MAJOR RELEASE 22APR12

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Category: News & Announcements
Forum Name: News & Announcements
Forum Description: Changes, patch release dates, server launch dates, downtime notifications etc.
URL: http://forum.illyriad.co.uk/forum_posts.asp?TID=3469
Printed Date: 16 Apr 2024 at 07:31
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Topic: MAJOR RELEASE 22APR12

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Subject: MAJOR RELEASE 22APR12
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:13

MAJOR RELEASE - 22 APRIL 2012

Hi All,

A major release today, comprising many immediate parts, and many timed parts.

This is a long post, so please bear with us as you read it through.

Release notes follow below.

Regards,

Replies:

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:15

THE WORLD

1. NPC ORGANIC BEHAVIOUR

"THAT ELUSIVE INGREDIENT. THAT SPARK THAT IS THE BREATH OF LIFE..."

We have remodelled the way NPC natural units work by modelling nature at a macro level, where animal populations breed and migrate, reacting to and being impacted by players’ actions, settlement patterns and other animal groups.

We now have a world based on rules where visible animal behavior, such as migration routes, will emerge as a result of an organic system; where animal traits, such as preferences for certain biomes, terrain types, territoriality and so on feed back into the system. Player interactions can both encourage and suppress animal populations.

This is a major change from the previous version where animal populations were randomly seeded. No longer will Elephants purely be found in the Savannah biome, or Tigers largely in the Zanpur region. Sure, that's where these creatures *prefer* to be, and that's where they will thrive most comfortably when left alone - but they might well wander outside of their "comfort zones" as well.

The description of nature in this way (as a set of traits such as "Territoriality", "Aggression", "Fear", "Nesting/Wanderlust", "Procreation Rate" etc) is the first major step in the release of future Faction AI, with more complex traits and temperaments.

We've never wanted Factions to be linear and predictable decision-makers, and in fact want the overall disposition of a Faction to be a sum of the actual decision-making outcomes of the factions' individual parts - right down to the Faction's military commanders.

So this release of NPC Organic Behaviour is a real, true, visible milestone in the AI development path.

There are a few notes that go along with this.

NPC Mercenary Units are no longer on the map.
Treggars' Crows, Brotherhood of Kerala, Crimson Dawn, Bayne's Irregulars and the Marauding Skullsplitters have been temporarily removed from the world environment. They will return with full Faction AI.
Right now, NPC natural creatures will *not* attack players.
At present we've set the "FearOfMan" parameter up to a Spinal-Tap-inspired "11" for all natural beasts so that it overrides their "Aggression", "Territorialism" and "Hunger" parameters. They will therefore not act aggressively towards players, and will shy away from nature-initiated contact with player armies or caravans. This will change in the fullness of time (and we will give advance notice before this change). Please be aware that this does not apply to "un-natural" creatures, such as Corrupted units that the Melders might send your way. You, yourself, can still attack animals as usual.
Player-driven extinction-level events are not permitted.
You cannot kill every single animal of a particular type and, as stocks get too low of a particular creature type, small groups will respawn in their preferred environment. This is not to say, however, that players cannot nurture or repress populations, or encourage natural migration movements in certain directions; you certainly can. We're just not allowing you to kill off all my Mammoths, forever

2. WORLD MAP SPEED AND DIRECTION INDICATORS

"HOW MANY ROADS MUST A MAN WALK DOWN, BEFORE YOU CAN CALL HIM A CORRUPTED UNIT?"

Units travelling on the world map now show their rough direction of travel as well as the rough speed at which they are travelling.

The number of arrows on a moving unit indicates the rough speed, as follows: On Noes!

Stationary Unit = No arrows
1 arrow = 1-7 squares per hour
2 arrows = 8-16 squares per hour
3 arrows = 17-25 squares per hour
4 arrows = 26-41 squares per hour
5 arrows = 41+ squares per hour

3. DIPLOMATIC FOG OF WAR

"I CAN SEE CLEARLY NOW THE SIEGE HAS GONE"

Up until now, all diplomatic units have a fixed range of vision. This changes with this release, and should be taken as an indication that "Fog Of War" and "Map Visibility" are progressing.

All military units are visible on the map at all times (ie nothing is changing here).

However, when military units are within the Vision Radius of a scout or spy, an indication of the number of units is now given as additional information when you mouseover the army, expressed in the following ranges:

"Few": Less than 4 units
"Handful": 5 to 8
"Several": 9 to 21
"Pack": 22 to 81
"Many": 82 to 128
"Gathering": 129 to 227
"Horde": 228 to 462
"Throng": 463 to 815
"Host": 816 to 2,500
"Legion": 2,501 to 9,999
"Myriad": 10,000 to 25,000
"Sea": 25,001 to 49,999
"Cornucopia": 50,000 or more

This additional information gives you some basic information on the size of the forces present on a square, without having to send scouts.

For the actual Vision Range changes for Diplomatic units, please see the Diplomatic Vision Ranges post further down.

Ultimately, we will be introducing Visibility as a second factor (think "Signature Radius" if you've ever played Eve Online). Visibility will be a fluctuating number based on a number of conditions, but basically expresses the reality that ten thousand cavalry thundering across a desert are a lot more visible from a lot further away than 5 assassins creeping over a mountain range.

When we release Visibility, the intersecting plot of vision range (of the viewer) and visibility (of the target) will determine whether you see units on the map or not.

4. COASTAL FOOD

"AND IF YOU'VE COME THIS FAR, MAYBE YOU'RE WILLING TO COME A LITTLE FURTHER"

We have split the border between water and land out into new square types, generically called "Coastline". These split into:

Bankside (Freshwater rivers and freshwater lakes)
Beach (Land bordering Tidal Salt Water)
Shallow Coastline (Land bordering Shallow Salt Water)
Coast (Land bordering Deep Salt Water)

These squares have been seeded randomly with food amounts. Food is generally more prevalent on coastal squares than on most land squares.

The coastal food seeding was entirely random, and I won't be listening to any whinging from anyone about how they now "have to exodus their city again" to be near "better" food. The Dungeon of the Random Number Generator Mistress is chock-full of painfully spiked integers.

5. ADVANCE CHANGE NOTICE - COASTLINE SOVEREIGNTY

"TOOK HER FROM THE LAME, PUT HER ON THAT CONDO ON THE BEACH"

Players will soon be able to send armies to coastline squares and claim sovereignty on them.

