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How to fix a broken game - Part One: Random Events
Hi everyone,
Since eRepublik is a royal mess right now – and the admins are seemingly short of ideas of how to reform a failing economy module, I wanted to come up with a suggestion.
Right now, there are four factors that stimulate the economy and allow productivity to leave the system:
a) Wars
b) Food/Happiness Consumption
c) New Players
d) “Decay” via death of old and inactive players.
It has been obvious in recent months that, due to the nature of eR productivity formulas and due to the fact that many players are quitting the game, production is getting out of hand and consumption cannot keep up.
Therefore we need to find additional ways to stimulate consumption and to limit production. Instead of yet another drastic revamping of the current system, I suggest to approach the issue by introducing a series of smaller changes and new features.
One of these changes that I would like to suggest today, is the introduction of random events.
Random events could be a very positive enhancement of the game because they a) are a good way of destroying some excess global productivity and b) bring some fun and challenges into the game.
I have brainstormed a bit, and would like to throw in a couple of ideas about how a random event could look like.
Global Random Events
Global random events are designed to hit several countries at once. Their effects should be harsh, but not too harsh. Just strong enough so that everyone is affected, that they stay in the news for a while and pose a strategic and logistic challenge for the affected countries. Global events can last between 1 day and 1 week, but shouldn’t happen more than once a month in the selected area.
• Rainstorms: A typhoon has swept across central asia and severely damaged crops in the area (all grain companies in Malaysia, the Philipines and Korea lose 15% of stock).
• Flu pandemic: Western Europe is being hit by an unusually strong flu-wave (all citizens are losing an additional 5-20 health daily for the next 3-7 days (in a national effort, governments have the chance to fight the outbreak by subsiding vaccinations for the cost of x gold)).
• El niño/La niña: South and Central America are suffering from the effects of el niño (grain production is down to 50% for the next 3-7 days).
• Volcano: Another recent outbreak of Eyjafjallajökull has grounded all flights across Western Europe (no travel to and from Western Europe, travel within the area remains possible by means of car or train…only zone 1 tickets work).
• Increased Solar Activity: Earth is being hit by geomagnetic storms (global industrial production is down by x% for 1-3 days).
• Earthquake: The Northern US and southern parts of Canada have been hit by an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the richter scale. There has been severe damage to property. (All houses of all citizens living in the area lose 10-20 days durability).
National Random Events
In principal, many of the global random events (i.e. Typhoons, Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Fires, Blizzards, Harsh winters, etc.) can also take place on a national level only. National events can last from everything between 1 day and 1 week.
• Floods, Fires, Storms, etc: Severe (insert disaster here) are affecting the provinces of (insert province(s) here). Today’s production of (insert raw material here) has been reduced by 15-20%
• Blackout: A 3-hour nationwide blackout has affected public life in (insert country here). National production down 10-20%.
Individual Random Events
Individual random events for citizens are supposed to have a limited effect only. Although a hazzle, they will provide for some welcome change in the 2-clicking routine. Individual random events for managers are supposed to be a bit harsher, but nothing that will drive anyone into bankruptcy. No more than 0-1 individual random events per week.
• Cold (citizen): Your citizen has caught a cold. (You lose 5-10 wellness, and your productivity will be down by 10-15% for the next 2-4 days).
• Bad day (citizen): Your citizen didn’t sleep well last night and is in a bad mood all day (Productivity down by 10-15%).
• Migrane (female citizens): (similar effects as “bad day”).
• Break-In (managers): Your company has been broken into last night, x% of your stock is missing. (This event should be aimed at companies which exceed a certain minimum stock level….i.e., every grain company with >10.000 grain in stock has an x% chance of being robbed).
• Fire (managers): (similar effects as “break-in”).
• Traffic Jam (managers): Due to an accident this morning your employees were stuck in a traffic jam and could only get to work 3 hours late (Todays productivity down 30%).
These are just a handful out of hundreds of possible random events. A good way to improve this “random event-module” would be a monthly community contest. The best idea for a random event is rewarded with something special (gold, ambassador medal, whatever admins can come up with).
Since eRepublik is a royal mess right now – and the admins are seemingly short of ideas of how to reform a failing economy module, I wanted to come up with a suggestion.
Right now, there are four factors that stimulate the economy and allow productivity to leave the system:
a) Wars
b) Food/Happiness Consumption
c) New Players
d) “Decay” via death of old and inactive players.
It has been obvious in recent months that, due to the nature of eR productivity formulas and due to the fact that many players are quitting the game, production is getting out of hand and consumption cannot keep up.
