should not buy more than 300 "Swords of the Dragon".
What this means is that duplication of effort is OK, that is, picking the same weapon specialization as someone else is not bad. My highest weapon count is 300 Dragon Swords, and your highest weapon count is 150 Dragon Swords, so together, we have 450. Get it? And the game compares our collective total across all members of your alliance with the collective total of whomever you attacked, or visa verse.
IMHO, the members of your alliance MUST BE PLAYING THE GAME when you are attacked, in order for your to draw from their strength. SO - be INTERNAITONAL. Be sure to include people in your alliance from all over the world, so that no matter when you play, you will have playmates to play with.
Also, If there are are very few of your allies playing, like perhaps, NONE, then all the stats come from you. In cases like this, DW will use more of your WEAPONS, ARMOR and DRAGONS in the attack equation, not just one each. So when you get rich (2 MILLION an hour), BUY, BUY, BUY!
In my last attack, it used the following from me: Hammer, Twin Daggers, Draconis Blades, Swords of the Dragon, Scorpions of Energy, Dragon Armors, Impervious Armors, Plate Mails, Fire Dragons, Glod Dragons, Great Wyrms.
Always keep your health at maximum, and look at it cionstantly as you operate. When you see the number go down, it means you are being attacked. Go to the treasury and deposit EVERYTHING!
HIT LIST
There is a tabbed called HIT LIST. This is where you can find those who someone wants to hurt. If you want to aid them in that, hist the ATTACK button on that row. Many other people might also being doing the same. If you are the lucky chap that delivers the final blow - you get the bounty.
If someone places a bounty on you, you might get pummeled pretty fast.
There is a behavior where players put a bounty on you, then attack you until you die, and collect their own bounty. I think they are saying - See how much riches I have, it gives me a long reach, long enough to reach you.
Everywhere in the game, you will see players names in yellow text. Click on their name, and you can see some of their stats. Based on that, you may decide to react to them. There are 3 promonent buttons at the top: ATTACK, HEAD BUTT and ADD TO TRAITOR LIST.
Attack - you damage them, and they damage you. Damage is loss of Health. I also think it might affect other things, like your weapons - but not sure yet. WHen you character dies from an attack, you lose Experience Points, too. Each time you hit them harder than they hit back, you get some of their money (but not the cash in their treasury). And you lose 1 stamina for every attack, win or lose.
Head Butt - generally considered rude, so I use it often. It will damage the other individual from 1 to 3 health points. You don't lose anything but 1 stamina. But you get nothing, either. Most people don't use Stamina to their advantage - they think of it is a counter of how many times they can attack. You can be more creative with it - and that's the only clue you're gonna get.
Add to Traitor List - If you have cash lying around, and it is time to go, and someone has been hassling you for the last 20 minutes - use this. Someone else will keep them busy for awhile, and away from you.
There is a nauseating practice of parasites attacking people in order to farm for money. The highest amount they can get is 100,000 in gold for each attack. There are better ways to earn gold. But some people have small minds and big sticks. When I catch them at it, I give it to them hard and fast. I have even been farmed by someone in my own alliance. I did PUNISH him, but if he does it again, he will have to rename his character.
ALLIANCES
It took me ahile to figure this out. It is crucial to the game, and it is clear as mud. IMHO, it is the biggest flaw in the graphical user interface. That's why I saved it for last in this blog. It is hard to explain, and I'll probably do it wrong. I probably know it wrong. Gimme a break, people, I'm guessin' here!!
Here is how it works. You make friends in facebook, outside of DRAGON WARS, and then once they are your friend, then you can make them an Ally in the game. Some people have figured out how to get around that, and become an Ally in the game directly. I am not one of them.
When you are in the "Alliance room" - kind of like a war room, only nicer - all your friends will be listed in a list. ALL OF THEM. Your real friends, your dragon wars friends, your fashion wars friends - all in alphabeitcal order - what a pain.
Clicking on a name will move it to a box below the list. You can only pick a limited number (like 8 or 6 - I nver learned to count - or spel ether). When you reach that limit, you get an error message that says - YOU HAVE ALREADY SELECTED 0 PEOPLE. This is kind of like: All Your Bases Are Belong To Us.
How do you select zero people? What that means is: Come back tomorrow.
Eventually, you will be allowed to invite more people to be your ally. You can speed it along by removing requests that people haven't responded to you, so you can invite your next batch.
It is a real hassle trying to remember who is a new invite and who is someone that hasn't responded yet. This can be solved by DELETING THE FRIENDSHIP of those who don't respond. But that seems so hearltess, I can't bring myself to do it.
PLAAAAAAAY BALLLLLLLLLLLL !!!!
(Don't forget to sing the Dragon Wars National Anthem first
Oh sage, can you see,
By the Dragon Wars Light
What so stoutly we aled
at the tavern last evening
.....
This is for those who notice things, like the fact that the scrollbar thumbnail is not all the way to the bottom of the scrollbar.
The Rumor Rap Sheet
Banish Skeletons From a Grave Yard
yields Short Sword+1
Rid The Monastery of Rabid Wolves
yields Morning Star+1
Cleanse Goblin-Infested Caves
yields Dwarven Short Sword
Behead a Vile Witch
yields Claymore+1
Raid The Sorcerer's Tower
yields Crossbar+1
Plunder a Yeti's Lair
yields Frost Hammer
Clear Out Ghoul Infested Granary
yields Haman's Scythe
Capture the Rogue Executioner
yields Leather Armor +1
Slay the Goblin General
yields War Axe +1
Hunt Down a Giant Bull Spider
yields Elvin Longbow +2
Capture The Isle of The Ancient Troll
yields Plate Mail +1
Destroy the Undead Fortress
yields Great Sword Of Legion
Map The Ancient Catacombs
yields Glowing Plate Mail
Vanquish a Fire-Breathing Dragon
yields Flaming Sword+1
Invade The Palace of the Burning Sand
yields Scorpion Of Energy
Repel The Dark Mage's Army
yields Dragon Armor
Battle Against Valkyries in Valhalla
yields Draconis Blade
Protect Your Nation Against a Marauding Army
yields Impervious Armor
Can you see this? HIGHLIGHT TO SEE BETTER
BSFTG = 3,5,3,1
RTMORW = 2,1,7,1
CGIC = 1,2,6,1
BAVW = 1,1,5,17
RAST = 11,10,8,4
PAYL = 27,18,5,11
COTGIG = 13.21,2,3
CTRE = 10,1,13,12
STGG = 8,
HDAGBS =
CTIOTAT =
DTUF =
MTAC =
VAFBD =
ITPOTBS =
RTGMA =
BAVIV = 1,1,1,1
PYNAAMA = 0
