Resource Wars II - The pointy end

Day 3,142, 23:24 • Published in USA Canada • by Ilene Dover




It’s been awhile since eRepublik announced the Second Resource Wars, and a new industry to go with it. After the game community spent much of May staying up way too late, neglecting their children and/or final exam preparation, goofing off at work and eating too many Doritos while hunched in front of IRC we were greeted with this resounding announcement.


... However, note that even though officially, Day 3,121 is the last day of the Resource Wars, the new resources will not populate the map yet.

The current resources together with the current economy will remain in place for the time being. The post Resource Wars updates will be launched step by step, as one change triggers another.


If you were excited at the changing game and added complexity that was promised (like yours truly), then that announcement had the sadly-familiar feeling of disappointment. The more things change, the more they stay the same...


So, with a tingle of the old excitement I clicked on that big red balloon a few days. Things are finally changing! If you haven’t yet, go have a read of the first post in the forum thread here. Ignore everything after the first page - as far as I can tell it’s mostly just complaining and/or questions specific to the asking individual.




Was that forum post too long, and you didn’t read it? Here’s the executive summary. It’s also too long, but this change is complicated. You’re going to get one shot at it, so stop whining and read at least this article before you click on Day 3145.


Your companies (that means factories, farms and mines) must be allocated to a Holding Company if you want to use them. A Holding Company is A New Thing that resembles An Old Thing called an Organisation. Your companies (factories/farms/mines) can be moved between Holding Companies, but this is expensive and shouldn’t be done without a good reason.


You get one Holding Company for free. Each one after that costs 25 gold more than the one before (the second costs 25 gold, the third costs 50 gold etc.). Holding Companies can’t be bought, sold, moved or disbanded so don’t rush off and do something foolish with your freebie.


A Holding Company is tied to a specific region. All companies (factory/farm/mine) that are in a Holding Company use the bonuses and penalties that belong to that region. And here’s where things get fun.


The productivity for a company (factory/farm/mine) will be:

100% (the “sticker production” of 100 units for a food factory, 10 units for a weapon factory etc).

plus

The national bonus of the country that owns the region (this is a maximum of 100% and functionally the same as it is now). The old “must have a route to the capital” thing is still in effect.

plus

One fifth of the region bonus (the best region bonus is 90% making this a maximum of 18😵.

plus

MasterCard effects (aka the Tycoon pack).

minus

Pollution effects (which are capped at 25😵



So, pollution. What’s up with that?

The game admins refuse to disclose the formulae used to calculate the pollution effect. That’s entirely in their rights - it will probably be a few days before someone (or someones) can work out an empirical correlation.


Pollution will increase based on the “number of works” [sic] that occurred in the region the previous game day. The more industry operating in a region the more polluted it is. So far so good, and that makes sense, right?



Here’s the curveball. Pollution is specific to the product produced. A Q7 weapons factory will not pollute the production of a Q1 food factory, or a rubber plantation (Q5 WRM), or a Q2 house factory, or even a Q6 weapons factory. It will only count for other Q7 weapons factories in the region. Huh, didn’t see that one coming…




I’m tired of reading Ilene, and my head hurts from all the letters and numbers. Just tell me what it means and what to do already…



Establish your free Holding Company somewhere with a good national bonus (like the eUSA). Any region in the country will get the full national bonus - even unloved places with no resources.


Picking a region with a large bonus set is not risk free. You can gain up to 18% extra production (compared to being in the middle of nowhere), but you may lose up to 7% production if the region is badly polluted. If you can afford to, don’t build a Holding Company on Day 3145 (you will lose a day’s production in your companies). This will give you a day’s worth of pollution data (although possibly misleading) to help decide with.


Most of us normal folk don’t need to build one Holding Company for Food (in D.C.), one Holding Company for Housing (in Florida) and one Holding Company for WRM (in Kentucky). You can put all your companies in one Holding Company and still get the full national bonus. Just remember it will cost lots of money to move them later.



Question: I want to build a magnetic stealth bomber out of Neodymium. Are aircraft and the new industry coming yet?