Ikariam: 23 postulates – an open letter to the Gameforge AG

  • Ikariam: 23 postulates – an open letter to the Gameforge AG

    Ikariam: 23 postulates – an open letter to the Gameforge AG
    Dear Gameforge,

    We, the community, demand some major modification in the game as a whole to be made. Ikariam used to be a worthwhile one, but due to negligence and improper policy both the quantity of players worldwide and the quality of the gameplay has significantly dropped. Concerned about its future, we present you the list of 23 suggestions aiming not only to improve some aspects of the game, but also to add some new functionalities. Although you may not find them all interesting enough to be implemented, it is vital you take as many of them as possible under consideration.

    Following postulates are dually categorised: A – on the grounds of the level of integration in game mechanics, B – on the grounds of its salience.


    Tier A1: changes that interfere with the game mechanics and gameplay significantly
    Tier A2: changes that are noticeable but does not interfere with the game mechanics
    Tier A3: changes that are non-invasive or cosmetic

    Tier B1: changes that are entirely crucial
    Tier B2: changes that are important but can be implemented as secondary
    Tier B3: changes that can potentially improve the gameplay but not very crucial


    Postulate 1 /introduction/

    It is absolutely vital this game undergo some major modifications and noticeable improvements, which have to be significant and revolutionary enough to call the future version “Ikariam 2” or “Ikariam v8.0” in all good conscience. Potential “Ikariam 2” must also guarantee the continuity of already existing accounts. Any prospective minor update still has to implement various new developments, bugfixes and cosmetic changes, assuming that their content and incidence need to keep existing players and attract some new.


    Postulate 2 /A1:B1/

    Great server merging is necessary to be held. Its main purpose is to change numerous deserted servers into a few lively ones. It would be also worthwhile to consider establishing servers based on old game engine version (the most desirable of which are 0.3.2 and 0.4.5), so-called Classic, Retro or Vanilla servers (in this case it is acceptable to set it pay-to-play, that means getting access by paying some kind of subscription costs), or dedicated international servers.


    Postulate 3 /A1:B1/

    The players that do not invest real money in inner-game premium currency (Ambrosia) shouldn’t be put in noticeable worse position. In the terms of game development they also weigh when it comes to the total income (because of large playerbase being a massive group of responsive instances, which allows to have relatively high game immersion, while having low quantity of “no player control” facilities). Purchasing the premium currency shouldn’t give players unjust superiority, which causes widespread loss of trust in game mechanics. Meanwhile, Ikariam PLUS shop is full of pathogenic premium functionalities being the explicit denial of the fair play game, especially in the terms of piracy or the early days of servers. Ambrosias must be way more balanced and the prices should be better adjusted.


    Postulate 4 /A1:B1/

    In the case of using vacation mode it is crucial to differentiate players on the grounds of their total gold balance at the moment of activating this mode. Players with positive balance should obtain some exact fraction of that income. Meanwhile, the remaining ones are subdivided into next two groups: players that has to pay some charge and those who don’t. The only factor here is the Military (Generals) score. Everyone below a strictly set threshold (high enough not to bother the majority of the honest, average players) are treated just like nothing has changed on the field of vacation mode, that means they pay nothing. The others (those who exceeded the threshold of Military score) have to pay a progressive charge (depending on how big that overstepping is), that is an appropriate fraction of their negative income (of total balance). Being aware of the possibility of occurring some unexpected affairs, that functionality should permit the user to choose the way of regulating their payment after their return from the leave with gold resources or/and reducing the amount of units/ships – assuming that a fair algorithm doing so would be developed. When vacation mode ends without player’s involvement (when its maximum duration is exceeded), the payoff would go ahead automatically. In all cases other that gold resources there would be no changes at all.


    Postulate 5 /A2:B3/

    Black Market and its functionalities has to be subjected to some kind of minor restrictions which main purpose is to diminish the scale of malpractices related to the misusing of this building’s functionalities. That potential restriction might possibly be an increase of corruption and/or a drop in material production and/or elongation of the time needed to recruit new units and/or construct new ships in the cities that participates in the process of troop and fleet trade for an exact deal of time. That negative effect is progressive and depends on how many troops and fleet (represented by the amount of Military score they generate) are being traded in one series of that transactions; that means: if such a deal takes place when mentioned negative effect is already active in the city, the quantity of military forces being taken under consideration to establish new effect is a sum of the previous value and the current one – that value is overwritten and the timer is reset.