They will then be able to build a new structure "Fishing Hut" and claim additional food sovereign bonuses. There will be new sovereign technologies for building Fishing Huts of various sovereign levels up to 5, and these will need to be researched before the structures can be built.

We will also be adding new NPC squares and unique NPC graphics onto Coastline squares.

Coastline remains unsettlable, and - whilst you can send armies to occupy coastline squares - we are going to continue to prohibit players from using coastline squares to Siege or Blockade a town. Please be advised, however, that this will change in the future with semi-amphibious naval units.

We anticipate that we will be releasing the new technologies and allowing players to claim Coastline Sovereignty and get food bonuses from these squares within the week.

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:15

DIPLOMACY & DIPLOMATIC UNITS

6. DIPLOMATIC UNIT VISION RANGE

"IS THIS A DAGGER I SEE BEFORE ME?"

Scout and Spy Diplomatic Units are getting specific vision ranges, which define how far they can see on the World Map.

Diplomatic units continue to only be visible once they are actually seen by either the target town's visibility radius or by one of your diplomatic units if they cross the vision range of that unit, although you will also now get an indication of the force size.

Vision range does not increase with the number of units that are viewing the location. Where multiple scout and spy units of different types are present at a location, the furthest vision range is used.

Unit Vision Ranges:

HUMAN SCOUTS & SPIES

Scouts 1.9
Rangers 4.1
Agents 2.6
Spymasters 3.6

ELF SCOUTS & SPIES

Waysmen 1.6
Farseers 4.2
Trackers 1.6
Outriders 2.8

DWARF SCOUTS & SPIES

Sentries 1.7
Watchers 4.4
Observers 2.7
Keepers of Secrets 4.2

ORC SCOUTS & SPIES

Goblin Spies 2.9
Listeners In The Dark 3.0
Hunters 2.9
Stalkers 4.0

7. DIPLOMATIC REINFORCEMENTS

"I STAND IN FRONT OF YOU, I'LL TAKE THE FORCE OF THE BLOW"

A new Diplomatic technology called Diplomatic Contingent has been released. Details are:

Pre-requisites: Finesse and Consulate Level 8
Research Cost: 1,000 RP and 3 days to complete
Description: Defending your armies whilst they're abroad - and the armies of your friends - against hostile scouts, spies and assassins is truly invaluable. This technology trains your diplomatic units to be able to function effectively within the military discipline of your armies so that they can defend your troops against hostile diplomatic missions.

Yes, that's right. You can now attach (after researching this technology) diplomatic units to armies.

Diplomatic contingent units attached to an army will not take part in regular military combat, but will be slain if the army is destroyed.

And yes, this does mean that if your army contains diplomats in it and you reinforce a friendly players' city, your diplomatic contingent will help defend the city as well.

"That's great", I hear you say. "I've always wanted to diplomatically reinforce my friends' cities. But why would I need to attach diplomatic contingents to my encamped armies?"

Well, may I firstly compliment you on the perspicacity of your question, and answer it by saying... "Well, apart from the extended vision range you'd get on your encampment, which is mighty fine indeed (see above), the main reason is in order to defend them from.... (see next item)"

8. ADVANCE CHANGE NOTICE - DIPLOMATIC MISSIONS AGAINST ENCAMPMENTS

"READY OR NOT, HERE I COME"

We are going to permit Diplomatic Missions to be sent against static, encamped armies.

For the avoidance of doubt, this is specifically armies that are occupying, sieging or blockading.

In the fullness of time, armies that are in motion will similarly be vulnerable to hostile Diplomatic Missions.

The only way to defend your army against Hostile Diplomatic missions is going to be to have Diplomatic units of your own (or those of your friends, occupying the same location under the "peace of the camp" rules) in the ranks of your armies.

Only Scouting, Spying and Assassination missions will be possible against encamped armies. At present we do not see Saboteurs or Thieves playing a part in missions against encamped armies, but this may change in the future.

Attacking and Defending diplomats will fight, according to the new rules of Diplomatic combat.

"What new rules?" I hear you ask. Well, "browse on", gentle reader, browse on...

9. ADVANCE CHANGE NOTICE - DIPLOMATIC COMBAT ALGORITHM

"WE'RE WRITING THINGS WE CAN NO LONGER READ... IT'S A KIND OF MANIFEST DESTINY."

We're changing the way the diplomatic combat resolution algorithm works.

This is a substantial change.

And - here's the real whammy - we're not spelling it out in advance - at least, not in any great detail.

To get a hint of what's changing, however, you need to read the following belief-statements:

It's silly that your diplomats either succeed (and survive) or fail, and all die.

We will be moving away from the “total success/total failure” situation as it currently is, and introduce the concept of Diplomatic Casualties, on both sides.

It’s unrealistic that 5,000 thieves can attack a town with a total population (civilians, military, diplomats, etc) of 100 people and “not be detected”. Sure, the population of 100 might not be able to stop the thieves, but they sure will notice them! And sure, those townfolk are going to try to kill some of them.
We believe defensive diplomats being proficient in all roles (detection, damage control, apprehension and interrogation of captured diplomats) is incorrect, and that there is a role for new diplomatic units specializing in "police"-type activities (damage control and apprehension) as opposed to purely counter-espionage.
We believe that some diplomatic missions are, by default, easier than others. There isn’t an “equality of difficulty” in scouting an army as opposed to assassinating a commander.
We don’t want to nerf diplo attacks, but neither do we want them simply to be a "Send x thousand thieves at Y, job done" situation like they currently, mostly, are.
The current "critical failure" chance where all eleventy-thousand of your thieves die on a mission against an abandoned town is not simply unsatisfying, it's also silly.
Ditto the "critical success" chance.
We believe that towns should have an "alertness" level, which rises after each successful-but-hostile-mission they suffer, as well as obvious events like the triggering of a specific targetted rune leaving a bunch of thieves dead at the city gate. This "alertness level" will spike after each successful diplomatic attack, and decay over time as everyone gets lazy and smug again.
We believe that there is a trade-off between the "detection and foiling" of a hostile mission, and the "apprehension and interrogation" of captured diplomats.
We believe that towns (and squares) that have a high population of units that don't "know" each other - ie friendly foreigners - should be more susceptible to diplomatic infiltration. Similarly, towns (and squares) that only have people who know each other really well (ie are from the same town) should be less susceptible to diplomatic infiltration.

This advance notice is, sorry-to-say, quite non-specific. Things might become clearer over the coming couple of weeks as various announcements, skills, units and buildings get released. Then again, they might not. What we're absolutely not going to do is release the specific algorithms or mechanics, and there'll be a certain level of trial and error that you'll all need to go through.

