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For several players this will no doubt be too much to read. For them I provide a summary first. People (and hopefully Admins) that want to know more I urge to read the explanatory part as well.

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First the summary

Since several updates the total energy storage a player could have has become way to low. We started this game with 500 Total Energy Storage (TES) which soon was updated to 650 TES by active players. As energy recovery (ER) was limited to 100 per hour that would mean 6½ hours of possible absence without losing energy or a potential loss of resource usage.

With the weekly challenge we got extra ER, but no extra storage. And with the possible purchase of the Power pack you got even more ER and a limited extra energy storage of 200. Those combined, the active (gold buying) players have 400 ER/h but only 850 TES. Therefore only 2¼ hour of absence is possible without losing energy and the loss of resource usage that comes with it.

Furthermore I suspect the Sugar Rush or a variant thereof to become standard in the game making it even worse.

I therefore urge Admins to make the following changes;
- Change the value of the current Energy Center 50 players (could have) bought for 99 gold in an Energy Center 250 at the same price
- Change the value of the current Energy Center 100 players (could have) bought for 199 gold in Energy Center 500 at the same price
- Introduce an Energy Center 1000 costing 399 gold
- Change the value of the Energy Center one gets with the Power Pack in a 500 one

As a result of this players with 400 ER/h will have a TES of 1,750 (standard 500, EC250, EC500, Power pack) and now have a possible absence of 4⅜ hours. That’s still not the 6½ we started with but they will have the option of buying an EC1000 as extra which would give them 2,750 storage and therefore a possible absence of 6⅞.

Implementing this will boost activity and also resource usage as players can fight more and therefore use more weapons and food. Therefore also the economy will receive a boost and will not need a silly "boost the economy days" as we had a few weeks back which felt like a punishment to most. Instead it will be a structural solution.

This concludes the summary. Thanks for reading. Some more suggestions will be done in the explanatory part below. If you like it so far; Please vote and shout so Admins take notice and hopefully implement the changes!

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The explanatory part

The energy storage basics
If you are, like me, playing this game for some years now you have noticed the changes when it comes recovering energy and the storage thereof. You most likely have been starting with a standard 10 energy per 6 minutes recovery or 100 energy per hour. As I will mostly use hours in this article I’ll refer to that as 100 ER/h. Also the standard Total Energy Storage (TES) one could have would reach 500 soon. The older active players will no doubt have bought the extra energy centers and by doing so have reached 650 TES. The younger ones most likely focused on their Training Grounds first but will possibly have bought them as well during the 7th anniversary promotion.

So the bases was 100 ER/h with a 650 TES which is enough to provide a players with a 6½ hours possible game pause in which he (or she ofc but for readability I’ll use he) can sleep, work or enjoy RL without losing energy. Loosing health was an issue back in the somewhat older days for everyone when we didn’t have divisions as you wanted to rank fast to do more damage.

After introducing divisions
Nowadays, with divisions in play, the majority off D1 players and partly D2-3 players will use only a fraction of the energy available since it’s important they focus on training first.

This is something that makes the game boring to starting players and has, among others, a devastating effect on the economy of eRep. How so? Every healthy economy is based on a balance between production and demand. If there is more demand than there is production prices will rise and vice versa. So due to the fact the majority of the lower level players will mainly train they hardly demand supply which helped prices to drop. The economy in eRepublik works fine, despite what several players state. It’s a simple matter of between production and demand and it’s the balance between both that’s broke. That cannot be compensated enough by the older player base. There are several reasons for that. I’ll focus on one aspect as leaving players or players that are only politically active will have no effect.
And implementing my proposed changes will likely help reduce the number of players leaving that wanted to focus on the economy part as well. It is NO direct solution for the younger players that still need to focus on training. But perhaps when the economy gets boosted they can be active on the markets and have a less boring start due to which the percentage of players that stays could increase as a result.