Therefore we need to find additional ways to stimulate consumption and to limit production. Instead of yet another drastic revamping of the current system, I suggest to approach the issue by introducing a series of smaller changes and new features.
One of these changes that I would like to suggest today, is the introduction of random events.
Random events could be a very positive enhancement of the game because they a) are a good way of destroying some excess global productivity and b) bring some fun and challenges into the game.
I have brainstormed a bit, and would like to throw in a couple of ideas about how a random event could look like.
Global Random Events
Global random events are designed to hit several countries at once. Their effects should be harsh, but not too harsh. Just strong enough so that everyone is affected, that they stay in the news for a while and pose a strategic and logistic challenge for the affected countries. Global events can last between 1 day and 1 week, but shouldn’t happen more than once a month in the selected area.
• Rainstorms: A typhoon has swept across central asia and severely damaged crops in the area (all grain companies in Malaysia, the Philipines and Korea lose 15% of stock).
• Flu pandemic: Western Europe is being hit by an unusually strong flu-wave (all citizens are losing an additional 5-20 health daily for the next 3-7 days (in a national effort, governments have the chance to fight the outbreak by subsiding vaccinations for the cost of x gold)).
• El niño/La niña: South and Central America are suffering from the effects of el niño (grain production is down to 50% for the next 3-7 days).
• Volcano: Another recent outbreak of Eyjafjallajökull has grounded all flights across Western Europe (no travel to and from Western Europe, travel within the area remains possible by means of car or train…only zone 1 tickets work).
• Increased Solar Activity: Earth is being hit by geomagnetic storms (global industrial production is down by x% for 1-3 days).
• Earthquake: The Northern US and southern parts of Canada have been hit by an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the richter scale. There has been severe damage to property. (All houses of all citizens living in the area lose 10-20 days durability).
National Random Events
In principal, many of the global random events (i.e. Typhoons, Hurricanes, Earthquakes, Fires, Blizzards, Harsh winters, etc.) can also take place on a national level only. National events can last from everything between 1 day and 1 week.
• Floods, Fires, Storms, etc: Severe (insert disaster here) are affecting the provinces of (insert province(s) here). Today’s production of (insert raw material here) has been reduced by 15-20%
• Blackout: A 3-hour nationwide blackout has affected public life in (insert country here). National production down 10-20%.
Individual Random Events
Individual random events for citizens are supposed to have a limited effect only. Although a hazzle, they will provide for some welcome change in the 2-clicking routine. Individual random events for managers are supposed to be a bit harsher, but nothing that will drive anyone into bankruptcy. No more than 0-1 individual random events per week.
• Cold (citizen): Your citizen has caught a cold. (You lose 5-10 wellness, and your productivity will be down by 10-15% for the next 2-4 days).
• Bad day (citizen): Your citizen didn’t sleep well last night and is in a bad mood all day (Productivity down by 10-15%).
• Migrane (female citizens): (similar effects as “bad day”).
• Break-In (managers): Your company has been broken into last night, x% of your stock is missing. (This event should be aimed at companies which exceed a certain minimum stock level….i.e., every grain company with >10.000 grain in stock has an x% chance of being robbed).
• Fire (managers): (similar effects as “break-in”).
• Traffic Jam (managers): Due to an accident this morning your employees were stuck in a traffic jam and could only get to work 3 hours late (Todays productivity down 30%).
These are just a handful out of hundreds of possible random events. A good way to improve this “random event-module” would be a monthly community contest. The best idea for a random event is rewarded with something special (gold, ambassador medal, whatever admins can come up with).
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great idea
I totally support the events
finally you managed to bring out an article about that. i support that idea
Sounds like an interesting idea.
vote
Starki4Admin
And i thought that random events were the changes the admins do to my buisness
hacker = Global Random Events
What about good events? there should be some good random events. ?
nice
vote this international ._.!
!stark
Why you want to ruin this game even more?
\o/ nice and full support, just the earthquakethingy is a bit harsh, a 10% decrease of durability would be better instead fixed amount of days, otherwise mostly low quality houses will break
Great ideas
Need random fighting events! When the people fight against something from week to week, they need more weapons.
Great ideas! Good job
Thanks for the positive feedback so far guys.
The collected ideas I provided in the article of course will require careful finetuning, nothing is written in stone.
This article is just supposed to get the ball rolling, collect some feedback and maybe gather some additional ideas to make it easier for the admins to pick up on the concept - cuz the better the concept, the more likely it will make it life one day.
ohai thar
buttsecks anyun?
Why are there just negative events? There should be at least some events which do something positive like increasing the productivity in your company.