10. OTHER ALLIANCE CHANGES

"ANY OLD IRON. ANY, ANY, ANY OLD IRON."

ALLIANCE ROLES
You can now delete empty roles. Please note that you will need to move any existing players in a role you wish to delete into another role, before you can delete the role.
DEAD ALLIANCES
Alliances are now marked as "dead" 24hrs after the last member leaves them, or is removed by the server for inactivity.

All diplomacy is now terminated between active alliances and "dead" alliances, so no more "endless wars that you can't get rid of from an alliance that no longer exists".

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GM Stormcrow | http://bit.ly/rLKfoT" rel="nofollow - Twitter | http://on.fb.me/uvfajA" rel="nofollow - Facebook | http://bit.ly/rBzlzf" rel="nofollow - G+

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:16

TEXT, GRAPHICS & CONTENT

11. NEW FACTION SIGILS

"THE FACTION FORMERLY KNOWN AS THE LANNIGOLDS"

Factions now have Sigils which are displayed on their Faction description page, as well as in miniature on the Faction List page.

These sigils will become the basis of the "banners" which factions use to identify themselves when moving on the map.

The sample shown here are for the Circle Of Five, Apaxu and the Parlanese, respectively.

12. NEW MILITARY RESEARCH GRAPHICS

"MILITARY INTELLIGENCE IS NOT AN OXYMORON"

With customary flair, GM Cerberus has completed the graphics for the Military branch of the Research Tree, just in time for me to add half a dozen new technologies Wink

Some samples (Militia, Legion and Warhorse) below:

13. NEW BUILDING DESCRIPTIONS

"MOVE ALONG. MOVE ALONG. MOVE ALONG."

Our old (and blandly nondescript) "flavour" text for each building ingame has been rewritten, and is now not only more interesting to read, but also more descriptive about what each building actually does, and what benefits it might bring to your city.

14. CHAT EMOTICONS

"THE HORROR... THE HORROR..."

We have removed most of the Emoticons from chat and have de-animated them all, as they simply proved to be very highly annoying spam-magnets and I got tired of wiping all the blood out of my recently-gouged eyes.

The available remaining emoticons are as follows:

;) :D :) :| :( :P :-q :-b :ar! F==

These are shown in the race and gender of the speaker, eg:

Human Male:
Dwarf Female: etc

15. ADVANCE CHANGE NOTICE - AUDIO

"SOME KIND OF AUDIO-VIBRATORY-PHYSIO-MOLECULAR TRANSPORT DEVICE"

We're really gearing up to catapult Illy into the seventy-third dimension of awesome - on a catapult made of pure sound. Or something.

We will shortly be a releasing many different sounds for notifications and events, such as "email received" or "combat occurred".

Please note that all our audio will be a) optional, and b) disabled by default, as we think this is what people really want.

Where it makes sense to do so, we will allow players to configure the audio notification sounds to their own preferences (such as "Do not repeat this sound if the same event occurs within X minutes").

We have most of the sounds already produced, and we're just living with them in the dev environment for a bit to see what, if anything, needs tweaking, and we expect a range of audio notifications to be ingame within the next 14 days.

As our (highly entertaining and virtually essential reading with your cornflakes next to the Financial Times, so read it, dammit) http://www.illyriad.co.uk/blog/index.php/category/sound/" rel="nofollow - devblog has highlighted, there's a lot more we'll be doing with sound in the future.

This is but the first boom on the sonic flightpath.

16. HERALD MILITARY STATISTICS FOR DEFENSE

"THEY'D BE YOUR PARTNER; THEY'D BE YOUR PARTNER..."

Due to popular demand (largely from those people who think they've got a shot at appearing on the "All Stars List", of course) the Herald has a Defensive Military Page, just like Military Attackers does.

This page is calculated in terms of XP damage inflicted by individual defending players' contribution to a battle outcome.

As there can be more than one player in defense, it is broken down a little differently to the attackers' table, and shows:

How much of the defenders total damage was done by a specific player in defense.
The total XP damage done by the specific player.

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:16

OTHER STUFF

17. COMMANDER EXPERIENCE LEVELS

"HAVE YOU EVER BEEN EXPERIENCED? WELL, I HAVE."

Anyone with a commander at or over Level 74 will know a painful truth: we hate you.

Or rather, we used to hate you. But now we don't.

Now we love you, and we're smoothing your curves. As it were.

Or, more specifically, we've smoothed the curve for commander experience requirements for levels above 74. So, for any commander under L74 nothing has changed.

For any commander over L74, you might suddenly discover that you have a lot more levels you can apply to your commander's skills.
Pretty much everything in life is improved by the presence of a graph, so here's one to improve your version of the human condition.

See? You're feeling better already.

18. DECEASED COMMANDERS

"HE'S DEAD, JIM"

Dead Commanders are now displayed on the Commanders page in the colour red, to make their "no longer living" status more immediately noticable to the casually uncaring player.

I mean... [sniff]... they might only be bits and [sob]... bytes... to you... but he was like... a son to me... [server breaks down in inconsolable tears]

19. NINETEEN

"N-N-N-N-NINETEEN. NINETEEN"

Because the number "19" isn't used enough, really.

20. PRESTIGE HISTORY

"I LIKED IT SO MUCH, I BOUGHT THE COMPANY!"

There's now a Prestige sub-page that lists the last 25 prestige activities - credits, debits etc so that you can now personally check whether you successfully claimed/purchased/spent prestige on something, before opening a Petition (although, strangely, we're quite quick at answering valid Petitions from people who want to give us money ).
The button to get to this History page is the hourglass satellite button, rightmost on the Prestige main navigation icon.

21. MILITARY TAB RENAMED ON HERALD

"NOTE TO SELF: BOOK TC IN FOR AN APPOINTMENT WITH MR SHAKESPEARE AND A COPY OF THE OXFORD ENGLISH DICTIONARY"

Given that we now have a "Defense" tab and Defense data, the old "Military" tab has been renamed "Attack".

Please note that we generally spell "Defense" with an "c", not a "s" in Illy, as all right-thinking speakers of Her Glorious Brittanic Majesty's language (a language, need I remind you, called "English") do.