Limitations in activity and therefore resource usage
To keep the fighting player base in the game we need to give them more possibilities to fight as is clearly visible during large tournaments. Players want to fight more but are limited by the amount of health they have. Not only because they don’t regain enough energy (although to some it will never be enough) but also due to the lack of storage capacity in the Energy Centers. As I explained above the TES is up to 650 health which normally would be enough to have 6½ hours absence to sleep for instance. Should one sleep 8 hours, 150 health (equal to 1½Q7 tank and 15Q5 food consumption) is lost. That seems a shame but not that much of a problem. We have to keep in mind however that’s per player per night and assuming they can play during the day and not lose more health while working or attending school. Looking at in-game data it’s suggested we roughly have 95,000 active players. I estimate at least 5,000 of them are players that are limited in their energy storage capacity and therefore limited in resource usage. In that case a potential 7,500Q7 tanks and 75,000Q5 food consumption is lost per day.

That already sounds as an awful lot but I estimate it’s only a fraction of the available resources in-game. Looking at food alone my spare resources are higher already so no big deal yet.
On a side note; It would be very interesting to see that kind of data which I’m sure Admins are able to see or are able to build queries on. I for one would love to analyze that kind of data so you can adapt the game. Daily resource production and usage date over a period of time tells you everything you need to know.

Changes by Admins
To help players be able to be more active and likely also with restoring the balance between production and demand in mind the Admins provided us with several changes that gave us more energy. Personally I like that a lot as I can do more and the risk of getting bored is less. And it’s clear it could help the economy as well as was visible during tournaments in which energy recovery reached amounts of 1,000/h. In those times prices rose while without tournaments they are declining further constantly. One of the changes that made it worse was the removal of the bot buying resources of course. I won’t say it has to return, but it sure helped keep prices somewhat higher and one could play on the markets to make a profit on goods.

Introduced issue by these changes
There is however one big issue that has been strengthened by doing so and that’s the amount of energy one can store. The TES stayed at 650 and therefore does not provide us with a 6½ hours break possibility without losing health.

Let’s do a little math/explanation;
A while back weekly challenges were introduced that gives active players an extra 100 ER/h very soon (WC ER1 at 500 prestige) and as a result they have 200 ER/h soon. With the TES that means your energy center is fully filled after 3¼ hours. Sleeping 8 hours now means loosing 950 health, or 9½Q7 tank and 95Q5 food. Per player per night! Although the weekly challenge provides extra milestones where even more extra ER is recovered I leave them out for the moment.

Also the Power Pack was introduced that gave players an extra 200/h but only an extra 200 Energy Storage. Therefore one reaches 400 ER/h with a new TES of 850 which will be completely filled after 2⅛ hours. Sleeping 8 hours now means loosing 2,350 health which equals 23.5Q7 tanks and 235Q5 food. Per player per night of course and therefore its becoming a really serious amount of resources not consumed. With the 5,000 players mentioned earlier that would mean 117,500Q7 tanks and 1,175,000Q5 food. Per day! Note I’m working with an estimated average here. Of the 5,000 players I use some will have less losses as they sleep only 6 hours. Others however will lose way more because they reached much higher ER. If you look at our top hitters several of them will have reached next steps in ER in the Weekly Challenge. Someone having reached all possible ER bonuses will be at 900 ER/h and therefore lose 6,350 energy or 63.5Q7 weapons and 635Q5 food when sleeping 8 hours.

In the table below I show the combinations of TES and ER in several stages of the game.
Let me explain what you will see first; The first two columns represent the Energy Centers one can have. Given are the capacity and name I use for them. Base being the default 500 one has after leveling a few times, EC50 and EC100 the two current Energy Centers one can buy and PP200 the Energy Center one receives when buying the Power Pack. At the top you see the several stages a player can be in. Standard being the 100 ER/h all players will have, WC ER 1 being the added 100 ER/h from the first Weekly Challenge recovery bonus adding up to 200 ER/h. The Power Pack adds another 200 ER/h. Perhaps a bit optimistic, but I also added the Sugar Rush bonus as I suspect it to be there more often albeit under another name or even a permanent implementation and to be complete the next steps of ER bonuses from the Weekly Challenge as well. Of course we can debate on whether one reaches the Sugar Rush status first in stead of buying a Power Pack but you get the idea.

