Automated Actions

Automated Actions are a specific subset of actions a player can schedule in advance. As of Round 38, two automated actions can be taken per day in the game. This resets whenever the Daily bonus resets.

Automation

Automated Actions are a way for players to still perform some game actions despite being unable to log in. Commonly, this will be due to sleep, though obviously other reasons may well apply. They are, by design, limited in scope, though no less powerful for it. In the game's sidebar, it can be found under the 'General' header, below the Advisors and above the Daily Bonus.

Each scheduled action consists of one of four categories:

• Train Military
• Construct Buildings
• Explore Land
• Cast Spell (Self-spells only, except Ares' Call and Fool's Gold)

Within those categories, one singular action can be undertaken. A player can only train one type of Unit at a time, or cast one spell. If the player wants to perform two actions in one tick, even if they fall under the same overarching category, then a second automated action has to be scheduled. Thus, if a player wants to explore 10 Plains and 10 Swamp, that would take up both actions, whereas exploring 20 Swamp would leave one action open.

If the player does not have enough resources for the action scheduled, then the action will still take place to the best of its ability. Note that 'resources' here refers to anything used in the action, and doesn't necessarily refer to the traditional (e.g. platinum, ore, lumber, gems) resources alone. For example: A player wishes to train 1000 units and has scheduled an action for that, but their Draftees were Assassinated, leaving them with only 800 draftees. In this event, 800 draftees would be trained into whatever unit the player had selected, and the action is spent. Similarly, if a player wants to build 20 Smithies, but only has 14 empty Plains by the time the action is supposed to take place, then the action will execute, building 14 Smithies.

If an action is completely impossible for whatever reason, e.g. the player logged in manually earlier that tick and did everything, or they lost enough mana via theft to be unable to cast a spell, then the action is cancelled and refunded.

Scheduling

Scheduling an automated action can be done for up to 8 ticks into the future. If the current tick is, for example, day 4, tick 2, then the latest an action can be scheduled is for day 4, tick 10. There is a reminder on the page as to which tick it is. Once scheduled, the actions show up in a list in the order they were scheduled in, meaning it is possible to have 'later' actions appear earlier in the list.

Two configured actions.

Actions can also be deleted by clicking on the trash bin icon.

Actions all take place at ~30 minutes into the tick, similarly to when bots take actions. If multiple actions are scheduled in the same tick, the action that was scheduled first will take place first.

It is also important to note that there is a limit of two actions per game day. This means that it is possible to have up to four actions scheduled at a time if the eight tick window also includes the switching of the game day tick. Thus, it is possible to have two actions set for Tick 23 on Day 8, and two more actions set for Tick 4 on Day 9.

Examples

Some more concrete examples of how automated actions can be used are:

• You want to have some units come in so you can stay defended, for example very early on when specs are common and hitting hours are relatively rigid. Thus you automate some Spec DP to be trained while you sleep.
• Your realm was warred and you found yourself on the wrong end of some serious magic flung your way. You've cast Energy Mirror to mitigate some damage, but it runs out while you sleep. You can automate a cast of Energy Mirror so more of your peasants can stay alive.
• You have land from a hit coming in, but you're pretty sure that you can't log in the tick it comes in because you'll be somewhere with no cell service at all. You can schedule an action to build some Farms and schedule a separate action for Smithies so you at least have that done.

This is by no means an exhaustive list, and many, many more wondrous things can be done with them.

Limits

The limits to automated actions mostly revolve around the lack of complexity and flexibility. A Fast Attacker who wants to drop both OP and DP spec units has to use up both scheduled actions for it, for example. Someone who needs to recast three self-spells at a time, for example Midas Touch, Gaia's Watch, and Mining Strength, will have to skip one of them if logging in manually isn't an option. And of course, Ares Call and Fool's Gold are completely excluded.