However, in this situation, ThunderCat has obviously had some sort of linguistic brain infarction and has sadly bowed to the overwhelming forces of ~~Americanization~~Americanisation in this instance. On my part, I'm simply thankful that we haven't yet discovered either aluminium or petrol in the gameworld

22. CLIENT/SERVER UPGRADES

"I KNOW THAT YOU AND FRANK WERE PLANNING TO DISCONNECT ME, AND I'M AFRAID THAT'S SOMETHING I CANNOT ALLOW TO HAPPEN."

We have deployed some new OS and security patches during the downtime.
We have also upgraded all Javascript libraries for client-side processing to the latest versions.

23. NEW WORLD DATA XML LOOKUPS AND DATAFILE

"THE GEEK SHALL INHERIT THE EARTH"

In a desperate, and doubtless unsuccessful attempt to stop us spending time banning players for writing map-reading robots, we have published a couple of new XML feeds, and one large "datadump".

The new XML feeds are lookup tables for Terrain Type and Combat Terrain Type, and are available here:

TerrainType XML lookup table
http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/data_downloads/datafile_terrain.xml" rel="nofollow - http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/data_downloads/datafile_terrain.xml
Combat TerrainType XML lookup table
http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/data_downloads/datafile_terrain_combat.xml" rel="nofollow - http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/data_downloads/datafile_terrain_combat.xml
(before you get too excited, it doesn't contain the combat troop modifier values)

Once you have these two, you should get a copy of the entire world map:

This is available here:
http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/data_downloads/datafile_worldmap.txt
Please be aware that this is quite a large file (4M rows, approximately 136MB)
It is in a txt flat-file format to save space.
The first row contains column headers.
It is column-delimited by a Vertical Bar, like this: |
It is row-delimited by <CR><LF>
TerrainTypeID in the flat-file links to the terraintype id in the datafile_terrain.xml file
TerrainCombatTypeID in the flat-file links to the terraincombattype id in the datafile_terrain_combat.xml file

These files will refresh every 24 hours. The world map does change (as people settle, or move cities via Tenarils etc), so it's up to you how often you get the data file and swap out the changes, but not more than once a day please.

If none of what I have said above makes sense to you, then you should probably not be looking at this data and should move along to the next exciting item in the release notes, and not tarry here for fear of being tainted by the stench of geekdom. At the worst, you might end up clicking on something that bluescreens your computer as IE6 tries to download and display a 135MB file.

24. VARIOUS BUG FIXES

"IS THIS A STAND UP FIGHT, OR JUST ANOTHER BUG HUNT?"

Undocking a 2nd chat window maintains currently undocked window’s position, so no more windows bouncing about the screen, except on your unchangable Windows 95 screen saver.
An occasional error on edit members Alliance page has been fixed. What this error was, I have no idea. But I am reliably informed that it's fixed. So "well done us". And especially me. For whatever it was we did. But I take credit. So I mean "I" instead of "we", really.
An occasional error preventing a new player's account creation (omgwtfbbqpwnz0releventy-one-one1!!howingodsgoodnamecouldthishappenimeanreallythisisn'tacharityyouknow) has been fixed.
Military attacks no longer do a minimum of 1 damage, so feel free to prove your strategic might on those undefended inactive cities without any fear of your soldiers impaling themselves on their own weapons.

25. BONUS POINTS

"THOU SHALT NOT QUOTE ME HAPPY"

There are cosmic bonus points available to anyone who spends the server downtime correctly identifing each meme / trope / reference-source / cultural-hegemony for each of the sub-titled references under each release note.

Please note that these cosmic bonus points are not-redeemable on Earth.

Also, please note that the correct attribution to quote #21 is "GM Stormcrow".

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:17

Hope you enjoy, and my (self-congratulatory, I know, but there we are) thanks to all the Illy team for making this happen.

Regards,

Posted By: Bonaparta
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:18

Thank you very much dev team!

Posted By: GM ThunderCat
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:23

Upgrade currently in progress...

Posted By: SunStorm
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:32

W O A H (0.0)

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"Side? I am on nobody's side because nobody is on my side" ~LoTR

Posted By: Aurordan
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:32

GM Stormcrow wrote:

We believe that towns (and squares) that have a high population of units that don't "know" each other - ie friendly foreigners - should be more susceptible to diplomatic infiltration. Similarly, towns (and squares) that only have people who know each other really well (ie are from the same town) should be less susceptible to diplomatic infiltration.

Stuff like this is why I love this game.

Posted By: Diva
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:35

ummm can I sign in yet? (starting feeling ill, that I can't "CHECK" anything) .. You don't mean you want me to go read a book, or sit with the FAMILY do you!?!

Oh and THANKS for the NEW STUFF DEVS, you little geekneeks!!

The anticipation IS KILLING ME

Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:35

Wow!

I think that says it all, really.

Posted By: The_Dude
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:43

This will be interesting.

Posted By: Shala
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:46

how do u re zume the game Smile

Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:48

it's still offline. Hopefully it will be back soon.

/me is suffering from withdrawal.

Bring back Illy before I chew off all my fingernails!

Posted By: Skim Milk
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:48

Absolutely incredible. :)

I'm reeeally excited for the new diplo things. (So excited that I added two extra letters in "really"!)

And the migration of animals. Crazy cool stuff. And good gracious the sound. And the stationary undocked chat windows. And just about everything else you've done. :D You guys sure have been busy.

Good work and thank you. :)

Posted By: Finrod
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:50

I'm a little overwhelmed, but I think I have to say good job. It all looks good, and very exciting. Clap

But I'll admit, I'm sad to see the loss of the emoticons. Unhappy

They actually made me chuckle sometimes, when played well.

Enough of that then.

Posted By: Victus
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:50

I want to plaaaaaaaaaay

Posted By: Beecks
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:51

GM Stormcrow wrote:

19. NINETEEN

"N-N-N-N-NINETEEN. NINETEEN"

Because the number "19" isn't used enough, really.

Paul Hardcastle! <did not read anything after 19>

Posted By: Chaos Armor
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:52

/me is having Illy withdrawals at the moment also. Can't wait to see the new coastline development.

Posted By: Skim Milk
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:53

Finrod wrote:

I'm a little overwhelmed, but I think I have to say good job. It all looks good, and very exciting.

But I'll admit, I'm sad to see the loss of the emoticons. :( They actually made me chuckle sometimes, when played well.

I agree. I think I'll miss the emoticons too. Some of them are just too useful. But I'm sure I can learn to be alright without them. ;)

Posted By: Lucenti
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:54

I had the grandest lol reading this

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Swords and Fire

Posted By: Rhea
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 03:58

Definitely, Illy withdrawal here -- Wonders how much longer Briefly is.