    Postulate 6 /A3:B3/

    Having a cultural goods treaty signed, the research points we can obtain should be accessible via more than one form of government (however, for democracy bonus should stay the highest, for a few ones – quite smaller, and for the others – nonexistent) and depend on both players’ actual Scientist score proportion (for democracy: minimum – 1 point per for a treaty with inferior player in the terms of the ratio above, maximum – 5 points per hour for a treaty with superior player in the terms of the ratio above). That bonus is dedicated to the lesser and beginner players (especially on the old servers) to help them forward their accounts faster – those are the main beneficiary. Moreover, only democracy allows the player to benefit from a treaty with inferior players (on the grounds of the Scientists’ score ratio), so that for the best ones there is just a little space for exploiting that functionality.


    Postulate 7 /A1:B2/


    The duration of rounds in both overland and naval battles has to shorten along with the passing of time. Every 4 hours, the round’s length should shorten by one minute, eventually reaching the ceiling – the 5-minute-long rounds after 40 hours of combat. Alternatively, instead of being related to the passage of time, the duration of the rounds may be shortened after some strictly set numbers of rounds. What is more, in the case of battles in which there are vast amounts of troops and fleet involved (that is, after exceeding a threshold by both sides of the conflict), it is essential to additionally extend the capacity of the slots.


    Postulate 8 /A2:B2/

    Charging the miracles has to be individualised for every player. However, every alliance should assure a feature that allows to choose one out of two modes for their members: ally individualisation (within an island miracles are being charged as a common goal of the allies), full individualisation (allies are being ignored). The main purpose here is to erase numerous pathological situations and optimise miracles towards players’ own way of playing.


    Postulate 9 /A1:B3/

    On some islands within the world limits, there could be located some kind of “no player control” facilities – cities (strongholds), with no landlords, lying on a dedicated place within an island. Those strongholds can be captured (both using overland and naval forces) by individual players or alliances, what brings the occupiers some bonuses (maximally for 5 players at the same time) determined by the size of a stronghold – there are a few big and numerous small ones. Strongholds have following buildings on their premises: the Town hall, the Town wall and the Trading port (or two). Every building there is permanent (cannot be upgraded nor demolished) and their levels are fixed at some relatively high values from the beginning (bigger strongholds have significantly higher levels of buildings – up to 35-40).

  • Postulate 10 /A3:B2/

    Players who donates the most in favour of upgrading Saw mills and facilities that produces luxury goods should obtain an appropriate production bonus in the virtue of being the biggest investor.


    Postulate 11 /A2:B2/

    In game there has to be a maximal building upgrading time established at some rational level or at least the way of determining it be modified not to allow some buildings to be excessively time-consuming at their highest levels. Moreover, there should be some functionalities allowing players to shorten buildings’ upgrading duration; however, accessing that functionality shouldn’t be limited to the premium currency usage.


    Postulate 12 /A1:B2/

    There should be implemented some secondary lines of researches. These would be possible to accomplish on quite a different basis in comparison to the basic four lines as they become available after completing some exact researches from among the standard ones. Every of the mentioned additional lines of researches are subdivided into 20 levels or some minor researches, every of which can be reached using the research points. These lines might be for example some of the following: Architecture, Philosophy, Tactics, etc. Here, the architecture oriented research line may be a good place to implement the functionality mentioned in Postulate 11, that means the shortening of buildings’ upgrading duration. The main objective of that idea is to extend the time needed to scrape through all technologies (other than the Futures).


    Postulate 13 /A2:B3/

    It would be an interesting development to add regular and random incidents system such as: high days, holidays, weather etc. Nevertheless, this needs to guarantee some kind of choice for the player - for example the extent of its effect may depend on government’s form – Dictatorship will mean low consequences, Ikacracy – medium, Teocracy – high.


    Postulate 14 /A2:B2/

    Game needs events which will be organised regularly, excluding Happy Hours and the time-constrained bonuses (because of them not being the outright events). These should be still available but the main kind of events may be lines of challenges and tasks restricted by the time or some other forms of those. Nonetheless, these events should provoke players to take part in with interesting content and prizes.


    Postulate 15 /A2:B3/

    Reward system should be extended with prizes for different interactions with world, especially with another players (pillaging, trading, treats, etc.). This system can be grounded on some items to collect, and include elements both permanent and random (loot-boxes or something like that), or/and use simplified foraging system for achieving rational benefits (directly or by exchanging the loot for loot-boxes). There should be a chance to get some resources, research points, time limited bonuses and small amount of Ambrosia (or some premium functions) this way. Whole thing has just additional character which shouldn’t interfere with the game’s core. This is an addition to existing achievements system.


