Changes in the block monster counts from whenever it was last updated on LarkinorGuide.com to a few minutes ago when I rechecked all the blocks:

[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10133

]10133

/url]    -29173
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10239

]10239

/url]    -12342
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10381

]10381

/url]    -5859
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10486

]10486

/url]    -2439
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10274

]10274

/url]    -1507
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10310

]10310

/url]    -1240
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10383

]10383

/url]    -782
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10205

]10205

/url]    -465
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10451

]10451

/url]    -443
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10168

]10168

/url]    -431
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10416

]10416

/url]    -234
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10347

]10347

/url]    -164
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10449

]10449

/url]    -46
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10343

]10343

/url]    -27
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10413

]10413

/url]    -21
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10308

]10308

/url]    -19
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10203

]10203

/url]    -3
[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10378

]10378

/url]    54

All but one of them has less monsters now than it had previously, but one of them appears to have 54 more.  It could be that whoever entered it before made a mistake, of course.  It remains to be seen just how slippery our slope is getting.

Sandy

theres 13 and 18 more on the cleared squares up at north now

wow, I totally missed this when I logged in.
My concern is the part that states "The enemy army has used this situation to secure their supply lines so they would be able to send 

regular

 reinforcements to the front line."
Does this means we need to do dailey(?) checks to see where the blighters pop up?

~Tour

nice work callum :p wel killed those 13 swiftly :p lol

What, they thought we didn't have enough monsters to kill on TA already??

I got trapped north of the above block.  I'm going to sit right on that block to see what happens.

Sandy

I found some more.

An army of 18 monsters is awaiting you towards north.
An army of 24542 monsters is awaiting you towards east

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10450

"Vengeance is mine, and I will repay"

 

In response to the arrogance shown by the invading hordes, the heads of 1500 beasts have been sent to the tents of the Demon Horde commanders.

-B

19 popped up on the mystery square. Tadpole took care of them.

-Tad

20 of the nasty buggers turned up on 10379 and were promply dispatched.

Woke up well and truly trapped:

[img=

http://larkinorguide.com/extra/callum-trapped.gif

]

Sandy

Notice the message: "Monsters have invaded the area.  You run until you find a safe place."  I ended last night one block to the west, which was "invaded" by 66 monsters while I slept.  So there goes the idea of keeping the blocks clean by camping out on them!

Sandy

It's happening on partially cleared blocks too:

[url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10203

]10203

/url] had 119,977 when I did my survey yesterday.  It's back to 120,000 today.

Sandy

(Double posting isn't proper netiquette, but quadruple posting is okay, right?)

It seems that at least six of the partially cleared blocks have more monsters today.  Also, I found and killed monsters on at least five cleared blocks.  There were other characters around too, so there may have been even more.

Here's a guess... if a block is selected as the "invasion target" (it remains to be seen how often this happens), it will only increase the number of monsters back to it's max (as seen in my previous post).  This seems to indicate that it's in our best interest to keep monster counts at maximum-1 on every block other than the target blocks.

We focus our attention on the target blocks while encouraging the invading forces to "waste" their turn by sending reinforcements to a block that can only hold one more monster.

Sandy

Reinforcements have just appeared in 5 places they seem to gain by 11(that I have found so far), they appeared at 9pm GMT. Thought it might be intersesting to see if there s a time pattern.

~Tour

Reinforcemnets turned up at 11pm GMT, but only one one square this time.

~Tour

I wonder, Sandy, if the monsters that trapped you were prevented from further invasion on your square by your presence... just a thought.

10 monsters on 10382

at 2:50 GMT 25 monsters invaded 10485 which had just been cleared minuets before

From what I have gathered - the invaders only move 1 space from an occupied to an unoccupied square.

Therefore - clearing squares 10486 - -10451 - 10416 - 10381 would reduce the "invadable" squares from 8 to 3 (in this area)

Clearing 10133 or 10239 gains us nothing or makes things worse. I really think we need to consider improving the front lines.

-B

when the mosters move from adjacent block, does the number in that block drop?  If so then the overall total number of TA monsters continues to drop, 

.Secretary.

It looks like they are new monsters.... The new magetower square has had 2 groups of monsters move in today and the only adjacent unconquered square has 118899 monsters and that hasn't changed all day....

MMMMM... this time 9 more monsters arrived at the mage tower square and the square 1S of it lost 4 monsters.....
Could it be that monsters are collected from random squares and added to random squares with each "cycle"?

Just a thought...I know people have tried sitting near the front line to fend off invaders only to 'run away', but has anyone ever tried sitting 

on

 the front line?  Either by stopping in the middle of a fight, or by finishing that fight and not clicking the continue button?  Could monsters then invade the square you were supposed to return to?  Just an idea; I seem to be in too sporadically now to test it.  

