Join the new world

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Greetings all,

As I was clicking around this morning I came across the article Plato talks, an interview with "Plato" (aka prolly George or Belea or Xtas). It's worth reading in full, but a few major things are notable so I'd like to discuss them.

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First, quickly:

11. What's the next rank after "God of War"?

There's no new rank. We have other game mechanics ideas after that point. A glimpse of what's to come is this mission:
http://wiki.erepublik.com/index.php?title=Missions#Mission_29:_Your_mission


I saw articles talking about this mission over the last few days. I thought they were joke articles. Maybe they originally were and the admins liked it and added the mission. At any rate, it's kind of cool



^ the special profile icon for finishing the mission

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Ok, the important one:

13. Any BIG future plans? What's the next direction, of which the game will start move?

We have BIG plans for military units - as the central core game play element. Almost all the elements of the New World will evolve around them.


This is very interesting. It isn't exactly a surprise if you have been following the progression of things over the last 6 to 10 months (slow removal of many stats/lists, focus on "in game" battle coordination, obstruction of mass messaging techniques, addition of "land" and increased focus on self-sufficiency). But it is notable for the "BIG" focus that the admins state will come- that eRep will eventually "evolve around them" which may very well be a typo and mean "revolve" but even if not it means MUs will be a big part of daily eRep life moving into the future.

What does this mean on a personal level?

Well, first off, whenever the admins want to change the way citizens act in the long term the admins tend to use "missions" to do so. Today, new missions for joining and becoming members of MUs popped up. There will be an immediate surge of MU joining in the next few days. And this is a sign that many more missions or bonuses of this kind will be coming.

So join one! But (if you are in the eUS) be careful about which you join.

The eUS has no official "Civilian MU" as some other countries have already set up. We have a few MUs that I would recommend for young citizens: Boot Camp, US Training Corps, and Seal Team Six. There are a few that are good for people that have been playing for at least a month like: Ultramarines, United States Army, US ARMY (Yes, there is a difference between the two of those. Yes, it is a bit silly but we love each other all the same), and the SFP Bear Calvary. And there are some good for people with over 2000 or 3000 strength like: The Special Forces, US Marine Corps, and Seal Team Six (again) and Ultramarines (again).

There are plenty more! But there is no "full" list anywhere that I'm aware of (please comment one if there is), so that is just a primer of the landscape.

One thing to keep in mind is that all of the above are "organized" fighting groups. This means they have semi-strict procedures and requirements for being a member. This can be anything from joining a forum or getting a fun new avatar to more immersive things like getting on IRC a bit each day, requesting supplies, moving around the globe for special battles, and replying in a timely manner to activity checks. These groups are great for citizens that someday would like to be in charge of a unit of soldiers, whether it be commander of a small division or (someday) General of an entire fighting force.

There are other options!

I can't speak of other groups, because they are a bit scattered and not much is known about each group, but there are MUs for players that don't want to join an "organized" group.

I've set one up recently. The only goal of the group is to give citizens an MU to be able to gain a free energy bar each and every day. There are no prerequisites to join other than those set automatically by eRep (must be Sergeant level to join an MU and defeat 25 enemies in battle).

The groups is called A N O N Y M O U S and it is the largest MU in the eUS at the moment. All are welcome, so if you want to join a relaxed MU either temporarily or for the long term, come and join. It is a good place for new and eager citizens to begin their journey and learn how to fight (and to learn to remember to log in each day!) before deciding which organized group is the best fit for expanding their eRep experience.

What does this mean on a national level?

The eUS is behind the curve (sort of) on things, first of all. Several large nations already have set up civilian MUs. Serbia and Brazil have large groups. Romania does too, and so do many other large countries.

The "sort of" is because, as stated above, A N O N Y M O U S has grown over the last 2 or 3 days to be a sort of pseudo eUS civilian MU, with about 175 eUS citizens now in an MU that were not in an MU a week ago. That's a lot of free energy bars and extra damage! Hopefully we'll see a boost on the battlefield.

The question the eUS (and all nations) need to ask themselves is what is the best way of things moving forward? Centralization or decentralization? No civilian MU? An MU just for civilians? An über-MU consisting of both civilians and the "official" military of a nation? Big MUs can direct a ton of damage to particular battles by using the free energy bar incentive.

I tend to think that centralization is the way to go, but there will always be the problem of if you have 500 citizens in one MU and the battle order is set to a particular battle you might have WAY too much damage going to one battle and will risk losing other battles. With decentralized MUs there is the ability to have all set different orders and "out flank" the enemy. It is a complicated decision to make, but it is also one that should be made quickly as changes are coming rapidly lately.

What is the future of MUs?

I don't know. But here are some guesses.

It has always been rumored/desired that MUs will have storage capabilities, so that weapon distribution (and tracking of that) could happen via game mechanics rather than off-site. This would be very cool, but it would also be complicated. I'd give it a 75% chance of eventually being implemented.

I definitely believe that the social structures of MUs will be developed. There will be more leadership positions probably, and there should be a page to show the full leadership (Commander, 2nds, and all Captains) so it can be seen all at once.

There will probably be "MU" missions, only visible on the MU page. These could require cooperation between all members like "Move at least 20 members to a foreign country and get at least 500 kills combined in a resistance war in that country" or "help 10 members rank up" or "donate 100 weapons combined to the MU storage". Stuff like that. The point is: there will definitely be bonuses/advantages to being in a Military Unit.

Long ago it was rumored/proposed that moving tickets be replaced with deployment via MUs and that MUs would have Q levels and be upgradeable. So a Q1 MU maybe could deploy 10 soldiers and Q5 maybe 500 or something and you would have to be a member of a military unit to deploy to a foreign country (or maybe, to deploy for free instead of paying for a ticket). It's a neat idea. Not sure if it will ever be implemented in any way, but I do believe that someday the moving system will be overhauled, because the "Zone" system is still very nonsensical.

Lastly, something small: hopefully MUs will be able to organize their regiments (and change the regiment names) manually. Right now you can't move soldiers around. They are placed automatically based on when they join. If this can be changed around then you could have training regiments and super-tank regiments and so on and give incentive for members to rank up and move up in regiments within the MU.

Conclusion

- Join an MU!
- Be smart about joining. Don't join the Marines or Special Forces if you are a new citizen. They will probably help you find a more suitable MU, but you will not be able to stick around and you will be lost in the shuffle and confused for a few days. Seek out non-organized MUs or ones specifically designed for new citizens (Boot Camp or USTC).
- Always eat your cereal
- Send PMs to jerseygirldani letting her know how awesome she is
- Get ready for an MU-centric world. To be honest, I'm excited about it. It will not be a complete paradigm shift, but it will be a new way to approach the game that will hopefully be fun for new citizens and fresh for the old folk.


All the best and I look forward to your comments,
CRoy/The Libertine