Dear citizens,
In the last two days there have been some debates about the new Alliances price, and this is something that we expected. We have read most of the citizens` suggestion about this matter, their posts on the forum and answered their submitted tickets, but we still feel the need to talk a bit more about this.
To start from the beginning, eRepublik is a game. And games are meant to be fun. No matter what angle we look at it from , the history of the New World shows us that political/economic/media modules are, to some extent, vital tools for the war module. Political, to have the President pushing the button. Economic, to have the money a war needs. Media, to make place to create propaganda, or to make new friends that will eventually support your war. It is the wars most citizens consider to be fun and exciting, and we can understand why. The chance to turn your country into the biggest eRepublik empire is a strong enough reason to have fun. Also, very importantly, to have the chance to liberate your occupied country, after hard work which can sometimes take almost a year, is just as fun.
Why an increased Alliances cost? Because eRepublik is moving forwards, towards a new era, an era where we don't have everybody allied with everybody else, which is the main reason against war today .“Of course I'm not gonna attack them, don't you see they're allied with 17 countries?” a president might answer somewhere in the world right now. Whatever the method, fewer alliances between the countries is what we are trying to achieve in order to have much more interesting wars and strategies. Not just “us (+15 allies) against them (+17 allies),” all the time. Let the smaller countries to have their chance to be a deciding factor, not just a loyal ally that's happy when the “big boys” are fighting.
And we get to small countries, some are worried they will get destroyed. We believe that signing only 2-3 alliances instead of ten will not hurt them because other countries will have 2-3 alliances too, not ten. Not even medium-size countries will have ten alliances signed. Also, let's consider the outcome of being attacked by a big country. Well, suppose the small country gets wiped out. History also shows that the biggest of today's empires were completely, or almost completely wiped out at some time and after that time, they began to grow. Take Russia, take Hungary, take USA, take Spain, and so on. Moreover, ask someone Spanish “when did you have the most fun in eRepublik? In the last two months when your country was conquered and then you managed to liberate it, or in the previous 6 months when you did nothing more than training?” Or an American. Or a Canadian. The answer is simple. Also, losing a war is not a bad thing if you measure long term benefits and players getting involved and passionate about the game. Take the US explosive increase of power and influence. Before being crushed two months ago, they were 16,000. Today, after a long war and the liberation of the last remaining region, they are 23,000.
OK, so these are the reasons why we want more expensive and thus less alliances signed: to have more citizens excited about what's going on in their own country or region, not half the globe away, trough a cheap MPP signed. Because we want real and exciting wars, not just training ones. This way of playing, the routine, without much happening in your own yard, is a fun-killer. Let's see other proposed systems, by citizens (keep in mind that we wish all countries to afford fewer alliances, but more decisive ones):
- variable cost- price per citizen. That is small countries sign alliances almost for free, big ones pay big prices. This does not solve the problem. For sure a small country would like to get the protection of 15 bigger ones, because it's so cheap for them, but most likely the big countries wouldn't pay that huge price to offer the protection. Because, as we said, regardless the system we want no country to have more than a couple of alliances signed. So, naturally, the first action will be to sign alliances with their “traditional” and big friends and only if they can afford an additional MPP would they pay for it. Probably not, because being such a big country, an Alliance would cost 150 GOLD, or more.
- fixed cost- incremental. First alliance would cost x GOLD, second X+20 GOLD, third X+50, and so on. The same thing. The small country would want to be the first to get the “signature” of a “big brother”. But also, the big brother would need to take care of his own priorities, that is not finding himself in the position that a vital ally of him is the sixth alliance which costs 500 GOLD, for example, because he signed the first alliance with a 200 citizens country. And we return to the point from which we have started.
After reading all the feedback you have provided to us, for which we thank you, we have reached the conclusion that the fixed 100 GOLD price is the best option. Because it is equal, and because achieves our goal to have lesser alliances and more fun. With this change in game mechanics, the average number of alliances signed even by the biggest countries will be around 6-7, which in terms of eRepublik game play will be much better than 20. And because of the fewer the alliances, there will be more regional/small wars, as well as more surprising big wars. And all this will make eRepublik a more interesting game, while we all wait for the new war module.
Regards,
The eRepublik Team
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