Big test was done last night: 

At about 8pm EST last night I camped characters on all of the front-line blocks in TA North:

10134 - Prof.Finkelstein
10169 - Sally.
10170 - Zero.
10204 - Callum

I also camped characters inside all of the TA North buildings: 

10064 - Port - The Pumpkin King
10064 - North Pub - JackSkellington
10099 - Casino - Oogie Boogie.
10100 - Palace - Barrel.
10134 - Weapon Store - Harlequin Demon
10135 - South Pub - Shock.
10136 - Teleport Gate - Lock.

When I woke up this morning, there were no monsters on any of the previously cleared blocks.  None of the characters I camped on the blocks were bumped.  While I was typing this message, however, 6 monsters showed up on block 10134 (weapons store block) and bumped my character 1 to the east.

The weapon store had been deconstructed and the character that was in it was bumped out of it, but was still on the same block.  It said "Monsters have invaded the area.  You leave the weapon store."  After the 6 monsters showed up I went back to that character, rested, and was bumped 1 block to the east: "Monsters have invaded the area.  You run until you find a safe place."

I have a theory that the bumping doesn't happen until you refresh the character.  If there are monsters there while you are sleeping but they are gone when you wake up, no bumping.  But this really doesn't matter in terms of solving our invasion problem.

To be able to tell if my camping had any effect, we need to know if anyone cleared any monsters on previously cleared blocks on TA North in the past 12 hours.

Sandy

2 showed up on 10557, one block above the pub in the south. 6 each on 10552 & 10556, 2 on 10523, 8 on 10521, and 20 on 10487. monsters on every block up to 500 block

Just to add to the observations.. During my morning today, that is, while Sandy's characters were asleep in the North, reinforcements kept pouring in regardless. 10134 (weapon store) and 10204 (desert tip) both showed 6 monsters at one moment. Since I was nail thieving unarmed (bumped from 10134 with the same message), somebody (I think j666f) cleared them. The weapon store was damaged after that and I rebuilt it later (100-something stones).

So it seems that indeed camping doesn't matter, the invasion goes on unabated and, when a character is refreshed, the current situation takes over.

Somebody mentioned in chat that northern palace was damaged at one time. Port pub too. That is not on the front line. So can they appear on any square?

EG

I tried a few ideas, staying in a building definately doesn't help.... you leave the building and run to a safe place...
I have tried fighting a frontline monster and not killing it, this also didn't really work, as soon as you leave the fight you get moved to a "safe" square.

The North palace was damaged, as soon as a handful of monsters are on a square that is the new frontline.... thats how they got to the palace....

Agro and Agro2² are staying posted up there and will splat any they see whenever they are in...

I cleared off square 10520 and the message said "This square is now totally devoid of monsters. You should try to repopulate it with Larkinor monsters!"

They can reverse monstalogy too?  Unless I'm mistaken, that was the dragon horn square.

~Boo

I am splatting south as I write this and here are a few observations...

They appear randomly, there is no time pattern. Sometimes it is just one or two minutes, sometimes 10 or 15 (or they appear on other places, can't be everywhere simultaneously). It seems, however, that they come in small squads of under 10 individuals.

It appears that they can penetrate diagonally from the front line. 10522 was infested, whereas 10487 and 10521 were not at one time. Or maybe it was not the case; it is possible that somebody else killed some before I came. 

What also happened to me: I cleared 10344, disengaged from the last fight and then got distracted for a few minutes. When I came back at the screen, I clicked to move north and found myself immediately in another fight without warning. The very same square was invaded again in the meantime! It goes without saying that I was low on hp's from the previous fight and died immediately. So be careful when patrolling, regenerate and/or refresh screen before you move.

Our ungrateful monsters which were given free range on ta lie low on infested squares 

and

 on the squares that are adjacent to them. When the surrounding is cleared, they wake up and attack us, apart from disturbing reports of extinction in some areas. Monstalogists should perhaps investigate.

EG

the onion gollum has become extinct. the block is devoid of all monsters

Like many people here, I have a dozen suggestions for things to try but no real reason to think any of them will work.  And each time we fail, we seem to lose more ground.  We're fighting a losing battle because we we're missing some critical information.

The news post indicates that this reinforcement process is due to us collectively being distracted by clan matters,.  The key question... is this just the way TA is now (a switch has been flicked, there's no way back, we'd better learn how to deal with it), or are we unintentionally causing this by repeatedly failing to do something?  If we can focus on answering that question first, we'd save a whole lot of wasted effort.

Does anyone feel like buying a few hundred drinks for a TA pub owner to see if he has anything to say about it?

Does anyone here know someone HU Larkinor that may have a helpful hint for us... even though it's a different game?!

Sandy

keeping invading monsters at bay doesn't seem to be a big problem as long as someone does it.  When no effort is made they just keep building up.  I think all effort should be made to reduce the frontier contact points, thus reducing potential invasion locations and we make sure someone keeps invaded blocks clear.  The new clans novelity is distracting from TA, so players sight is turned away.

