PWE special delivery

[Xev]

Anyone happen to check out Fortuna?

I got an e-mail from PWE awhile back about it and promptly shelved it. I've been playing it today and it's oddly entertaining.

It seems made for the workplace. You play awhile, then it makes you wait awhile. So you have time to go back to work. To surf the web. Then it rewards you for coming back to play for awhile, then sends you back off to work again after you run out of things to do. Rinse and repeat.

Works good for CO playbreaks too.

I managed to get my guy to lvl 20 today somehow.

[Xev]

Oddly I'm still playing this game. On two servers now. Why? I dunno? It's a pretty simplistic game. The effects can be lessened with various defenses but there is no way to avoid getting attacked, either.

It barely uses any bandwidth and rewards me just for logging in.. That could be part of it.

[Thunder Glove]

It's surprisingly entertaining, but seeing 9 levels of VIP access is... worrying.

still, it's good enough as a time-waster.

[Xev]

Lol on the 9 levels. Yeah, huh. *shakes head*

There are some people who take the game fairly seriously which is usually a good thing.  For them there are all kinds of toys to buy to speed things up, I totally don't. It's main function to me is to keep me from using too much bandwidth on CO (which I play only slightly more seriously than Fortuna, as far as that goes) when I'm in game mode.

It's also fun to tinker with when there's only a few minutes or I'm doing something else like eating or cleaning and I can come over and *click click* once in awhile to keep things rolling.

I have a total deja vu feeling with this game sometimes.. The roaming artisans, for example. I *know* I've played a game very similar to this before but I can't think of what it was.

You'll get plundered eventually by someone a few hundred levels (give or take) above you. One option at that point is to join an alliance. What I've done, is start playing on two servers. If that gets too slow then I'll probably play on the third, too. Just to give me something to click on when it's Fortuna time.

As with CO, it's no race to me..

After I got attacked the first and only time with my first Lord I started concentrating on defense. There's a couple of artisans that can help to fend off invaders and a vault that can be built in an economic center (when you get one) to protect an amount of resources that goes up with its level. I pumped up the city walls with as much gear as they would hold and try to keep a good army going. Ever since doing this, my farm leacher seems to have disappeared as well as the attacks. She wasn't getting much when she did leach but oi was it annoying!

Pumped up heroes with an aoe attack have been the most helpful, seemingly, to me so far. I have all aoe guys and one lady that buffs with +fire dmg on my better lord of the two. The heroes get more.. heroic as your tavern gets upgraded more. The special ones in the beginning have green text and later on have an animated border. I try to invest xp on just the best of the best guys now while I wait for more like them to show up at the tavern.

I kept wondering what I was going to do with the copper I was accumulating until I recently realized the magic of the Mystery Shop at the Smithy.. Occasionally there are some very useful things in there, like resources. I constantly check mine for resource packs now. And construction cards, And other useful stuff.

Another not so obvious boost is in the Lord screen where you can allocate points towards boosting economic and military development.

There are some decent browser games out now. Battlestar Galactica looks decent but it seems to want to make me want to download more than I want to which defeats the purpose, for me. The tutorial is 20mb and it seems like I was always getting 20mb+ chunks of bandwidth getting eaten up here and there. Looked cool tho.

We all probably got the e-mail from PWE about Fortuna is why I brought it up here. At the time, it was serving as a great break on a 'hardcore' CO play day, too. Man, you know you're having a great day when you're playing games to take breaks from playing games  : )

[General Idiot]

I have a total deja vu feeling with this game sometimes.. The roaming artisans, for example. I *know* I've played a game very similar to this before but I can't think of what it was.

Probably entirely not what you're thinking of and possibly not even a similar game (Haven't played or looked at Fortuna personally) but Torchlight 2 has random crafting guys you'll find out in the wilderness who'll improve your equipment for you. And it's published by PWE as well.

[Xev]

It's older. Like from Ultima, or something like this. Some old favorite.

Ultima was not a favorite of mine btw but I played them all including UO and was selling it when it (the originals, I-VII or whatever it was) was new so I give it the $65-a copy people-were-buying-new-pc's(and paying me to build them)just-to-play-it respect that it deserves.

[Thunder Glove]

I logged in just now to discover my city had been all but destroyed, its level dropped from 5 to 2, and my resources and copper coins plundered.

... that does not make me feel good about this game.

[General Idiot]

Yeah, I used to play a few games like that when I was in school. Those were browser based, but same general concept. Inevitably I stopped playing because of exactly that - logging in one day to find all my stuff ruined by someone I don't even know and couldn't possibly defend against because they'd been grinding much longer than I had, while I wasn't even online and playing. Really kind of kills the appeal of it when at any moment all of my hard work can be undone by effectively the hand of God randomly slaps me down.

[Xev]

Wow that completely sucks.. I almost quit the first time I got attacked and it was nowhere near as severe as what happened to you.

When I got attacked I just lost soldiers and resources and I now have a perma 'LOL' (Alliance name..) white flag waving over my city. I didn't even know my city could lose levels. Man, it takes forever to get your city to lvl 5. Just now checked and my best one is 6 (and still 6, thankfully!).

The first time I got attacked all I could do is try to find out how to destroy my own city and quit the game. I couldn't find out how, so, I started doing all the defensive stuff basically because I didn't have anything else to play and I've already used most of my bandwidth for the month and there's 3 weeks to go...

