How the Q7 Weapon Ruined This Game
Gnilraps
Just The Right Bullets (Mandatory listening)
Day 2554 of the New World
17 November, 2014
How the Q7 Weapon Contributed eRepublik’s Demise
Or…
Q6, We Hardly Knew Ya’
It was in late July, I believe it was day 1712, when Plato unleashed a master stroke of destruction on his game. It was called the Q7 weapon. And it was a move that was blatantly obvious in how damaging it would be.
The Q6 weapon was a perfect test case for how the economical dynamics would play out. That weapon was unveiled just 7 months prior to the Q7, and so we’ll start our story there.
It took eRepublik a while to mature its military economy. For a long time the lower weapons qualities (Q1-Q4) were heavily populated with robust market activity. It was a time when you only had so much money, you only had so much “health” to fight with, and in order to maximize your output it was often wise to fight with a lower Q weapon. But as Plato added candy bars, increased the daily health consumption, and devalued Gold, the Q5 weapon – at the time the highest available – became reasonably available for anyone to be able to beg, borrow, or commune for. By sometime around day 1000, if you weren’t fighting with a Q5 weapon you were doing it totally wrong.
Top-of-the-line, circa day 1000
And because the Q5 became the absolute standard for battle, the market for Q1-Q4 weapons crashed. There were no rocket factories then, so there was literally no use for them. To fight with a lower Q weapon was to waste your potential. Every decent MU was supplying Q5, governments were handing them out… you HAD to fight with one.
And the economics of the Q5 were quite nice. A Q5 weapon requires 1000 raw materials and fires 5 times. So each “fight” of a Q5 “costs” 200 WRM. As it turns out (and without getting into a ton of math), it was the perfect combination to facilitate the creation of “communes”. At that time, it was possible to employ Military Unit members in Q5 weapons companies and after selling off enough of their tank production to pay for the Raw Materials, a worker would produce roughly 12 tanks for use that day. With various tricks and tweaks, and when market conditions were just right, you could get that number up as high as 16.
16 top shelf tanks, in an era when the “health bar” topped out at about 200 was PLENTY.
What I am saying is that even though Plato had managed to destroy the Q1-Q4 markets, at least the viability of the Q5 market created a situation wherein citizens had to work together to succeed in this game. Communes were an incredibly important social dynamic in eRepublik. And this is a “Social Browser Game”, right?
Now let’s examine what happened around Day 1512 when the Q6 was introduced.
The all-new BEAST, Plato’s Q6
In designing the Q6, Plato did not create anything new at all. Q6 was just a scaled up version of the Q5. The weapon shot 6 times for 1200 WRM, so again the cost was just 200 Raw Materials per fight click.
So other than the economics of acquiring the Gold to buy the new factories, nothing really changed. Q5 was the new Q4. In other words the bottom dropped out of the Q5 market and Q1-Q5 were suddenly useless as the movers and shakers in the game quickly got their factories upgraded to Q6. There was no discernable change in the demand for Weapons Raw Materials after the initial bump, people just bought a few more Saltpeter companies (or whatever) and the game kept on trucking.
Communes were still running exactly the same as always. Which is to say they were awesome.
As an aside, I will point out that with the advent of the Q6, Plato had made himself the storyline yet again. It wasn’t so much that a new industry was born out of the internal dynamics of the game. Instead it was that Plato just decided that by establishing a new top-end industry he could rake in the cash, so he just changed the game. Plato making Plato the primary headlines in this game is very obviously one of the main reasons the game has died. But I digress.
The point I want to make most clearly about the introduction of the Q6 is that the community proved it would rapidly adapt to the most powerful available weapon and utterly eschew all other weapons. Q5 Factories were toilet paper after the Q6 came around.
And that brings us to the fateful day, Day 1712. It was on that day that Plato didn’t just destroy the Q6 weapons factory, he destroyed the community that the weapons industry had created. The Q7 weapon destroyed the commune.
(Now I know that there are still some communes in operation, almost exclusively among the USAF. In brief, the only reason these communes are possible is due to an influx of cash provided by tax revenue. I will provide some hard figures below which will prove that communes are no longer prudent. I also don't want this to be interpreted as a slam against anyone continuing to try to use communes. All I'm saying is that all thing being equal, the commune is not the wisest choice.)
The Q7 weapon is an entirely different animal from an economic standpoint. And once you understand that, combined with what we know about how the Q6 killed the Q5, it was instantly obvious to anyone who was paying attention that the Q7 was a disaster.
Of course the Q7 packs a great damage punch. But what does it cost? A Q7 tank fires 10 shots and costs 4,000 WRM to build. In other words, at 400 WRM, the cost per shot is twice as high as every other weapon.
Meanwhile, Plato was still steadily increasing the number of fights available per day, so the demand for the Q6 became urgent.
Now let me display as simply as possible why the Q7 weapon cannot be viably supplied to a Military Unit by the commune structure.
Q7 Commune Math
20 tanks are produced by 1 worker.
1 worker consumes $80 worth of Weapons Raw Materials, plus costs $1 in salary.
20 tanks cost $81 to produce.
Roughly 14.5 of those tanks must be sold to recoup the $81.
1 worker produces just 5.5 Q7 tanks, worth 55 food fights.
Compare this to what a citizen can “produce” via a market wage job.
Q7 Market Wage Math
After Work Tax, current wage is $44.88
Current Q7 cost is $5.85
1 worker produces 7.67 tanks with a market wage job, worth 76 food fights.