Posted By: Marquesta
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:01

/me is trying to be patient....

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~~Marquesta
Whether tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and by opposing, end them...

Posted By: Kumomoto
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:01

I love you all... Love, love, love, love, love, etc, etc.....

Posted By: norsegodofmischief
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:02

I understand about 1/50th of the changes (of course I only understood 1/50th of Illy before the changes), so I've bookmarked this page so I can refer back to it when bombarding GC with a million questions about specific things that I'll need explained and clarified with details and baby steps in a manner comprehensible by someone who isn't already experienced in the game and in-game references.

Color me excited and awed by Illy's reincarnation!

Posted By: Silent/Steadfast
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:07

1: The rocky horror picture show

2: Bob Dylan-Blowin' in the wind

3: I can see clearly now the rain has gone (My fave version is willie nelson’s)

4: The Shawshank Redemption

5: Rick Ross-You the Boss

6: Shakespeare- Macbeth

7: Protection-Massive Attack

8: Uh… what the seeker says in “Hide and Seek”?

9: Kevin Slavin

10: Peter Sellers-Any old Iron

11: The artist formerly known as prince

12: Military intelligence (George carlin oxymoron)

13: Move along-The all-american rejects/men in black/move along move along move along-I'm feeling lucky

14: Apocalypse now

15: The rocky horror picture show again

16: You’re so vain-Carly Simon

17: Are you experienced?-Jimi Hendrix

18: Doctor McCoy (star trek)

19: 19-Paul Hardcastle

20: Remington Rand add

21: GM SC quote

22: 2001: a space odyssey

23: The bible

24: Aliens

25: Thou shalt not kill-scroobius pip

-------------
"Semantics are no protection from a 50 Megaton Thermonuclear Stormcrow."-Yggdrassil (June 21, 2011 6:48 PM)
"SCROLL ya donut!" Urgorr The Old (September 1, 2011 4:08 PM)

Posted By: Victus
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:11

I demand the coffee emoticon back! COFFEEEEEE Beer

Posted By: Nilock
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:13

for illyriad

Posted By: nightfury
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:13

Kumomoto wrote:

I love you all... Love, love, love, love, love, etc, etc.....

beaware kumo sends troops to express his love Dead

Posted By: Silent/Steadfast
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:15

Here ya go vic:

-------------
"Semantics are no protection from a 50 Megaton Thermonuclear Stormcrow."-Yggdrassil (June 21, 2011 6:48 PM)
"SCROLL ya donut!" Urgorr The Old (September 1, 2011 4:08 PM)

Posted By: Eligah
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:18

Uhm where is the game ????? How long is this gonna take ????? Uhm Hello

Posted By: geofrey
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:21

blood and fire... and scouts

Posted By: Kumomoto
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:22

nightfury wrote:

Kumomoto wrote:

I love you all... Love, love, love, love, love, etc, etc.....

beaware kumo sends troops to express his love Dead

Now how would that be rational?

Posted By: TSGH-RJS
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:24

Thank goodness this is done on a Saturday. I'm gonna be up all night. Sleepy

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:25

Silent/Steadfast wrote:

(snip)

Not bad, not bad.

8 I'll accept anyway. I can't actually remember what I had in mind XD

9, 13 and 25 though need more work...

Posted By: Rathien
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:26

Rhea wrote:

Definitely, Illy withdrawal here -- Wonders how much longer Briefly is.

Well SC has been saying "soon" for about a year.. but with coastlines I think I forgive him!

Posted By: Salararius
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:26

Eligah wrote:

Uhm where is the game ????? How long is this gonna take ????? Uhm Hello

Luna wrote:

The Illyriad game server will be offline briefly for an update at 02:00 Server Time Sunday, April 22 (10:00 PM EST Saturday, April 21).

It could take 1 1/2 hours to complete, or maybe longer... Wink

I think they are in England. Evidence shows that terms like "soon" and "briefly" mean something different there than in some other places on Earth.

or maybe something went wrong, or maybe updating the servers means more than just copying some files and rebooting. Perhaps they have to make changes to the database and it involves calculations on all the data? Could be anything. We just have to be patient, really nothing better to do other than push the "Login" button over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:27

Quick update: The code deployment went smoothly, as expected.

It's the MS updates that are taking a bit longer; unpicking some of the horrors they do by default.

Shouldn't be long now.

Posted By: Kolgar Damodread
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:27

This was supposed to be in reply to the person who got ALL of the Quotes correctly listed!!

Dude that is Awesome Clap

How long did it take you to figure out all of those quotes Confused

I got like 5 or 6 of them and then just said "forget it" on the rest Angry

Posted By: Silverlake
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:28

Bravo

Posted By: nightfury
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:32

GM Stormcrow wrote:

Quick update: The code deployment went smoothly, as expected.

It's the MS updates that are taking a bit longer; unpicking some of the horrors they do by default.

Shouldn't be long now.

Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:34

25: Quotemehappy is the online presence of the insurance company Aviva in the UK. Although I am in the U.S. and therefore clueless, I assume that it is also an advertising slogan.

Posted By: dunnoob
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:35

Kumomoto wrote:

nightfury wrote:

Kumomoto wrote:

I love you all... Love, love, love, love, love, etc, etc.....

beaware kumo sends troops to express his love Dead

Now how would that be rational?

After scouting the Rill Archipelago tournament square at least daily for a month I take the fifth. Wink

Posted By: Rohk
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:35

GM Stormcrow wrote:

Silent/Steadfast wrote:

(snip)

Not bad, not bad.

8 I'll accept anyway. I can't actually remember what I had in mind XD

9, 13 and 25 though need more work...

Is 9 William McKinley?

Thanks for all the work you guys have put into the update (and the fun quotations to boot)!

Posted By: Salararius
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:36

GM Stormcrow wrote:

Quick update: The code deployment went smoothly, as expected.

It's the MS updates that are taking a bit longer; unpicking some of the horrors they do by default.

Shouldn't be long now.

I know you guys are busy. That was nice. Clap

Posted By: Eligah
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:36

I may actually cry this better hurry Cry

Posted By: ZetaAlorix
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:37

Now I have more to wrap my head around. ::sigh:: I'm such a nub heh.

Posted By: Chaos Armor
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:38

*Anxious* Can't wait for more. This is just the beginning and if this is how you guys are starting it then I can't wait to see the end result.

Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:39

13 originally came from Men In Black I think ...

"Move along. Move along. There's nothing to see here."

