Join the new world

For Part 1 see here

In the Middle Ages, the player base grew quickly and many improvements were made in the game. Weapons grew to Q4 & Q5 and an active market grew for them.

Weapons from the Middle Ages

Most were mele weapons which required the players to engage at close range. But defensively, the game allowed castles and walls to be built which had the effect of negating mele weapons. Entire nations grew around defensive perimeters like the eGreat eWall of eChina, the wall that protected Constantinople, and castles of the Holy eRoman Empire Alliance. Sure one could attack a fortress with a Q5 sword, but Experience Points slowed to a crawl as it took several hours to get anywhere.

Rare historical footage of players with Q5 weapons futilely attacking a defensive fortification that is so indifferent it is having a barbecue

Most of the time, the fortifications prevented battles from even starting due to their game-breaking nature

Two players armed with Q5s walk away dejectedly from a defensive fortification. They feel repressed by the system

In the first of many game-wrecking decisions, the elites introduced a new weapon made from several other weapons


How does that even work, some sort of alchemy?

But work it did. The captapult (and the three-star siege weapon, the trebuchet) made quick work of walled fortifications.

Witness the power of this fully armed and operational group of trebuchets

Countries and alliances had to pivot from defense to offense as their previous defensive stance proved untenable.

The next major game break happened when gun powder entered the game. The Q1-Q5 weapon icons were replaced by firearms. Experience point racing was still a niche activity practiced by only a few. Advances in the game outpaced those joining races.

Soon, eRepublik saw war between alliances as the eFrench Empire alliance faced off against the Coalition, a group of anti-French nations in a long-running war. Players at the time gathered in markets, hotel lobbies and other venues to play eRep with wooden figurines. Many players started to paint their pieces in similar colors and the Military Unit came into being in-game.

The friendless and the unloved gather together in the 69th Regular Coalition Sappers, a tradition that continues today

Another tradition that arose was groups of players that would hide during a round only to emerge right before victory and claim they were the hero of a battle.

The game entered into a stable period with little changes by the Admins for decades. The player based slowly eroded as the same battles were fought and refought even with two eWorld-wide alliance fights in the early to mid-1900s. The weekly challenges were monthly at this time and they just repeated the same ones each and every month. I mean, honestly, can you imagine such a thing?

During the 1940s, eRepublik developed a mixed air-land battle mode to encourage players to develop both theaters evenly. They advertised heavily to the youth market through comics graphic novels.

No fair! You have a Q3 weapon and I only have a Q2

Alas, Theater Mode only happened once every six rounds and ground players nearly always won so eRep discontinued the mode within a year after starting.

The Admins tried to encourage more Experience Level Racing, even as people found themselves with fewer gold because of all the battles happening around the eWorld and the constant need to buy weapons.

Pile up them XPs, boys!


After the 1950s, the game slowly made changes that drove more Experience Level Races. While the dice game was being phased out, dice-based Experience Level Racing still was quite popular.

Gosh Sally, that's one more experience point for me

Another "innovation" was the guerilla fight which became popular for a short period in the 1950-60s.

NOT the Village People. Well, kind of. Different Village. And far more lethal.

A wave swept through eRep creating new eCountries as guerilla fights proved popular for a period. The lack of Experience Level Racers engaging in guerilla fights lead to a decline in interest. Many players forget guerilla fights still are in use.

Innovating once more, eRep saw one of the first uses of computers to simplify Experience Level Racing.

Wilson, check the printout, we may have leveled up.
That makes three this year, sir. This calls for a scotch

Eventually the home computer revolution pushed eRep online

And Experience Level Racing became the exciting adventure it is today.

Not all attempts to make eRep always available were as successful, however.

Short-lived Gameboy Color game was poorly-received and never quite finished. Can't say the same about the eRep mobile version (available for Android, iOS, and PalmOS), though!




--End of Part Two. ---

On the back of this historical weight, two players join in the ancient art of the Experience Level Race
TemujinBC - still uses a TRS-80 hooked to a 19" tube TV
Wilhem Klink - has a secret Pop-O-Matic

The winner is the first to add 100 experience levels to their profile. Said winner gets to lord it over the loser, confident in their superiority as evidenced in an dizzyingly pointless 15-year old browser-based game that has a market for Q1 moving tickets despite them not being produced or given away for 9 years

And loser has to donate 100,000 200,000cc for enhanced payouts to the Hot Air Program (a program the entirety of eCanada loves - even those with working trebuchets).


The Starting point of this historic epic



Where the players stand after 13 long weeks




The Big chart

Temu goes up nine levels, Klink goes up six. The lead falls to 15


A running graph for your muzzle loader


New Chart! Levels per week



Lets do a Zoolander mood check
Klink


Tem