Ups Plato, you did it again...

Day 2,194, 11:15 • Published in Romania Romania • by Kelstein
Good News Everyone

We all know this week was the week that erepublik reached the 6th anniversary (quite amazing for a browser game I would say!) but also was the week of updates! good or bad my focus is not going to be on that but on the way that we find out about updates! I will try to point out that the way that Plato lets us know about the changes is very unhelpful at the moment for the community.

The Jigsaw named Erepublik

2194 - Nov 22, 2013

On day 2191 Plato announced the Empires & Determination! in 5 different channels of communication

- Forum
- Erepublik Blog
- Facebook
- Latest Udates

And even in Erepublik we had this banner



As a player I would say:

WOW This is an amazing! This guys from eLabs really care and want me to find out about this new update so I am not taken by surprise when it is launched!
[sexy time - break]

But ..of course..there is a BIG BUT!

The information between these sources is not identical..or even worse is not matching between or what is happening in the actual game so let’s take a look one by one:

Day 2192 You log into the website and you get this banner



you click it and get the description of the new changes:



and this



And after you read them let’s say you’re not very clear with

- What is the Country Power? How is it Determined?

- Is Determination applying just in Resistance Wars? because that was the first understanding of most of the people

So you decide: I want to know more! and you “press for more” information which takes you to “Latest Updates”



Alright you read this and what do we understand?

- Empires are just titles!

- Country Power? - do you have any advantage if this is big or small? how is calculated?

and you scroll down and get to the best part; the one about determination:



Ok It tells you pretty clear what damage is affected by determination but wait you have:

"When a region is kept under foreign occupation, the people’s determination to overthrow the oppressors increases over time. This leads to Determination Bonus that multiplies the influence in battles against the oppressor." (Is this all battles? or what?)

"When a Resistance War is started, the influence of each soldier fighting for the resistance is multiplied with the Determination Bonus!"


So you’re happy! Most of you probably understood that this Determination applies just in Resistance Wars!

But WAIT WHAT? This morning this was saying:

“Once a region is liberated, the determination will decrease gradually.
For example, if Finland liberates Lapland from Swedish occupation of 200 days, and Sweden attacks the region a few days later, Finland and its allies will still have a high Determination Bonus.
Please note that the days for Determination Bonus are counted from the past, and therefore won't start from 0”

and NOW it’s saying this:

"Once a region is liberated, the determination will decrease gradually.
For example, if Finland liberates Lapland from Swedish occupation of 200 days, and Sweden attacks the region a few days later, Finland and its allies will still have a high Determination Bonus when defending. If, however, Sweden conquers the region back despite the high Determination Bonus, the determination is then set to 0."

Please note that the days for Determination Bonus are counted from the past, and therefore won't start from 0

HOW??? (You will get the answer later!)

All clear from here! or is it?
[boobs break]
So at this moment you read everything that the eRepublik site gave you and you think you have a good understanding of the new feature; but let’s say you check the blog as well which is just an announcement of the new feature so no explanations. And then as a “good eCitizen” you think:
I should check erepublik Facebook Page as well...and surprise surprise this one looks like this:



With a link (http://bit.ly/empiresdetermination) sending you to this forum post made my Petsku (Administrator in erepublik; He announced features before on the forum!)

you have mostly the same post as in Latest Updates:




With the added information on 2192 (which you can find JUST ON FORUM) with:




Ok... besides the fact that they added some information later (but at least it says Edited Day 2192) and it’s available just on the Forum, where not everyone goes everyday especially after people got used that the changes are getting announced in “latest updates” - the examples and explanation gave on forum are the same as in "latest updates" and are very unclear leaving space for interpretation.

BUT WAIT:

Today (2194 - 2 days after the implementation) most of the people in eRomania had a very unpleasant surprise when in an MPP Battle against eBulgaria in Varna (http://www.erepublik.com/en/military/battlefield/46095) when we saw that eBulgaria still has “determination bonus”

After a big national debate (naturally) started, we were trying to find more clarification on this "Determination Bonus" - is it applyed just in RW or/and in MPP’s as well ??

Basically we wanted to know HOW DOES IT WORK!

So after arguments and debates someone found on the forum (Yea I know..not the obvious place to look for information!) this

http://forum.erepublik.com/index.php?/topic/1817-empires-determination-updated/page-5#entry26009

Some clarification given by the same administrator (Petsku) on some enquiries:



and



So we said, ok ...now it’s clear, we know how it works everyone will know! but we still had the frustration that we had to digg for this information on so many sources over 2 days, THIS IS NOT HOW IT SHOULD WORK!

Oh..but is not over..so “the last clarification on the forum says”

“The second graph explains what happens after the region is freed via Resistance War. So when Finland has a successful RW in Lapland, it shows the Determination Bonus Finland and its allies would have against any direct attacks. It doesn't matter if the attacker is the country who was controlling the region, or someone else, Finland and its allies will still have the Determination Bonus.” (from here)

But then I ask you...what’s this?



Where is the determination bonus considering????

(2193)
(2194)

Well..it isn’t and no one knows why - Plato please explain?
[sexy bonus]


Also as a Bonus

Remember that post on the forum?

http://forum.erepublik.com/index.php?/topic/1817-empires-determination-updated/

and this part of it?



Of course YOU DON’T!

Because this morning/afternoon this post was looking like this



Oh...so what do you mean? one of the admins has changed his post without letting us know this is a later edit?

YES that’s what I mean

( http://www.cachedpages.com/ go here and put this http://forum.erepublik.com/index.php?/topic/1817-empires-determination-updated/ and you will see the old version!)

They also changed the description in "latest updates" with the new example...but they did not bother to let us know

Good Try Plato!

Probably by this time I bored you to death...

But this is not about eRomania, or about if the new changes are good or bad..

This about getting informed accordingly about the changes. I understand that changes will happen, and I also understand that people might like them or not but PLEASE Plato choose ONE official way of telling us the new changes (blog,forum,latest updates,facebook! - BUT ONE OF THEM) and tell us all the details about them, then we can decide if we hate them or we love them but at least...we will UNDERSTAND THEM! (at the moment that is definitely not the case)

Also it would be great if you let us know when you add changes to lates updates's updates ...



fâl fâl fâl for now,

Kelstein



PS: Thanks Fedor (later edit) and Turturica of course! for the title!🙂 (later-later edit: Also Lemi for help on few different things!)