Nice idea! I only see negative things in here though... How about adding some positive random events ? : O
Voted but I don't quite agree with your examples because this seems to be a problem - When you have these "global events" start hitting around it doesn't solve production problems. It only worsens them. You basically wipe out food or grain (for an example) and the companies still have losses. Or the admin would refund them?
The other thing is that it's "random" but what if it strikes a country in a middle of an important battle. It could be a serious disadvantage and it's impossible to predict. A lot of people would probably start conspiracy theories and how admin works again them or their alliance.
In general I like your idea... in the sense that this game needs "events" that would make people spend their cash and buy goods but not just these negative events that would harm production. There should also be some positive events... for instance Olympics or games of any sort where people can compete and they can use weapons (?) and lose health. The best players would get gold as a prize so it would be a win-win for everyone.
Too complicated. We don't need that.
Don't like it.
The reason why I so far only suggested negative events is the fact that eR got an overproduction problem (I tried to explain that in the article).
Due to the fact that more products are produced than consumed, prices, wages and company profits are stuck in a downward spiral. One way to fix this is by forcing production down, or by removing stock.
Positive random events are of course very welcome, but if they add stock, or increase productivity....they are not a solution to the problem anymore, but they infact would increase the problem.
I see two ways around this dilemma:
a) introduce positive events that give rewards outside this productivity/consumption phramework, i.e. events that give extra XPs, inrease fighting capability, etc.
or
b) introduce positive events that also DO have positive effects on production. In this case we need to make sure that the negative effects offset AND outweight the positive effects from positive events....so negative events have to become harsher, or more frequent.
The problem is also that the prices are so low at this point (because of a low demand and high productivity) that most companies are losing cash. If the negative events start hitting them sure that it would decrease the amount of goods on markets but it would also ruin most of these companies and with that a major source of income for countries.
admin could add espionage, and counter-espionage... For example, to lower cost of attack on certain territory, to steal stock from gov companies (counter would give penalty for fail attempt) ... Lack of gold is preventing countries to attack any region without long preparation, so, gold bonuses for achieving national goals could help there a bit... Offcourse, game creators had to give away part their profit, but i doubt they are prepared to do something like that, unless they compensate with gold consumption on other place... Bombing raids on hospitals and DS (which would reduce their durability or what ever) could help there a bit... Those raids could be order only by president, and they would cost a gold...
The main reason why many players left was because admins were sort of a random factor ( rechanging and rerechanging the system every 4 weeks).
Although I think that random events like this can help to solve the over-production problem IN GENERAL, eRep will loose a lot of individual players in the process again.
People want security.
Agree completely with Lyuline. It takes time for a system to get used to new changes and they are changing something all the time. Economy doesn't have enough time to stabilize. People want security above all.
That doesn´t sound challenging at all. Frustration is what comes into my mind when reading that.^^
i like it - and as stargard said - nothing is writen in stone.
for more positive feelings i can imagine events like:
"Good fighting day" with an increase of fighting values for some hours - and more people want to go to the battlefield and use weapons and food.
or maybe "new love" with a x chance to get gold by eating some food, but your food has only half of the normal wellness/happiness effect (´cause you have to pay for you and your new darling).
and so on - its absolutly possible to make "positive events" with an effect of increasing consumption...
-erikardus
• Earthquake: The Northern US and southern parts of Canada have been hit by an earthquake measuring 6.5 on the richter scale. There has been severe damage to property. (All houses of all citizens living in the area lose 10-20 days durability).
wtf nooooooo, durability is annoying enough
• Cold (citizen): Your citizen has caught a cold. (You lose 5-10 wellness, and your productivity will be down by 10-15% for the next 2-4 days).
even bigger wtf noooooooo, that would just ruin some companies and piss off some poeple
the other ones are great but those 2 just are *ugh*
Damn, that headline. I´ve got a tune from a ratm song in my head since I had read it.^^
why one for women specificly and not one for men?
That sounds like some pretty good Ideas. May need some balancing but all in all I really love it!
Overproduction will not end until there is a change in values that already exists.
Maybe it's better to first fix some issues in the new system, than bring back the old.
Btw: i agree with the given ideas, which could bring unpredictable parts in the game.
Great! Now hope for Admin´s Glory.. ^^
Why should only bad things happen?
Also, there need to be a protocol which purges inactive ORGs and companies from the game. ORGs could be auto-deleted after a certain amount of time spend in inactivity and 5% of it's assets are transfered to the eNations account.
Companies on sale for more than four weeks are automatically dissolved.
Very good ideas. Noted them