[DC] New rules implementation

Day 3,578, 09:33 • Published in USA Croatia • by Nikola barun Jurisic


How are ya all?,
It took Plato several years and lots of community members quitting to realize something isn't just right about the game in general. I believe that those who played v1 of Erepublik found new versions extremely bad, the game itself tried to go with the gaming trends in world, but it failed miserably for one obvious reasons.

Erepublik had something other games could never have - a base of players who aren't really gaming material. Sure, most of us do play some other games, but Erepublik was actually something special. The communities were in charge of the game while the game only offered mechanics under communities can grow, organize themseves and have fails or success.





Go with the flow


We had a great game in v1, but the game started to change. There were some good updates, but most of them led to transformation of Erepublik to pay2win game. Of course that developers wanted to make more money and that's understandable, but in their greed they've done the opposite effect. Many people who have been here for the communities left the game.

In earlier versions of Erepublik the community was the key. Having 300 people online in the same time in organized striked was seen as a huge competitive strength compared to others. Soldiers were mostly equally developed so having few more tanks did help, but not remotely close as it helps now. You couldn't sell packs to set CO's so one person couldn't change the outcome of the game. It was the community which had to do the effort to make money for the country, it was community which had to organize themselves into fighting machine to defeat the enemy. Nowadays, one person can change it all and it makes the game less interesting for the others.

Plato went with the trends, developers made the game look like all the other app games you can play online, they cared too much for design and they completely forgot the main core of this game - communities. After several brutal fails in v2 and even v3 communities adopted the directions Plato gave them. Players started to play much more individually than in v1 and it led to the current state in which there's not many people on Discord / IRC servers simply because there's no need for it anymore. And that part used to be the most important part. There were saying: "Battles are being won on the battlefield, but the wars are won on IRC".

That's just how important communities were. When you have tons of people on the same place ideas are flowing, people are having fun and meeting each others. They could talk a lot about the game because they could make the change by organizing themselves.





Back to the future!


I tried to quit the game several times myself and I know that a lot of others did that too. I'm not very proud of all the things I've been doing in this game, but it's probably what kept me here, playing this game, hoping it will change to what it was once. I believe that day when things are starting to look better has finally come.

Yeah, I know I might be the only one who says that, but the recent changes made by Plato has made me think so, I'll explain the meaning of the "Deploying Allied Forces" changes later, but it's not just that. Plato has introduced cities, local governments, local tax. There's Plato foundation which rewards good ideas and well-thought plans by individuals, there are changes in Military Units that makes me think which way developers are trying to go. And by looking the wider picture it all goes to the one goal - bringing back the game to what it was - community based strategy. The limitation of MPP's allowed to be used in a battle is just one step towards it and I'll explain what makes me think so later.

It's obvious that Plato became worried about massive quittings from the game, while the profits are growing he can't expect that to continue if there's nothing to play for and let's face it - most of us are here for the communities. The game itself takes 5 clicks to end per day, but it expands massively through community aspect of the game. I can't remember of any other game of this type which attracted so many people. Developers have something no one else has and something which is very hard to copy (proved in other games which tried to copy erepublik).




Bringing the power back to community


Yesterday, Plato has announced the biggest change in recent times if you ask me. It's going the change the whole way of military strategies. It will make alliance change and it's going to create much more battle fronts than we had so far.

Before reading my opinion of it I'd suggest you to read TheJuliusCaesar's article on this topic. He pointed out many important changes this update is going to cause so I'm just going to extend it further.

"Starting day 3,579, military leaders (country presidents, dictators, prime ministers and defense ministers) will be able to choose the allies they wish to deploy in battles. Only by deploying an army will its soldiers be able to fight from their homeland, without the need to travel to the theater of war (as previously all the soldiers located in a country with a valid MPP were able to).

As financing a military campaign is an expensive undertaking, only forces amounting to 15% of the total military power of the world can be deployed for a battle and benefit from the fight from homeland advantage (the power of the country directly involved in the battle included)."

So what this means in reality?