Well Sandy, I've done a few hundred rounds at the bar, and I got nothing more substantial than "Do you know it sonny, that a viable population consists of at least twelve specimens!" and "You probably don't know that monsters don't like brandy!"

I'm done with my part of KV's clan house, so Lord Nem is now dispatched to TA for population control...

Summing up some of the ideas in this thread...

It seems to me that until we know what's going on, the conquestors need to get organized.  We need characters willing to walk the front lines one or more times per day, cleaning up any reinforcement pockets they find on previously cleared blocks.

For the rest of their daily clicks, conquestors should focus their efforts on clearing blocks that either neighbour buildings or are "penninsulas" into cleared territory.

These actions will reduce the reach of the reinforcements and cut down on the potential collateral damage that they can cause.

Callum will continue to be a part of the patrol, and will start being part of an organized "attack plan".  He's switching to [url=

http://larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10133

]the "tiki hut" block

/url] unless a better attack plan emerges.

Any other ideas?

Sandy

I'm on the south side fighting on the 15K square. Clan house is already build so there is no need for my fighter to go back to Larki. I should be able to clear aprox. 6.000 monsters with this guy.

Well, I will continue splatting at the tiki huts... I've been wanting that cleared since we took down the 500K block at Halloween, and I'm very glad for any support I get there!  Thanks Sandy! :D

Decided to go on a patrol before calling it a night...  It's 2 a.m. EST and I found this:

10522 - 2
10521 - 8 but when I tried to attack them, they pushed me to 10523 with an army of 5 to my west (10521)
10485 - 5
10415 - 10
10414 - 8
10379 - 32
at this point I went north a block and actually found another player...  hmmm.... (10344)

No more monsters at south port... time to travel north!  It is now 2:30 a.m. EST

10170 - 6
10134 (my beloved tikis that I had been splatting at only a few hours before!) - 15
10204 - 7

North port weapons store - 873 stones

Going back south just to check and 10344 now has 4 on it, which I cleared only a few minutes ago...

7:30am EST every building in north city has been attacked and is in various stages of disrepair. Will take a major effort of builders to restore all lost ground, in excess 1500 stones

1:00PM GMT

South side:
10487 - 6 monsters
10485 - 3 monsters
10450 - 6 monsters
10415 - 8 monsters
10414 - 15 monsters
10379 - 12 monsters
10344 - 8 monsters

North side is clean.

Michalko

7 minutes later on south side:

10382 - 2 monsters

I'm 100% sure it was clean when i checked at 1PM.

Overnight Agro had to run from tiki-hut 2 squares S and got surrounded there...
When he got out he found every square in the North invaded and all buildings are damaged other than the port itself..... There are also no more monsters populated up here other than a few left on the port square.......

By the look of it, from the fact that Agro got surrounded on 10204 it meant he couldn't run anywhere, this was the only square without invading monsters, even though it has 3 sides of frontline. I have now left Agro there and see if he gets surrounded again.
I have Agro2² at the port square which means he can't run anywhere if monsters advance from the S. I will put Wizzo on the teleporter square so that he can be surrounded there and then see if monsters can advance when a char has nowhere to run.

I have parked my character Michalko on this square yesterday evening.

http://www.larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10309

 

Today morning, I found him here.

http://www.larkinorguide.com/cgi-bin/islands.cgi?act=block&bid=10204

You can use it as an alternative to boat or Teleport for traveling between south and north TA.
:)

How did you manage that one?!

Was your character body surfing over the crowd of beasties?

-B

Interesting Misko, I had parked Agro on 10204 2 days ago and if the same works from N->S then he may end up on the S end of the unfinished landbridge....

Okay, it's 5:15 EST and block 10379 is very active right now.  I went looking for reinforcements and found a handful on this block (six or seven maybe), got sent home when there was one monster left.  Came back, and there were eight there.  Killed them, went one click north, and was surrounded.  Killed the two north of me, and the five south of me (which is still 10379).  Splatted a bit at the tikis, went home, came back, and 10379 had 3 more monsters on it.  All other areas are quiet.

One of my fighters was splatting the south part of the land bridge. 

Overnight he'd been moved from 10309 to 10485 - that's 6 blocks away! Then trying to get back to the land bridge, there were 17, 33, 29 monsters on blocks 10450,10415 and 10414. 

I don't know if it's anecdotal, or if it's just because nobody is splatting the south part of the land bridge. Either way - I'm going to leave 1 fighter south to try and clear the daily reinforcements. If each block is adding 20 or 30 reinforcements - at best he'd be able to clear 2 blocks without actually making a dent into the land bridge. 

I clear the path to the land bridge at *least* once or twice a day.  I cleared it last around 1 a.m. EST last night.  I've noticed the highest concentration of monsters seem to be attracted to this area.  Does this mean something??  Or perhaps I read too much into it...