    Postulate 16 /A2:B1/

    Piracy system should be optimised in the matter of cheats and illegal actions, especially in the terms of the early phases of a game. Because of this problem being multi-faceted, it remains an open question.


    Postulate 17 /A3:B2/

    Time of “Godly protection” should be determined by the age of server at the time of creating an account. It is obvious that players beginning to play on the old servers have different needs than those on the new ones, especially when it comes to the absolute beginners. That means: the older the server is, the longer the new player protection should last (for example by allowing a player to expand their Town hall to higher levels or found a colony without a loss of that protection).
    Exemplary thresholds:
    a) till 2 weeks - no changes
    b) till 2 months - slight changes
    c) till 6 months - visible changes in the limits of the Godly protection
    d) more than 6 months - the final version of the Godly protection


    Postulate 18 /A3:B3/

    Players who are creating an account, instead of random assignment of islands, should have an optional possibility to choose area, where they want to start their game (accurate to within a couple islands). Implementing this solution can be realised by guaranteeing access to advanced account creating options relevant to the localisation which will contain: generalised world map, which will show composition of populace and possibilities of determining area as a seed for the generator - simplified mode (choice from a drop-down list: a) centre b) other populated areas c) peripheries of high populated area d) low populated area) or accurate one (coordinates with +/- 4 islands of randomising, or more if all islands will be full in the target area). This element is aiming to eliminate situations, when innocent players locates themselves at the isolated and empty parts of a map, eventually inhabited by loners or closed circles of (possibly cheating) players. However this function should not be available for servers younger than 2 weeks (most pathological period).


    Postulate 19 /A2:B3/

    Dependence system of the ships’ speed on their maximum loading should be unified, providing more extensive management of this function than it currently is. For example, when sending units on ships for military purposes, player should be able to set their maximum capacity, including separately for the both ways (to the goal and from the goal).


    Postulate 20 /A2:B2/

    The maximum amount of gold that a player can have should be established, depending on the level of Town halls in all cities. This border should be set well enough, so that it doesn't interfere with the game in a considerable degree. Nevertheless, it can be assumed that this borderline is flexible and fully passable, however, after crossing it, the corruption in all cities emerges and grows as a side-effect of uncontrolled enrichment.


    Postulate 21 /A3:B3/

    Accounts existing only for donating resources should be limited by the dependence between the Masters of Construction and Donations rankings (and in the case of providing the possibility of crossing this threshold – checking the account for a potential multi-accounting).


    Postulate 22 /A2:B1/

    It is necessary to temporarily suspend access to the Black Market functions for the players returning from the vacation mode for 48 hours.


    Postulate 23 /A2:B1/

    The speed of warships should be optimised (i.e. appropriately increased).


    We expect the response presenting an official attitude of Gameforge AG towards above postulates.

    With our compliments,
    Players

  • There are your answers from Gameforge:

    badidol wrote:

    es ist nur derzeit nicht absehbar, wann da wieder mehr Kapazitäten als "schau halt, dass es nicht völlig kaputt ist" frei sind.

    badidol wrote:

    Man kann aber halt leider auch nur schlecht mit den Fingern schnippen und dann sind Dinge wie Prioritäten, Kapazitäten und Manpower plötzlich alle anders verteilt.

    badidol wrote:

    die internen Ressourcen sind wie bereits mehrfach gesagt anderweitig gebunden.

    These are just some examples. There were (and are) many players in the german board who care about Ikariam, who had many good suggestions how to improve the game, some of it quite well elaborated. The answer in most cases was like "nice idea, but we don't have any capacities left, so you shouldn't expect an implementation of it in the next decades".
    Don't get me wrong, it's great that you took the time to write down your opinion and suggestions and I agree with many of your points, but I don't think that it will make a difference.
    Das Meer ist alles. Es bedeckt sieben Zehntel der Erde. Sein Atem ist rein und gesund. Es ist eine immense Wüste, wo ein Mann nie alleine ist, in dem er fühlen kann, wie das Leben aller in ihm bebt. Das Meer ist nur ein Behälter für alle die ungeheuren, übernatürlichen Dinge, die darin existieren; es ist nicht nur Bewegung und Liebe; es ist die lebende Unendlichkeit.