This is when I started playing on a second server, too, because things just slowed down. They still seem slowed down but things are moving forward *shrug*

For defense I built a military center that had just became available (I picked economic the first time) and pumped up everything (vault, city walls (always keep this geared up), heroes/troops/spies/assassins/watch tower/catholic church. My troops have 5 aoe heroes with ~ max enhanced gear getting buffed w/fire by the 6th hero and are a long row of swordsmen with a group of crossbow cavalry in the rear. but I dunno how much of a speed bump they are for the city walls to someone with an army way beyond mine.

I dunno what did it but I stopped getting attacked (except I think I get attacked via the tournament..? It's no big deal because my backup troops kick in to replace the fallen and otherwise no damage seems to be done) and since a couple days now my farm isn't getting plundered anymore either.

My guy's name on Lion is Sole, and on Eagle it's Xev. If you're on one of those servers and want to join an alliance/friends as something to try before quitting, no problemo. I'll click 'yes' to the prompt hehe.

Sucks that that happened to you! I wouldn't have even mentioned the game if I knew you could lose levels. Sorry about that.

When I got attacked the first time I wandered over to the Ultima browser. It's similar to Fortuna. I was told, that there, you can make cities (the guy I was talking with had 10) and not have to worry about stuff like you're talking about. But if you make a castle you have to have backup. If I get wiped out like you did I may give them more attention for something to do when the bandwidth well runs dry.

I don't mind going slow (just make more Lords) but backwards is no fun.

If you decide to try another Lord, you can take what you learned and go gonzo with your economy during the beginning period (2/4 days?) when no one can attack you. I always try to keep my resources too low to plunder via Spy Bluff and the Vault and I keep my farm plucked.

I dunno why you lost levels! You must have lost a *ton* of Prosperity...? Megasuperplundered? But how could that send you backwards..

They are probably just milking *me*... lol

There is an option to restore prosperity but you lost so much your levels went away and getting prosperity restored probably won't restore anything beyond your current level.

[Xev]

Well I'm getting attacked on the second server now.. I won! A couple times. Against guys a fair amount above me. Lost a couple times. The wheels keep turning. I even had tons left in my farm after having it plundered, somehow. Ever since reading the Wipeout Post I've been waiting for the same thing to happen to me.. My second guy is completely surrounded too.

If I keep getting the hang of the game and by luck don't get wiped out real bad like you did, TG, I'm thinking to start playing on the third server with what I learn and dumping my other guys. It's becoming a little bit of effort to keep 2 guys going - I have to actually pay attention and make more effort (anything more than ~ 0 is more than I planned on) than I want. In the beginning until recently I was always waiting for something to do so I figured the more servers the merrier.

I visited the shop and see that they have a kinda Q/Zen thing going. Gold is Q and diamonds are Zen. One thing you can buy with 60 gold is a card that won't allow anyone to attack for 12 hours. Construction cards are there too which is kinda nice.

I'm still in shock over those lost city levels. Am hoping I don't find out first hand how they did it.


>>
Just looked, and one guy that my 32 went up against and won was 66! He beat me once, lost once. I dunno how, I haven't even finished beefing up the city walls for their level yet.

[Xev]

Dunno if it's the server I'm on or something I'm doing but I've still had no major losses with my first guy. My city is just about to hit lvl 7 on Eagle. 

I gave up on Lion. Became too much work playing two places. Since then, my city got pillaged down a couple of levels. Thing is, as I recover prosperity (I played around with it some before abandoning the server for good), it goes back up in level. Plus, the city xp bar doesn't show the prosperity I need to gain another level it shows the prosperity I need to gain back.

So I'm wondering if losing prosperity is like xp debt with the added penalty of losing levels.

It seems like my secret to not losing a ton of prosperity has been to max/enable the many various defense options and have max surplus troops for those attacks while I'm away so that the formation replenishes. Then, even when I lose they get punished for taking the time & resources to march over. And I keep resource inventory levels low so they have nothing to steal when they do win.

Or, it could just be the server, Eagle, *shrug*

[Xev]

My city finally hit 7. Some of my heroes are higher level than my lord now. Just keep sending them off to xp grind. Progress is slow but I chug onward somehow.

[Xev]

Well I'm back running on 3 servers off and on, 1 server 'regularly'. I'd still recommend this game.

If you don't log in every day or just have bad luck/planning your cities probably will un-ding at some point. Fortuna is a war game with an active community that will pick you off if the situation is right. You can join in on the fun, or deal. I'm not bored/interested enough yet to join so I deal. Things go at a slow pace but I always have something to click on over morning caffeine.

My main guy hasn't undinged since he was a newb, It's similar to xp debt, except, you can lose a level. You get it back fast enough though. You can buy xp (prosperity) back, earn it back, or just let it regen on it's own or any combination of these things.

So far, I have to say that I get defeated as much by myself as other players. I have one guy that I Incited every unfriendly npc faction in that game with at once and get random attacks from them 24/7 - some of them are nearly double my level. He just happens to be my main guy too yay. Still tho, no biggy. Toughens up the city walls when he wins and he mostly does.

8 more days until I can play more than 20 mins a day of CO..  : /