With the light yellow background you’ll find the amount of hours worth of Energy Storage an Energy Center building represents at a certain stage. For instance if you look at the row PP200 and column Power Pack you’ll see the total ER at that point is 400 so the PP200 Energy Storage will be full after a ½ hour. Also the total amount of hours that can be stored by someone having the base Energy Center, plus the EC50 and EC100 and the PP200 will be 2⅛ (2.125) hours. Underneath this table you’ll also find a section that gives an indication of the lost health and resource usage of a player that is absent from the game for 8 hours in a row but able to use all the energy the rest of the day. Using the same column as above you’ll see a player with the Power Pack and the WC ER 1 rewarded will lose 5⅞ hours which equals 235Q7 weapons and 2,350Q5 food.


To visualize I also made a graph of this info. You’ll find the amount of hours storage capacity per type of storage stacked per stage a player is in. In the graph below for instance you’ll see for a player with standard energy recovery the Base storage of 500 is valued at 5 hours and the EC50 and EC100 on a ½ and 1 hour totaling 6½ hours.


Some people will say; We have houses to provide players with the storage they need. That’s only very partly true. To show this I made the same table and graph with all houses activated;




So it’s clear something has to be done with the capacity of the energy storages so (fighting) activity will be boosted structurally and the economy will be boosted as a side effect.

Proposed changes
As a reference I will look at the 6½ hours absence one could have with the two Energy Centers one can buy. Of course this could be increased further up to a point where it would be enough to store a whole days worth of restoration for the players that log on only once a day but I think for starters 6½ is just fine. And as you will see the side effect will be that it will be possible for players logging on less often a day to use more energy as well. Boosting their options fighting a bit as well as resource usage.

To reach the 6½ hours storage mark we could walk the easy path and just increase the base energy center from 500 to 2,000 or so. But we all know gold needs to be spend so players will buy gold to keep funding Plato. Nothing wrong with that so I left the base the same. Instead I think the value of the Energy Centers one can buy has devaluated too much. 50 energy storage extra costs 99 gold and 100 extra storage 199 gold. Having reached 400 ER/h that’s 7½ and 15 minutes of extra capacity which is a laughable amount. So the first thing that needs to be done is increasing the value of the EC50 and EC100. I propose to change them to 250 and 500 so the extra amount of energy to be stored values 37½ and 75 minutes which is a bit more than the time they originally gave you. But as I suspect the Sugar Rush will soon be implemented as a permanent activity booster active players will reach 500/h and the EC250 and EC500 will than equal the original time again.

Should this be implemented we’re not there yet. Having a new TES of 1,450 (Base 500, EC250, EC500 and the EC200 from the power pack) one would only have 3⅝ hours possible absence so more has to be done. First let’s have a look at the Power pack. That provides us with 200/h energy regeneration while only providing us with a EC200, or 1 hour, of extra storage. That’s not enough by far so that needs to be increased. To not harm the 6½ hours goal one could argue the EC needs to be 1,300 but that would be to easy and not rewarding to Plato as you’ll see in a bit. I therefore suggest an increase to at least 500, but 750 could also be a nice amount. I’ll do the math with 500 however; We now have reached 1,750 energy equaling 4⅜ hours worth of storage.

So we’re still not there yet. To cope with that I propose the introduction of a new Energy Center that can be bought valued at 1,000 energy at a price of 399 gold. That way the active player can buy the needed extra capacity and Plato is likely to get some extra income as well.

With that EC1000 added, the new TES would reach 2,750 which means a possible absence of 6⅞ hours. That’s a bit more than the original 6½ hours, but hey; Players spend 399 extra gold to reach it!

Looking a bit further
Looking a bit further at a structurally introduced Sugar Rush now. With that implemented one would reach 500 ER/h. That would put us back to 5½ hours TES again. When reaching the Sugar Rush bonus I therefore suggest it will be accompanied by an EC500 so the TES reaches 3,250 being exactly 6½ hours again.