(It is worth mentioning that the same worker can spend roughly $37/day on a Q1 house, work twice, thus increasing his income to about $56.45/day or 9.64 tanks worth 96 food fights. A commune has no way of capitalizing on this dynamic.)
So unless your commune is receiving tax revenue (or unless it is receiving a steady supply of donated WRM from some sekrit source), communing – and the community dynamics that go with it – are dead.
You piece of sh*t
The Q7 weapons factory has done a great deal to devalue the benefits of developing a strong social culture in this game. And Plato easily should have seen this coming. During the Q5-Q6 days, there were all kinds of ways for players to immerse themselves in a diverse social network. The Q7 weapon has destroyed much of that.
tl;dr
After the Q6 weapon destroyed the Q5 market, and seeing how the economics of the Q7 weapon would make it nearly impossible to produce communally (without significant and constantly donated resources), Plato knowingly sold out the community aspect of this game in favor of making a quick cash grab from Q6-Q7 upgrades.
You may now return to your regularly scheduled clicking
Comments
And no, communing in Q5 housing companies, selling production, and buying tanks with the income still isn't as profitable as just working for the market wage and buying tanks.
good article thanks but, q7 weps are not the only reason that ruins the game. especially plato is ruining this bug farm from the beginning.
You're on a roll.
Voted, excellent article.
I'm still waiting for Q Infinity
I could not possibly agree with you more on this
The Q7 was really a leap to a Q10 weapon while skipping the 7,8,9 progression while leaving raw production at q5 levels was the death nail in MU cooperatives.
They needed a q7 raw producer to mach the q7 factories hunger.
There is already too much WRM production, the Q7 @ 2000WRM per Tank was the temporary fix... - The root of all this evil is, and always will be the Work as Manager
Visa for work tickets is coming.
The solutions seem so easy - First thing I'd on the RAW sector is make the production via WAM less (say 200WRM in a Rubber Plant) but if you use an employee, it's like 800
Currently work tickets are only viable in the Q7 weapon production (since most people dont have house companies) - This would shift weapons production down, since there is a finite amount of labour available daily, and put some work tickets into RAW companies. Global RAW production could be the same, but weapon production down. Cost of weapons go up, wages go up, etc
They would still need to do something with the lower Q weapons to make them strategically viable, the rocket nonsense aint cutting it
but this would be a start
V
(;,,😉
Bra-vo.
And here we are.
Good article, voted.
Good read. Voted.
Plato dont know how fix this shit game
nice works !
Good job!
Votado OME!!!
I'm really enjoying these reads but at the same time also leaving from them feeling frustrated because it reminds me of what happened to this game.
Awesome article 😃
The commune became a few e-rich players producing WRM to feed the Q7 weapons companies. In that way they still survive, at least among brazilian MUs, but it is more and more pointless at these weapons, WRM and wage prices....
(It is worth mentioning that the same worker can spend roughly $37/day on a Q1 house, work twice, thus increasing his income to about $56.45/day or 9.64 tanks worth 96 food fights. A commune has no way of capitalizing on this dynamic.)
Uhm yes it can, by also sporting Q1 house companies (maybe granite quarries) and distributing them to members.
Not exactly. While it is true that the commune "return" is better if your commune workers are producing houses rather than weapons, it is still LESS profitable to commune houses than to work a market job. ALSO, by putting commune workers in the housing industry, you now have that many more workers who need weapons, thus liquidating your weapons supply even further.
I have run these numbers as well yesterday, and I can share them with you if interested
Very well thought out, me likey.
I remember one time back in V1 when I got some Q5's to fight and I felt super fucking special.
I found a theme in your articles: He who governs the least governs the best.
Then I should be PotUS.
V
Hells to the yah
Q7 should have been limited to 1 factory each player, so they would have been somehow "rare".
That would have given a sense to the rest of the market.
Now the only reason to buy other qualities weapons is creating a damage booster and try a BH.
Nice article again!
vote
o7
This is actually a good article. Great analysis.
If it were not such another stupid, game killing, money grabbing idea I would have clicked on the "give writer money" boxes.
The simple solution would be to create a Q8 using the same logic, then the current game quit rate would increase and put us all out of this misery 😉
Is there really a "give writer money" box? wth???
holy crap you are right! This is going to be fantastic!
love players playing for love...
Your welcome. (Ministry of Education) ;-p
\0/
Endorsed and voted
agreed and voted
Still communing in C4 'cause I'm goddam stubborn.
V+
An interesting view, hadn't notice Q7 weapons require double raw materials. Apparently after ensuring retention, it turns into squeezing players especially whales.
Actually I wonder if its inevitable but not sure yet.
"The Q7 weapons factory has done a great deal to devalue the benefits of developing a strong social culture in this game."
So true my friend, so true.
Unlimited rockets please! 🙂
If I remember correctly, the roll-out of the Q6 weapons were supposed to be a 'special limited-time one-time-only' deal. Basically: buy gold and spend it all now. Then, they made Q6's a permanent thing a few weeks later.
That being said, I'm still just using self-made Q5 weapons. Someday, in like 6 months from now of 3-clicking, I may be able to upgrade to Q6's. If not, no big deal because I don't really care.
Quality.
You man deserve an envelope xD
Awesome reading and it has the exact point of the THING that ruined the game....
what i was thinking lol.... "endorse"
very nice analyze !
bravo
It's not the Q7 that ruined it, it's the energy inflation.
The only currency in the game is energy, everything else is a derivative.