A country which fights in the battle can only have 15% of world's damage on their side now. The country itself is being counted in those 15%, so it means that if Serbia fights and Serbia for example has 6% of world's damage they can add only 9% more. Firstly, I don't think that the country which fights directly should be included in those 15% simply because it's not fair to them. People has been working hard for that country to make it strong and it would be fair if the country itself isn't included, so for example Serbia would be able to add another 15% and use it's power as advantage. However, Plato doesn't think so.

This means that country involved in a fight will have to come up with a strategy to win their battle, they'll have to animate their allies and make them fight in exact time they need them. After each round, they can switch the countries who are allowed to fight for them.

Example: USA has the battle against Canada
Round 1: USA picks Romania and Greece as their allies (or any oher as long as they're within 15% damage). Canada chose Serbia and Croatia as their allies. The first round will be USA, Greece and Romania vs. Canada, Serbia and Croatia. Now, it all sounds pretty similar to what we have now, just with smaller numbers. But, in case USA organize their allies to fight coordinated exactly in the first round, use their potetial to win that round and deploy some other fresh allies in the Round 2 we will have maximum effect in the battle.

This leads to conclusion that the earlier mentioned coordinated strikes will be the main competitive stregth of the countries. If Greece would be able to come up with coordinated strike in round they're needed in, spend all their health in helping an ally they're definitly going to be the desired ally to have.

If USA could make a strategy and use other country's coordinated strikes and distribute those strikes all across the battle then USA is going to win, they would maximise the effect of coordinated strike and use it to win the round. Basicly, coordinated strikes are coming back! And it was coordinated strikes which made the whole countries function in v1.





An effect on alliances


Alliances are going to lose its meaning in the shape they are now. There will be no need for having huge alliance which would be focused on many different battles since those battles will include only several countries which can be deployed in the same time.

Smaller alliances are going to show up, probably having just 5-6 members who would switch through the rounds. So, for example an alliance with USA, Greece, Romania, Croatia, Serbia and Bulgaria would be enough as probably 3 of those countries are going to fill the 15% cap. Three of them fighting in round 1 through coordinated strike and then switching to the other three in the round 2 would give the others enough time to refill their strength. Big alliances won't be able to cope with the new changes simply because they'd have too many fronts.

So, my expectation is that, depending on country's size new alliance will be formed with only several members included. Those members would have to be able to organize coordinated strikes and come up with the winning strategy during the battle.

Mobile troops (something I haven't heard from v1) will get much bigger meaning as they are gonna be able to avoid the rule by moving to the country of their preference which means moving ticket prices are gonna go up as well as the importance of those MU's which can make their troops move to fight. I see the opportunity for the small countries to contribute in this way.





Bringing back the balance


We're all witnessing the strong one sided advantage nowadays. Pacifica + Asteria has become too strong to fight with for any opposition. With the coming changes in which you can expect direct battles to be very balanced there will be no room for one sided alliances.

For example if Croatia and Serbia would have direct battle only 15% of world damage can fight on each side. It's going to be 15% vs 15% which means that those who are organized better will win the battle. Serbia can have much stronger country and much more allies, but they can only deploy 15%, same as Croatia. Having that on mind, internal organization and coordination with those 15% you're deploying in your battle will mean MUCH more than having big alliance and lots of MPP's.

This Plato's idea will return some balance to the game and make organization much more important and that's the reason I especially like this change. Things might finally start being a little bit more interesting, regardless of your side.

There are few more things the change will affect, but I think I've covered the most important ones. Don't forget that those who adopt to the changes first are going to be the game winners for a while. And now, finally, everyone have to chance to start from the scratch, as a community.

The last thing Plato will have to work on is giving the same opportunity to individuals as those richer will still be able to set CO's, those who joined the game later will still struggle to keep up with the older players, which makes baby boom ideas dead. And all the countries finally have some fun to offer to the new players, if only the new players would be able to take part in all of this.
All in all, love the changes!

If you'd like to shout:

How the new rules are going the change the whole dynamic of the game:

erepublik.com/en/article/2650165

...By Don Croata...





Yours,
Don Croata