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:39

Salararius wrote:

GM Stormcrow wrote:

Quick update: The code deployment went smoothly, as expected.

It's the MS updates that are taking a bit longer; unpicking some of the horrors they do by default.

Shouldn't be long now.

I know you guys are busy. That was nice. Clap

Nah, it's TC who's the busy one right now. I'm just half-heartedly poking at things on the staging server to make sure they're all working as intended. Though, tbh, if they're not, it's far too late now XD

Rohk wrote:

Is 9 William McKinley?

No, sorry

Posted By: Bair
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:40

GM Stormcrow wrote:

Silent/Steadfast wrote:

(snip)

Not bad, not bad.

8 I'll accept anyway. I can't actually remember what I had in mind XD

9, 13 and 25 though need more work...

#8 - Fugees 'Ready or Not'

#9 - Kevin Slavin

#13 - All American Rejects 'Move Along'

#25 - Scroobius Pip 'Thou Shalt Always Kill'

Posted By: Silent/Steadfast
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:41

I've updated the list to include the possibilities.

-------------
"Semantics are no protection from a 50 Megaton Thermonuclear Stormcrow."-Yggdrassil (June 21, 2011 6:48 PM)
"SCROLL ya donut!" Urgorr The Old (September 1, 2011 4:08 PM)

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:42

Bair wrote:

GM Stormcrow wrote:

Silent/Steadfast wrote:

(snip)

Not bad, not bad.

8 I'll accept anyway. I can't actually remember what I had in mind XD

9, 13 and 25 though need more work...

#8 - Fugees 'Ready or Not'

#9 - Kevin Slavin

#13 - All American Rejects 'Move Along'

#25 - Scroobius Pip 'Thou Shalt Always Kill'

Ooh, we nearly have a winner.

Triple points for getting Kevin Slavin ( http://www.ted.com/talks/kevin_slavin_how_algorithms_shape_our_world.html" rel="nofollow - amazing TED talk btw, well worth anyone watching it).

#13 is still not right. But then again, I'd be amazed if anyone gets it, as it's really a very minor and incidental thing that's simply in the background of the thing that's in my head.

EDIT: Best of Luck, though!

Posted By: Lucenti
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:42

GM Stormcrow wrote:

Silent/Steadfast wrote:

(snip)

Not bad, not bad.

8 I'll accept anyway. I can't actually remember what I had in mind XD

9, 13 and 25 though need more work...

25 is Thou Shalt Always Kill by http://www.songmeanings.net/artist/view/songs/137438977577/" rel="nofollow -

Posted By: Silent/Steadfast
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:45

Soo... If they get the 3 I missed right, do they get the "prestige?" :(

-------------
"Semantics are no protection from a 50 Megaton Thermonuclear Stormcrow."-Yggdrassil (June 21, 2011 6:48 PM)
"SCROLL ya donut!" Urgorr The Old (September 1, 2011 4:08 PM)

Posted By: Kolgar Damodread
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:46

9. Kevin Slavin off of "Ted Talks"

13. Ne-Yo "Move Along"

25. Scroobius Pip "Thou Shalt Always Kill"

Posted By: WaltDjr
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:46

GM Stormcrow wrote:

Quick update: The code deployment went smoothly, as expected. It's the MS updates that are taking a bit longer; unpicking some of the horrors they do by default.Shouldn't be long now.

WOW I'm just surprised it's running on Windows servers with this kind of performance and up time.

Posted By: Ekoal
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:47

Congatulations for your generousity in sharing your cleverness with us.

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:47

Silent/Steadfast wrote:

Soo... If they get the 3 I missed right, do they get the "prestige?" :(

I'm afraid I have no control over the distribution of prizes - only the universe itself can grant the cosmic bonus points to you.

Posted By: Silent/Steadfast
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:48

Silent/Steadfast wrote:

1: The rocky horror picture show

2: Bob Dylan-Blowin' in the wind

3: I can see clearly now the rain has gone (My fave version is willie nelson’s)

4: The Shawshank Redemption

5: Rick Ross-You the Boss

6: Shakespeare- Macbeth

7: Protection-Massive Attack

8: Uh… what the seeker says in “Hide and Seek”?

9: Kevin Slavin

10: Peter Sellers-Any old Iron

11: The artist formerly known as prince

12: Military intelligence (George carlin oxymoron)

13: Move along-The all-american rejects/men in black/move along move along move along-I'm feeling lucky/move along-ne-yo

14: Apocalypse now

15: The rocky horror picture show again

16: You’re so vain-Carly Simon

17: Are you experienced?-Jimi Hendrix

18: Doctor McCoy (star trek)

19: 19-Paul Hardcastle

20: Remington Rand add

21: GM SC quote

22: 2001: a space odyssey

23: The bible

24: Aliens

25: Thou shalt not kill-scroobius pip

-------------
"Semantics are no protection from a 50 Megaton Thermonuclear Stormcrow."-Yggdrassil (June 21, 2011 6:48 PM)
"SCROLL ya donut!" Urgorr The Old (September 1, 2011 4:08 PM)

Posted By: Bair
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:50

I think Kolgar got #13...had to refine things. Once I did, all I saw was Ne-Yo

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:50

WaltDjr wrote:

WOW I'm just surprised it's running on Windows servers with this kind of performance and up time.

Heh, if you know what you're doing - and reject MS defaults dogmatically... MS can actually be a mighty, mighty fine environment.

MS SQL is (imho, and I've worked with a whole lot of databases) the absolute best-of-the-best in terms of ease of use and performance... Not something you hear every day, I'm sure!

Posted By: GM Stormcrow
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:51

And we're back online.

tyvm for your patience.

Posted By: Kolgar Damodread
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:51

I still believe Silent/Steadfast deserves the credit for this. Only missed 3 outta 25. Clap

Posted By: Learner
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:51

Yes! back to the game!!

Posted By: Bair
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:51

It's BACK!!!

Posted By: LordBliss
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:51

Sounds Great, Can't Wait to see it.

When is the next update coming though? I mean how long did it take to compose this post? We could have had two updates at once! (I am now officially the first one to press for the next release)

Posted By: Tarkelic
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:51

Great on the upgrades!!! Clap

Will miss the emoticons that I use a lot in alliance chat. Cry

Posted By: Tarkelic
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:52

Yeah! Back up!

Posted By: Rathien
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 04:55

LordBliss wrote:

Sounds Great, Can't Wait to see it.

