Join the new world

[First glance at v2]

So just today I have been granted access to the illustrious eRepublik v2 beta. For those of you who don’t yet have access, or haven’t signed up, here are some updates on what to look forward to once you get some v2 too! (And if you are also already testing the beta, after work party at my place! 😃)

The first thing that I noticed was that my wellness was at a wonderful 17.39, and my happiness (a new addition in v2) is also a very nice 10.33. I was born into the beta sickly and pissed off. But as my eyes drifted further south I saw that I had 100 gold! I figured my low wellness and happiness must have been due to a bug in the still brand new beta system; and when I checked my notifications, I found that I had been starving for many days. "Oh, well," thought I, for beta's will have bugs; and I still had 100 gold! So I set about exploring the new new world of eRepublik.


[Whois that pile of awesome?]

The first thing that I noticed to be dramatically different about v2 was the citizen profile screen. It's actually looking pretty good. It has all the new skills and stats displayed, and my avatar all blown up big. That screen-shot is officially a BAMF.

The second thing that has been updated is the "My Places" page. Instead of a drop-down tab with each place listed separately, an entirely new interactive module appears. It is split into "uptown" and "downtown" areas. In the uptown I found my company, training grounds, library and residential district areas. Heading downtown, I found my party, newspaper, country info center, chat rooms, organization and advertising agency areas. My overall first impression of the new places module was that it was pretty slick and well laid-out.


[Uptown/Downtown]

I decided to explore each area in the downtown province, and to my dismay each area has boosters available for a fee in gold. I am unhappy that the development team feels the need to increase demand for their virtual currency. It is quite obviously a ploy to get more players to pay for gold in order to work, train, learn, and rest each day. Using the maximum available boosters each day would cost a whopping 16.48 Gold. Being that I have 100 gold to throw around during beta testing, I am not yet particularly worried... but I certainly hope (and I'm fairly sure) that these are not going to be final values of these boosters. Also, Lana seems to have a few new friends. Each module contains a female guide to give you advice as well as take your hard earned (or paid for) golds. My favorite thus far is probably Lisa, because she was actually kind enough to introduce herself instead of screaming at me that my wellness is low and I need to pay gold for health. One thing that I think is really neat about these new places is the addition of a time slider. This allows you to spend more time doing one thing as opposed to another. There must be hundreds of ways to allot 24 hours between these four separate areas. I love the expansion of game play it provides, although it will take some getting used to. The downtown district seems to link to some of the same modules as V1, except for the advertising agency. There are not yet any advertisements to be seen on V2. Also, Organization pages appear to be in the update process.

[Company page]

[Training page]

[Library page]

[Leisure page]


Here are the current details of boosters in the beta for those who like to munch on statistics (these may be subject to change by v2 release):

Company:
Single Espresso- 0 G
Productivity +25%
Wellness -10%
Double Espresso- 0.48 G
Productivity +50%
Wellness -15%
Brainstorm- 0.98 G
Productivity +75%
Wellness -20%
After Work Party- 1.48 G
Productivity +100%
Wellness -25%
Training Grounds:
Army Boots- 1 G
Skill Level +100%
Boot Camp- 0 G
Skill Level +50%
Caesar's Battle Strategies- 1 G
Skill Level +150%
Napoleon's Battle Strategies- 1 G
Skill Level +200%
Library:
Crash Course Economics- 0 G
Skill Level +50%
Basic Economics- 1 G
Skill Level +100%
Keynesian Economics- 2 G
Skill Level +150%
Success Stories- 2 G
Skill Level +200%
Residential District:
Gym Session- 2 G
Happiness +7
Day at the Spa- 3 G
Happiness +10
(Requires 5 hours)
Bed- 12 G
Happiness +20
Cinema Ticket- 0 G
Happiness +5

For the most part these booster bonuses seem reasonable, but I am of the opinion that gold values need to be adjusted properly. It makes no sense for napoleon to cost the same as Caesar, or a bed to cost twelve friggin gold. If these were to stay the same as they are today, there would be no point in keeping Caesar around and people would sleep standing up. I know it’s only in the beta version, so I am looking forward to booster values being fairly adjusted. If maximum daily gold expenditure on activity boosters exceeds 5G I will likely be leaving the game. It would no longer be fair for those who do not spend inordinate amounts of money on fake in-game currency and cease to be a free game. If admins are so desperate to make more money they might as well make a pay to play game and abandon the thousands of players who enjoy their game daily. This transition from "free" to "fee" game play is already likely to alienate many players.

Moving from My Places to the marketplace, there are also some big changes. Items are now customizable to give different bonuses to different stats. Food now gives bonuses to both wellness and happiness, based on their respective ingredients and packaging values. Moving tickets have three stats: paper, packaging, and itinerary. These effect wellness, happiness, and moving distance. Tanks, helicopters, rifles and artillery each have stats for attack, defense, durability and damage. Houses have three stats: roof, layout and walls. These effect wellness, happiness, and durability (how many days it will last). Defense systems: layout, walls, and cannons each effecting: defense, durability, and area of effect (AoE). Hospitals are similar with roof, walls and ambulances effecting wellness, durability and AoE. Raw materials are now stone, oil, grain, titanium and iron.


[Products and their stats]


[All the new products Q1-Q5]

This new level of customization changes just about everything I thought I knew about running a business in eRepublik. Each stat unit requires specialized workers to produce each separate component. I do not foresee a very smooth transition into V2 with so many things being so radically different. With as many new job types available, there will likely be great confusion over which jobs people should take. There will be shortages of workers for certain jobs as well as surpluses in others. Wages will fluctuate wildly for the first weeks, maybe months once V2 premiers. Business owners; prepare for the worst. I know I will be. (But also hope for the best)

[this may take me a while to master]

After running wildly around the world of beta, seeing whatever there was to see, my sickly tired grumpy citizen self still hadn’t done anything at all productive. Given my amazing mood on my first day in beta I decided to take it easy. After chowing down on some health packs, I decided to head back over to visit with Lisa. After twelve hours lounging in bed, I felt much better. Even she seemed to think so. "I guess you had good fun. You already look much happier!" she said, as I demanded the immediate construction of a sandwich.


After hastily departing her house (and forgetting my sammich), I decided to head to the library. They say knowledge is power, and power I craved. I met with a saucy librarian named Gina, and wasted no time in hitting the books. I spent the rest of the day soaking up knowledge next to her. Perhaps I got carried away, but she seemed pleased. "Wow, you really impressed me today! Would be great if we could spend more time together! It's a joy to work with you." she confessed as I handled her books and prepared to head home.

[Id like to read her book]
Exhausted from a hard day's not work, I picked up some food at Chinese Restaurant and returned home. Maybe tomorrow I will find myself a decent job, or visit my old friend Lana at the training grounds. Time will tell. Also i will be holding off on trying out the war module until at least tomorrow... I am still quite low on happiness, and very grumpy.

Many of you are probably also participating in the beta testing. Most of this information isn’t really big news to you, or anyone else who has been closely following beta development. But I encourage you to comment about what you like/dislike about V2. I can’t say that there isn’t anything I don’t like about it, but at the same time some things are kind of neat. Share your opinion. And for those of you who will make the comment:

tl;dr version: V2 is p cool.

p.s. v+s 🙂