Ikariam US

Note: A newer version of this guide has been posted in the FAQs and Guides section of the board: General FAQ
~Phillip II

This is an attempt at a comprehensive FAQ designed to answer the most common questions people are asking on these forums. If you have a specific question, you might find the answer on FAQs and Guides.
If you have any suggestions or wish to discuss this FAQ, please use the following link to the General forum: General FAQ

Q: Why can't I log in? Why is my server not displayed?
A: There are two separate sites for Ikariam: the .com and the .org sites. The .com is the US site while the .org is the UK site. Make sure you are on the correct site.

Q: How do I trade with my friends?
A: You can send resources between islands in your cluster, but islands beyond your cluster require you to research Expansion first.

Q: How do I build a colony?
A: Research Expansion and build a palace. Then select the island you wish to colonize and click on a yellow flag. To build a colony, you need five(5) trade ships available, 1250 wood (building materials), 12,000 gold. See the Colonisation Guide for more info.

Q: I built a colony, but I can't gather resources from it!
A: At the top left of the window is a drop down menu with your currently selected city. Make sure you have the correct city selected.

Q: It says the wall gives a 10% defense bonus for each level, but it is only giving me x%!
A: You must keep your wall up to the same level as your town hall, otherwise you start losing the defensive bonus of the wall.

Q: My wall has holes in it!
A: You are watching... Lost in Translation: Possible Breaches! No, your wall does not have holes in it. The "possible breaches" is the number of walls your opponent has to knock down in order to balance out the defensive bonus of the wall. For every breach they make, they gain a 10% attack bonus, so when they have breached all your walls they will have an attack bonus equal to your defensive bonus from your wall, unless your wall is a lower level than your town hall. Your wall is automatically repaired after each fight.

Q: What should I build first?
A: Probably an academy.

Q: What should I research first?
A: Welldigging.

Q: What's pushing?
A: Pushing is when a lower ranked player sends resources to a higher ranked player, but receives nothing of fair value in return within 48 hours. Pushing is a bannable offense, and is most likely designed to cut down on multiaccounting, also a bannable offense.

Q: What's bashing?
A: Bashing is attacking the same city more than 6 times in a 24 hour period. Only successful attacks count, and blockades that result in a sea battle (I believe). Bashing is a bannable offense.

Q: What's with all the German text?
A: They're still working out translation kinks. For now go here: Translation Thread

Q: What does the workshop do?
A: Right now, nothing. When they get it working, though, you can research upgrades for you troops and ships. You can go ahead and get them now, but they don't work yet. And yes, they will work for all your troops in any city.

Q: Why is my town paying upkeep when there are no troops there?
A: Upkeep is distributed evenly among all our cities according to size. In the end it makes no difference, as gold, unlike other resources, is universal for all colonies, and therefore income and costs are all just added together regardless of which town they come from.

Q: How do I get a powerful army?
A: You need to research Professional Army first. The slingers you can train from the start are very weak. You want to use phalanx to defend and swordsmen to attack. You'll be able to get more powerful units later.

Q: What is this guy with a (i) beside his town name?
A: That is an inactive player. Most of the time, inactives do not return to the game. This means you can pillage them without anyone getting angry! You might want to send them a message telling them that you are only attacking them because they are inactive, in case they do come back. Also, the bashing rule still applies.

Q: Help! I'm under attack!
A: Calm down. There are three things you can do to avoid being pillaged. First, if you have warships in your harbor, then he can't land an army without blockading your port first. If he does not send a fleet to you town, then you can build a fleet to turn his army back. The second thing you can do is train quick-training defensive units like the phalanx to try to strengthen your army before the attack. The third thing is to contact the person attacking you and ask why they are attacking you. "A soft answer turneth away wrath: but grievous words stir up anger." (Proverbs 15:1)

Q: What can I do to keep from getting pillaged?
A: Your town wall provides a substantial defensive bonus at higher levels. It's worth the effort to expand it if you think you might get attacked. Make sure you keep it at or above the level of your town hall in order to get the full bonus. Keeping a sizable standing army is expensive, but will also help. The same goes for keeping a fleet around. In the event that you are pillaged, having a high level warehouse will protect your goods, and having a low level trading port will limit the goods the raiders will be able to carry off with them.

Q: How do I start an alliance?
A: You need to research Foreign Cultures and build an embassy, first. Then click on your embassy and enter the alliance name and tag in the appropriate fields. You need 3 diplomacy points to create an alliance, but it does not seem to be taking the points away after you do so. For further info, see Alliance Guides

Q: How do I join an alliance?
A: Again, you need to research Foreign Cultures and build an embassy. Then click on your embassy and search for the alliance tag you wish to join. Or you can look for alliances that are around your level. You need 1 diplomacy point to join an alliance. Once you find an alliance you like, click the icon of the shaking hands and enter your message to that alliance. See Ally joining tutorial

Q: How do I get other people to join my alliance?
A: First, you need to click on your embassy and transfer some of your diplomacy points to the alliance. You need 1 alliance diplomacy point for every person you wish to join. Then, the other person must find your alliance with his embassy and submit a petition to join. Once you accept, they are a part of your alliance.

Q: How do I keep my people happy, and what does it do?
A: The happier your people are, the faster your town will grow. Researching Well Digging gives an early boost to your capital's happiness. After that, you need to research Wine Press and build taverns or Cultural Exchange and build museums. The tavern requires you to continually serve wine in order to get the full bonus. Even serving no wine, however, the tavern still makes a few citizens happy. For the museum, you must make cultural exchange treaties with other players, which costs 1 diplomacy point. Then you can distribute your cultural goods among your museums. See Satisfaction and population Explanation

Q: What do spies do?
A: See Merlin's Spy FAQ: FAQ: Hideout and Spies

Q: What happened to all my research points?
A: The way the research works, your points are not "spent" until you actually finish researching something. So if you are researching Wealth until it is at 70%, then switch to Paper, the points would switch over as well. In this case, you would most likely research Paper as soon as you switched, as Paper takes fewer research points than Wealth does. Any points left over would go toward your next research goal. Switching immediately back to Wealth would mean that you will no longer have it 70% done.

Q: What does vacation mode do?
A: While in vacation mode, you do not gather any resources, perform research, and cannot be attacked. In essence, your account is "frozen." You can only enter vacation mode if you are not building any buildings, have any trade ships or armies out, or have an army attacking you. When you enter vacation mode, you cannot log in for 48 hours. When you do log in (after the 48 hour wait), you automatically leave vacation mode.

At the top, click on "Options" and then scroll down and click on "Activate vacation mode."

If you wish to discuss this FAQ or make suggestions, please use the link at the top of the page leading to the FAQ as posted in the General forums. Please do not discuss it here.

I don't think so.

Sigh, I guess people are going to post here anyway, and it does help to bump it out of obscurity.

Did you sticky this, Curious? Hurray!

To amend the FAQ, sea battles no longer count toward bashing, and I have heard that workshop upgrades are now working, or will be working next patch.