Infantry Kit Killed the Strength Training Star

Day 3,070, 11:05 • Published in USA USA • by wookyjack


Yes. This article is aptly titled to honor the Buggles’ most popular song: the prolific end to radio stardom…Video Killed the Radio Star. But this article is not about the Buggles or that song, but to show all Erepublik’s players that the game has changed dramatically and new players once again are left in the dust.



The good ol days.

If you asked me two or three years ago if you should strength train your account I, and everyone else playing this game, would have told you “YES!” and showered you with gold…(no, not golden showers, gross). You would see weekly, if not daily, articles and citizen assistance programs giving away free gold to help new players save up gold to be able to upgrade their training grounds.

“Don’t fight, but only strength train. Fighting makes you level up faster. That is ‘bad’. Be patient and one day you will make a difference in battle!”

Oh how I will cherish and miss those days of running the HAMMER program created by crashthompson, and operated with BamaBettie, Nick Bergman and Kevin Sheridan. It was so fun writing articles like this. Those were some good ol days I tell ya. But I guess my point is: what the hell does a new player do now?



Strength training is dead, sort of.

Let me start with the significant disadvantage new players have now.



Simply put: a player purchases this kit with real money and it prevents leveling up when a player fights. It is an experience inhibitor. Sure, if you work and WaM (Work as Manager in your companies) then you still gain experience. But if you don’t know already, fighting on the battlefield is the fastest way to level up in this game. And if you have low influence strength, like me, then this puts you at a significant disadvantage against monsters like these:

http://www.erepublik.com/en/citizen/profile/6510689
http://www.erepublik.com/en/citizen/profile/6125851
http://www.erepublik.com/en/citizen/profile/3930854

You may have noticed that these are only three players in a single military unit. Do not be fooled. There are over a dozen military units that also have players like this in all divisions. And they all pay real money to claim, not fight for, battle hero medals with damage at minimum five million damage in D1, and up to 100 hundred million in D3. Players like these were low strength once in their eLives before, but this was obviously well before Plato offered kits like the Infantry Kit, Blitzkrieg Pack and Power Pack. Nowadays, even players who have amassed a great amount of strength pale in comparison to the aforementioned Titans/Legends of erepublik. Hell. Its become more popular to buy/sell high strength accounts in each division type in ‘black market’ type places!



Strength Training?

It's not dead. Players will strength train. There will still be the humble warrior who has 90k-something strength in D2 that may get a battle hero one day when all the monsters are sleeping. But truth be told that 1000 energy, in food fights alone, only gains 10 energy recovery after all their ff (food fights) are gone; they will MAYBE win one medal a week and get 1000 storage in prestige points. By the time they get to 20 energy recovery, the prestige points will reset to zero every week on Tuesday. I don’t have hard facts to prove this, but believe me I’ve been on the battlefield and seen all division type players operate this way. I’ve played both ways: paid and free.

Am I saying “you need to change the way you play because of what I just said!” ? Hell no. I would be the last person to try and force a player to play the way I want them to play. Will I advise a player how they SHOULD play this game? Hell ya! If you want some free advice I’m whaled, I mean, obliged to give it.



What is there to do if I am brand new to the game?

An interesting idea game up on the SFP forum the other day. When Bear Cavalry was trying to revamp a supply system for our players, Kevin Sheridan said we should scrap a strength training division and just make a regiment for new players and continued strength trainers.

Sending new players to strength train is a dead concept. We can no longer expect newbies to follow the same path new players like me took two years ago and stay for long. in the Infantry Kit era, they have no hope of ever being truely relevant in combat (at least until Plato puts in some serious reforms). In my opinion it is time to move forward and utilize the ghost booster to make lower strength players relevant.

Create a special regiment for them, organize joint strikes in which there is a lead DIV1 tank and maybe they can have some fun in this game. The ghost booster could enhance cooperative fighting and give some spice to this game.

(if some of them insist on sticking to the old "strength train" paradigm, sure, but don't make them) - Kevin Sheridan

I thought to myself: goddam that is a revolutionary idea! If you said something like that 2-3 years ago you would be crazy, but now that the Infantry Kit has killed the strength training star, it opens the floor back up again to new players who want to fight, be an entrepreneur and a political animal.



Anyways, that’s all I was thinking about right now. I’m sure Bear Cavalry will implement Kevin’s idea shortly.

Have a good weekend. 🙂