When is the next update coming though? I mean how long did it take to compose this post? We could have had two updates at once! (I am now officially the first one to press for the next release)

As to when it's coming out, I'm sure the answer will be "Soon"

Posted By: WaltDjr
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 05:12

GM Stormcrow wrote:

WaltDjr wrote:

WOW I'm just surprised it's running on Windows servers with this kind of performance and up time.

Heh, if you know what you're doing - and reject MS defaults dogmatically... MS can actually be a mighty, mighty fine environment.

MS SQL is (imho, and I've worked with a whole lot of databases) the absolute best-of-the-best in terms of ease of use and performance... Not something you hear every day, I'm sure!

Yeh, I actually have to agree. I was more or less playing devils advocate. Most of my IT knowledge is in a MS based environment. Just this past year have I started using Linux in a production environment. I was honestly surprised to hear that you were using MS though.

Posted By: Mafro
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 05:22

GM Stormcrow wrote:

MS SQL is (imho, and I've worked with a whole lot of databases) the absolute best-of-the-best in terms of ease of use and performance... Not something you hear every day, I'm sure!

Hear, hear!

After years working with MSSQL, MySQL, Postgres, and Oracle, among others, I'll take MSSQL every time. Having no LIMITs, it's definitely TOP of its class....

Posted By: Helln
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 05:37

Please put back the old emos Dead

Not that the idea is not good, just that we don't see too much difference between them, especially for elves!!!

Posted By: Brids17
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 06:04

I feel the need to complain about how I can no longer use =) or = ) (in case it triggers it) anymore and that there's lack of muskrats in the update. Aside from that, the 136mb map downloaded faster than I have ever seen before. Normally I'm lucky to get 200kb/s but I was averaging 500kb/s there. No idea why I can download from you guys so fast but it was amazing watching that download in no time.

Oh and water is OP now.

Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 07:04

Brids, I filed a petition on the muskrats issue, number 6002.

Posted By: Gimli Son of Groin
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 07:38

I think that we should have the smileys back. There should be a ban hammer though, for doing three within 20 secs on GC...

-------------
“A single dream is more powerful than a thousand realities.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

“I warn you, if you bore me, I shall take my revenge.”
― J.R.R. Tolkien

Posted By: nitin2011
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 07:57

Quote -->

Once you have these two, you should get a copy of the entire world map:

This is available here:
http://elgea.illyriad.co.uk/data_downloads/datafile_worldmap.txt
Please be aware that this is quite a large file (4M rows, approximately 136MB)
It is in a txt flat-file format to save space.

<--End-Quote

Zip it

Posted By: Nokigon
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 08:29

WHOA.

Posted By: JimJams
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 08:33

These squares have been seeded randomly with food amounts. Food is generally more prevalent on coastal squares than on most land squares.

Too much food on the coasts. It's not a matter of random. Any 7 food base on the coast is WAY better than any hard found land spot.

Saved the few players who settled directly on coast, any other players would have to exodus again.

Personally I am upset, all the hard work we did in months is wasted.

Undecided what to do, but I suddenly lost love with the game.

Bad bad move. There was no reason to raise so much the food on water. 5-7 base food and seldom 10 or more would be ok, why dropping tons of food there ? Any new city will now be on water, many old will move, no way to compete with a land city.

bah, I lack the willingness to read more...

Posted By: scaramouche
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 08:57

omg..I knew you guys said there was gonna be a big update but I've been wowed over the changes...

shocked/worried but excited over the huge changes this is gonna make.

bring it on...

Posted By: scaramouche
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 08:58

P.S...i guess HOC is gonna dwindle away to the size of a mouse now everyone is gonna be more preoccuped with this update.

Posted By: Drejan
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 09:03

Thank for all the updates,

anyway i agree food change should be applied with much care.

I do not understand why you never reduced the need of food in this game, limit and unbalance the game so much...

Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 09:18

I think the thing to keep in mind about the food changes is that people will be able to claim sov on those locations but not settle on them. Claiming sovereignty on most land squares has a value of 5. I looked at the coastal squares and they are better than average land squares, but they also have less flexibility. My understanding is that you couldn't claim weapons sovereignty or troop sovereignty on those squares, for example. So while there are significant benefits, there are still some limitations.

I don't know if it all balances out, but I think at minimum we can give this some time for people to experiment to figure it out.

Posted By: Ander
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 09:19

JimJams wrote:

Saved the few players who settled directly on coast, any other players would have to exodus again.

And very much deserving, for those players who opted coast despite the coasts being of no use for a long time.

JimJams wrote:

Personally I am upset, all the hard work we did in months is wasted.

I have 6 of my cities on land. I'm not upset. I don't feel any months wasted as the land sovereignty has already helped my towns tremendously. I am not moving my cities to water just for more food - It doesn't seem as if you can do military unit sovereignty on the coast.

JimJams wrote:

Undecided what to do, but I suddenly lost love with the game.

Out of all the significant updates, you see only the food spawn in the shoreline? If you lost love for the game because of that, you are looking at the wrong side of things.

JimJams wrote:

Fantastic move imo. As one of my alliance mates said about her coastal city "It has been struggling for food for so long that I feel I earned it"

There is more logic in a coastal area having a lot of food, than a random dolmen somewhere having it.

Some people thought that the shoreline was more important than food dolmens because fishing could give them more food - and i'm glad to see patience pays off in this game.

Posted By: bow locks
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 09:20

this is a joke right?

i cant believe this is live.

Posted By: Nokigon
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 09:27

^ Is that good or bad in your eyes?

Posted By: scaramouche
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 09:29

bow locks wrote:

this is a joke right?

i cant believe this is live.

lol..if it was april 1st then maybe......does anyone have any notion on when Illy is back on UK time?

no doubt different times zones probably means someone is already there?

Posted By: Ander
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 09:30

Rill wrote:

Claiming sovereignty on most land squares has a value of 5. I looked at the coastal squares and they are better than average land squares, but they also have less flexibility. My understanding is that you couldn't claim weapons sovereignty or troop sovereignty on those squares, for example. So while there are significant benefits, there are still some limitations.

Exactly Rill!

People who complain too much now might exodus all their cities to water, only to complain later when something exciting happens on land.

The attraction of food will dwindle if you have benefits for running on a low tax (use for more mana/RP/production), because on a low tax you don't get much benefit out of population. Getting obsessed with food and tax is the easiest way to miss the depth of the game.

Posted By: bow locks
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 09:32

what i mean is that i hope the fishing hut thing rebalances the ludicrous distribution of food on the coasts.

