Evony: Exclusive Developer Tips

Since 2009, Evony has been a strong leader among browser-based strategy games. MMOHut has had an exclusive chance to speak with Darold Higa, Producer of Evony, as well as the Evony dev team. Today, we’re bringing you tips directly from the developers and producers of Evony, designed to help novices succeed in the game!

Don’t focus on growing a large army until your economy is built up.

It can be intimidating to be surrounded by powerful armies, and your first reaction might be to build lots of troops. However, expanding your army too fast too soon can be a liability! An army marches on its stomach, so you will need to have a robust economy going before you can support a large army. Troops not only take resources to build, but once built, they constantly consume food. Make sure your resource production can sustain your military. Also remember that heroes must be paid, so your tax base must be large enough not just to provide labor for your resources and population for your armies, but to generate enough taxes to cover the salaries of your heroes. Expanding your military too soon can leave you heavily lacking in resources which will greatly slow your expansion.

Don’t build additional cities until you are ready to defend them!

If you are on a conquest server where your cities can be captured, be very careful expanding to your second or third city. There is a temptation to build a second city right away so that you can research additional technologies by building another academy. If all of your neighbors are also just starting then expanding to a second or third city is not very dangerous. If you have some powerful neighbors however, building additional cities before you can adequately defend your primary city can result in a very dangerous situation. Since your last city can never be taken, if a neighbor manages to knock out your more powerful city it will leave you with a very weak city that can make recovery (and revenge) a lot more difficult.

Make sure to develop your intelligence gathering technologies and buildings.

Intelligence gathering is very important, and the extra information you get from the higher level technologies will give you a real advantage in combat, allowing you and your allies to engage in an active defense. If you focus exclusively on economic and military development, you may find yourself fighting battles with minimal information. Knowing the exact composition of enemy forces, technology levels, hero attributes and other details can help you plan out battles. The Beacon Tower and Informatics research may seem less “sexy” than military or economic buildings and technologies, but without them, you will be fighting blind.

Stay tuned later this week for a special interview with Evony’s Producer, Darold Higa.