Blast From The Past: eRepublik Rising

Day 2,785, 04:41 Published in Germany Croatia by Nathan Maximillian Stark


Greetings, comrades.
For some of you who still remember, this day, July 6th, might mean a lot. Others might not remember it, or simply weren't around at the time when it was significant. For me, July 6th 2010, marks the beginning of this game's steady downfall. On this day, 5 years ago at 2:00 eRepublik time, the server went on a 24-hour maintenance break, which finished with the launch of eRepublik V2, or better known as eRepublik FailRising.

eRepublik Rising was an ambitious project, no doubt. It was designed to give a new level of depth, customization and strategy to the game. And at first (according to the descriptions of V2 in the eRepublik insider), initial responses from players were favorable. However, the final implementation of V2 will not be welcomed wholeheartedly. eRepublik Rising was designed to add more modules to the game. A turn-based combat, the ability to customize products, a new time-management system, and many more new features were added.

Time management was a feature which allowed citizens to manage and distribute 24 hours of their day in the New World. Time management let citizens go to four different places: company (to work), training grounds (to train), library (to study) and residential district (to increase happiness). You could select a time period between a minimum of 2, and a maximum of 12 hours. The more hours you spent in a certain place, the more your salary/skill/happiness would increase (depending on your time distribution).


Time management module

Along with time management, two new places were implemente😛 the library and the residential district. Library was a place where you could study to increase your work skills. Residential district’s purpose was to restore your happiness (also a new feature introduced in V2) which deceased after working or studying. Apart from that, time management came with an inexplicable addition of four girls, or 'assistants'. One was in your company, one in the library, one in the residential district, and one greeted new players. And there was also the good ol' Lana in the training area. The other girls had names as well, which I don’t remember and, well, refuse to remember.

Caesar is not amused. And neither were we.

The work module also received a major overhaul. The previously existing three work skills were replaced with 11 new skills, which were architect, builder, carpenter, engineer, fitter, harvester, marketing manager, mechanic, producer, project manager and technician. Each of those professions was divided into further levels: Apprentice, Assistant, Junior, Senior, Coordinator, Specialist, Expert, Master, Guru and Guru*. The reason for this number of professions is that every profession was in charge of making a different part in the product, which allowed for product customization. I.e. to make food you needed a producer (ingredients; affects health) and a marketing manager (packaging; affects happiness). Company managers had customizations points which varied on the level of the company and could be used to customize products. Now, a Q2 food company manager (who had 60 CPs – customization points) could spend 5 CPs on ingredients and 45 CPs on packaging. The food which company produced would increase user’s health by 1.5 / day and 4.5 happiness / day. This allowed for a diversity in products.


Different professions

Training also received an overhaul. Strength (as known in V1) was divided into four military skills: tank, air unit, infantry and artillery. Military skills were divided into further levels: Greenhorn, Rookie, Hotshot, Marksman, Sharp Shooter, Professional, Expert, Ranger, Nemesis, Veteran and Veteran*. Each of these skills could be improved by training or fighting in battles with a specific type of weapon.


Training grounds

And now we come to the perhaps the biggest change in the entire V2: the military module and the battlefield. The good ol’ wall from V1 *nostalgia intensifies* was replaced by the battlefield map consisting of 400 (20x20) hexagonal tiles where battle was fought. The map featured a variety of terrains, such as plains, hills, forests, cities, mountains (impassable), rivers (which could be crossed by bridges – land units or flown over by air units), etc. Each tile could also hold one building (a hospital or a defense system). The attackers and defenders would start of on different sides of the map.


The battlefield

The objective required to either secure or conquer a region was to have control of at least 75% of the map and the capital city after the first 24 hours. If victory conditions aren’t met in that time, the battle would continue in ‘sudden death’ mode until one side reached the victory conditions. If there was no victor after 72 hours, the battle would end as a draw.


Overview of the battle

The battle system was turn-based. The attacking and defending sides in a battle took turn in moving and fighting against each other. The turn lasted 2 minutes. During that time, you and your allies could move around the map, capture tiles, chose enemies to attack or prepare for the enemy’s turn. After that time, the enemy side would get their turn, and those who decided to fight would see the results of their PvP fights. You would deploy on the battlefield with one of the four weapons: rifle, artillery, air unit or tank, and your damage would depend on your military skill with that weapon. Each weapon also had its special benefits (tanks could cross four tiles in one turn, air units could cross otherwise impassable terrains, etc.) and each unit excelled in a particular type of tile (infantry – forests, tanks – hills, air units – plains, artillery – cities)


Selecting weapons for fighting

Those were the biggest changes in eRepublik Rising – V2. However, by 2011, many of these features were either completely removed or revamped. So, what went wrong? Let’s start with the economy. You see, I’m no economy expert, so I might be wrong (somebody please correct me if I am), but I think that the implementation of time management messed up some already existing laws and the structure of economy. In eRepublik V1, salary was daily and fixed, and minimum salary was around 10 CC (if I remember correctly). In V2, salary became hour-based, but the minimum salary law remained unchanged, so you could earn around 80 CC by working for 8 hours. That caused some commotion in the economy. However, that was later fixed and minimum salary became more ‘proportional’. But even then there were problems. In some countries, salaries became too little, and you could barely buy a decent weapon for fighting and food to sustain you. (Keep in mind this is just my opinion about economy; I might be wrong). Now, for the military module. Although it was a good idea in theory, it turned out pretty badly in practice. The battle client took ages to load (especially in big battles), it was buggy and unresponsive (I remember missing entire turns due to issues), it wasn’t ‘low-speed connections’ or mobile-friendly and it simply took too much time. In V1, you could finish all your daily tasks and fighting in 10-15 minutes, which was pretty great. In V2, I remember sitting for two or three hours in front of the battle screen, looking at the damned tiles. It was time-consuming, tedious and not at all fun. What’s more, when two countries from really different time zones battled, one side could simply ‘swarm’ the entire map while their opponents were sleeping, making the breakthrough and reclamation of the battle map nearly impossible for them.

As for my opinion, I really liked some aspects of V2, while I thought others could use a bit of work. I.e I like the time management, added professions and product customization (save the 'added' girls, which I thought were unnecessary). The military module, while a cool idea, didn't quite work out for me. Maybe that impression was due to my slow connection and poor computer at the time, but I didn't have a very good experience playing it. But, with a few performance tweaks, I believe it could have been better.

But, all these things aside, there was one thing which, in my opinion, marked the beginning of eRepublik’s downfall. The boosters. Yes, those little things which cost gold (read RL money) and ‘help’ you excel in your daily tasks and fighting. Previously, we only had boosters for training, which was OK. With the introduction of V2, there came boosters for work, library, residential district, etc. Not to mention the battle boosters, which gave you an offensive or defensive edge over your opponents. And, just like that, this game began its descent into the pay-to-win underworld (and it's still going down, to this day).


Studying boosters. Just some of MANY.

So what did the players do? They complained. And complained, and complained. And eventually, they broke V2. Admins and eRepublik Labs gave in to the pressure and slowly started dismantling eRepublik Rising, which didn’t last even four full months. And so, by adding/removing/revamping features, we got the version of eRepublik we’re playing today (V42, I don’t know, maybe?). Now, we have this eRepublik, a shadow of its former self, trying to reclaim its lost glory. However, it will never be the same.

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Until next time. Stay strong! o7