For, me, personally, since i have always looked forward to coastal stuff and hence have many coastal cities, its going to make city 10 much easier (the way it looks now, naked). but for everyone else on the land - welcome to the agony of exodus.

ohohoho, the funny days of looking for dolmens and getting stressed about food sov - now you just rock up at any old coast square, apparently.

Bow

Posted By: Sloter
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 09:43

Keep in mind that second tile from coast offers no food, so it is not that unbalanced that coast line gives more food.Two tiles in direction of sea still has average of around 5 food (high food closest to town + second tile on sea with no food or basic res),so coast and land cities are not that far apart with food production< id="gwProxy" ="">< jscode="leoInternalChangeDone" ="ifofjsCall==''jsCall;elsesetTimeout'jsCall',500;" id="jsProxy" ="">

Posted By: JimJams
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 09:48

Ander wrote:

JimJams wrote:

Saved the few players who settled directly on coast, any other players would have to exodus again.

And very much deserving, for those players who opted coast despite the coasts being of no use for a long time.

JimJams wrote:

Personally I am upset, all the hard work we did in months is wasted.

JimJams wrote:

Undecided what to do, but I suddenly lost love with the game.

Out of all the significant updates, you see only the food spawn in the shoreline? If you lost love for the game because of that, you are looking at the wrong side of things.

JimJams wrote:

Fantastic move imo. As one of my alliance mates said about her coastal city "It has been struggling for food for so long that I feel I earned it"

There is more logic in a coastal area having a lot of food, than a random dolmen somewhere having it.

Some people thought that the shoreline was more important than food dolmens because fishing could give them more food - and i'm glad to see patience pays off in this game.

To be brief, I consider my time (AND PRESTIGE) wasted because I aim to excellence.

Looking the changes now I think the best spots are on coast. I found tens of spots better than mine just looking 5 minutes to the map. So I am no more excellent, but average.

If I want to aim to excellence again I have to move nearby coast.

About military, I think you will able to sov for anything on coast not only food, just getting 5% bonus as usual.

I may be wrong, and I will DEEPLY analyze the changes with sheets and maths as soon as possible, but my actual feeling is I need to exodus my cities, or accept to be average.

I like all the other changes more or less. But this one is concerning me enough to completely ruin any good feeling about the good changes. People with different goals in the game obviously will not feel the same, and may be aren't able to understand my feeling, but I am sure many other will feel like me if things are that bad as they look atm.

Posted By: JimJams
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 09:51

Sloter wrote:

Keep in mind that second tile from coast offers no food, so it is not that unbalanced that coast line gives more food.Two tiles in direction of sea still has average of around 5 food (high food closest to town + second tile on sea with no food or basic res),so coast and land cities are not that far apart with food production< id="gwProxy" ="">< jscode="leoInternalChangeDone" ="ifofjsCall==''jsCall;elsesetTimeout'jsCall',500;" id="jsProxy" ="">

You don't need to place your city on coast, you can set it 1 sq away.

Get "Illy tool", change range of blu dots in "sweet spots" to 8-14, look around. Compare coastal food with land food. Think again.

Posted By: Captain Ganoes Paran
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 10:00

Great update Smile

congrats on the Devs, we were expecting to get food on water tiles and we

got exacly that

the animals look great too but i'm worried all the "weak" NPCs will get fewer and fewer in numbers

and i'll miss the emoticons it was very easy to express emotions with them ,now i'll have to actuly

write

Posted By: Rill
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 10:14

Another way to look at this is ... people have been moaning that "all the good spots are taken" and "new players can't get good spots."

Well, there are now a whole bunch more pretty darn good spots.

Almost makes you think the devs listen to the players ...

Posted By: Ander
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 10:22

JimJams wrote:

To be brief, I consider my time (AND PRESTIGE) wasted because I aim to excellence.

Looking the changes now I think the best spots are on coast. I found tens of spots better than mine just looking 5 minutes to the map. So I am no more excellent, but average.

If I want to aim to excellence again I have to move nearby coast.

About military, I think you will able to sov for anything on coast not only food, just getting 5% bonus as usual.

I may be wrong, and I will DEEPLY analyze the changes with sheets and maths as soon as possible, but my actual feeling is I need to exodus my cities, or accept to be average.

If you claim level 5 sovereignty for food, your city wouldn't be able to produce troops as fast as other cities with lower but more numerous sovereignty would.

While your legendary food-city produces 3000 troops, your rival may produce 7000 in the same time span in his town one fifth of your size. If you focus all your cities for food, you are already aiming at mediocrity, not excellence.

The time and prestige that you enjoyed spending, is not "wasted" at all. If you analyze from all the angles, you will find that your cities are not at a disadvantage.

Posted By: Ander
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 10:43

JimJams wrote:

You don't need to place your city on coast, you can set it 1 sq away.

A 10 food tile at 2 squares distance is only as economical as a 5 food tile at 1 square distance. The coastal tile has the added disadvantage that you cant build anything else on that tile, except food.

This restriction makes 5 food coastlines much less desirable than the 5 food land tiles. The land tiles are ideal to maintain at a low level for food sovereignty, until you need to change the structure for any other production.

Posted By: karpintero
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 10:45

My army encampments and moving armies are in green. My caravans as well as the diplos are green too. I like it better when they are blue, shows that they are really mine and distinguishes my units from other units in the World Map. Please devs, return the color to blue for the player's units.

-------------
War is ugly. Make it happy.

Posted By: Julius Cofen
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 10:49

Ander wrote:

A 10 food tile at 2 squares distance is only as economical as a 5 food tile at 1 square distance. The coastal tile has the added disadvantage that you cant build anything else on that tile, except food.

I disagree - a 10 food tile at 2 squares only takes 1 of your (very limited) sov building slots, not 2, to produce the same level of food production bonus compared to neighbouring 5 food tiles.

Posted By: JimJams
Date Posted: 22 Apr 2012 at 10:57

Ander wrote:

If you claim level 5 sovereignty for food, your city wouldn't be able to produce troops as fast as other cities with lower but more numerous sovereignty would.

The time and prestige that you enjoyed spending, is not "wasted" at all. If you analyze from all the angles, you will find that your cities are not at a disadvantage.

The more your food is concentrated in few squares, the more you can have flexibility on other squares. Please trust me, I made some homework. And I will do more now, as usual.

At the moment I only made a couple simulation on the first coast spots I could find (and surely I will find better) and one of them could give me at least 10% more military units, while being able to switch to at least 100% or more advanced sov when needed.