I made a table and graph again which you find below with the proposed new values and the new EC1000. As you’ll notice I didn’t calculate the EC1000 for players only having standard or WC ER 1 status as I find it unlikely they will buy it so you’ll find it starting with players having Power Pack status. The proposed permanent introduction of Sugar Rush bonus I included as well;




If you add the possible use of Houses the table and graph will look like this;




The weekly challenge provides players with extra ER at certain points on the prestige score as mentioned above. Currently there are 4 extra moments in which the ER is increased with 100/h (WC ER 2-5). Of course giving an extra 650EC each time would keep the total potential absence at 6½ hours. But unless the way houses work is changed I think that shouldn't be done so houses will be used albeit I find them way too expensive for what they provide you with. Therefore as an option they could be changed as well to boost activity and economy further by making all houses provide you with ER as well as TES but don’t provide the option to work overtime anymore as that only causes extra production. The extra ER from the weekly challenges would then need to be accompanied by TES increases as well to prevent energy to be lost if being absent for over 6½ hours. But those are issues for the future I’d say. Let’s start with the main changes I proposed;
- Change the value of the current Energy Center 50 players (could have) bought for 99 gold in an Energy Center 250 at the same price
- Change the value of the current Energy Center 100 players (could have) bought for 199 gold in Energy Center 500 at the same price
- Introduce an Energy Center 1000 costing 399 gold
- Change the value of the Energy Center one gets with the Power Pack in a 500 one
As an extra I suggest making the Sugar Rush a permanent addition with an accompanying EC500 that’s active only if the extra ER of the Sugar Rush is active.
To make it clear what EC buildings one has I suggest the EC’s being recognizable in the advanced buildings section so one can see the difference between the Power Pack EC500 and Sugar Rush EC500.

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Economical Boost

Extra resource usage by the big hitters
As I showed in the tables above, implementing changed EC buildings and introducing an extra one will enable players to fight more. Therefore extra resources will be used. Looking at the highest active player base I think it’s safe to assume on average they will have a 400 ER/h. Also it’s likely on average they will be off for 8 hours during the night or perhaps while working. Some will hardly miss an hour others will be sleeping and working. As was visible in the first table a player with 400 ER/h being off 8 hours loses 5⅝ hours of ER which is equal to 2,350 energy or the use of 23.5 Q7 weapons and 235Q5 food.
In the third table, after implementing the changes in the bought EC’s and adding the EC1000 you’ll notice a player at the same stage only loses 1⅛ hours of ER which is equal to 450 energy or the use of 4.5Q7 weapons and 45Q5 food. The difference in resource usage would be 19Q7 weapons and 190Q5 food. With the earlier mentioned expected 5,000 players that are affected that would mean the extra usage of 95,000Q7 weapons and 950,000Q5 food per day. I think that’s likely to cause the balance of production and demand to shift.

Extra resource usage by the occasional hitters
Besides these big hitters we also have players that are able to logon only a few times a day and therefore only fight occasionally. After implementing the proposed changes these players will have more energy the moments they are able to logon as they will not be limited to the 650 anymore and therefore are able to hit more and also provide an extra usage of resources. A player able to log on twice a day will now be limited somewhere between 500 TES and 650 TES per occasion. With the proposed changes this player will have the upper limit extended to 1,250 and therefore be able to use up to 1,100 energy (11Q7 weapons and 110Q5 food) a day more. Note; logging on twice would mean a max energy storage of 1,300. As these players likely have the standard ER most of the week they will be limited by the standard ER per day of 2,400 and therefore only use 1,100 more as a maximum. These players will likely add an extra amount to the resources used but doing the math on that is hard as it’s hard to tell how many players are affected. But I’m sure Admins can figure that out using the right queries on the eRep databases.

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If you made it this far; First of all thanks for sticking with me. And if you like the suggestions; Please vote and shout! It’s hard to imagine Admins not being willing to implement the suggestions as it will almost certainly boost activity, boost the economy and boost Admins income. So let’s make sure it gets their attention!

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Weekstrom