  • I just started reading and it sure will take some time to read everything, it's awesome to see feedback from an another Community.
    My Fear is that you have not pointed out why an Ikariam 2 is needed, or why those Modifications make Ikariam interesting enough for new Player to start, or for old Players to come Back.
    Gameforge will never use enough ressources for those ikariam modifications, without aiming for a huge increase in Player numbers.
    For keeping the actual Players and slow down the death, there will only be some minor features, for instances server merging, but they probably won't balance the game.

    In my Opinion the Ikariam Community is not able to do anything right now, but waiting and asking for an official statement.
    Because actually we don't know if there will be an Ikariam 2 or anything else in this direction.
    And right now there won't be any capacities for ikariam.

  • I want to support this letter, although I maybe do not concur with every paragraph in detail. I do believe that drastic changes have to be made in gameplay to keep Ikariam alive for the long-term. This letter lists some good proposals which only ought to be picked up.

    ich möchte diesen Brief unterstützen, obwohl ich im Detail vielleicht nicht jedem Absatz zustimmen möchte. ich glaube, dass drastische Veränderungen am Spielgeschehen notwendig sind um Ikariam längerfristig am Leben zu erhalten. Dieser Brief listet einige gute Vorschläge auf die nur mehr aufgegriffen werden müssten.



    badidol wrote:

    Und tschüß.

  • badidol schreibt

    die internen Ressourcen sind wie bereits mehrfach gesagt anderweitig gebunden.

    ES KLAPPT DOCH NOCH NICHT MAL EINEN NEUEN SERVER ZU ERÖFFNEN: DAS HAT ES IN 10 JAHREN AUCH NOCH NICHT GEGEBEN.
    WAHRSCHEINLICH ARBEITET NUR NOCH EINE 450 EURO KRAFT DAMIT DAS HIER NICHT SCHON GANZ TOT IST:

  • Es ist einen Versuch wert, es gab schon viele Vorschläge zur Rettung des Games, die Vorschläge von Thrawn und diese Postulate gehören sicher zu den Highlights, meine Hoffnung ist lediglich, dass es solch engagierte Beiträge deutlich machen, dass es noch immer Spieler gibt, die dieses Game lieben und es retten möchten. Wenn man hier auch einen auf Endzeit macht, dann bringt das sicher nichts. Die Stomt Geschichte ist auch schon völlig eingeschlafen. Daher bleiben vermutlich nur zwei Optionen: Wir warten auf das Ende oder versuchen zumindest hier im Forum deutlich zu machen, dass uns dieses Game nicht egal ist.

  • Is´n Scherz oder? Gugg dir Ikariam mal an und dann such mal die 1000e Vorschläge, die mit neuen Forum allein ins Archiv gelandet sind.
    Armenius hat schon recht. Man wird hier im Forum nur noch an der Stange gehalten.
    Die User wandern ab... übrig bleiben nur noch Betrüger, die eintönig Grafk, die Bugs und noch immer die gleichen Optimisten im Forum.


    rc200 wrote:

    zwei Optionen: Wir warten auf das Ende oder versuchen zumindest hier im Forum deutlich zu machen, dass uns dieses Game nicht egal ist.

    Versuchen kann man viel... Viel Spaß. Gibt in China so ne Mauer und Reissäcke. Wette wenn da drauf kritzelst bekommst eher ne Antwort/Reaktion. Hier juckt´s nur keinen der Entwickler, da Option 1 unweigerlich kommen wird.


    rc200 wrote:

    dass es noch immer Spieler gibt, die dieses Game lieben und es retten möchten. Wenn man hier auch einen auf Endzeit macht, dann bringt das sicher nichts.
    Gegenfrage schonmal in den letzten 5 Jahren erlebt, das irgendwas von alledem wirklich zu Herzen genommen wurde?
    Auch nur der leiseste Ansatz?!

    The post was edited 1 time, last by Hoppelhasi ().

  • Man fühlt sich unter dem verzweifelten Versuch irgendetwas mit dem Spiel voranzubringen wie ein demonstrierender, der von der Gegenseite nur durch ein Schulterzucken empfangen und "abgenickt" wird.

    Entweder es kommt eine Antwort à la "Keine Ressourcen frei" oder stillschweigen.

    Aktiv betrachtet betrifft es leider auch viele andere Browser-Games, wo sich die Community versucht einzubringen nur von den Mods abgewiesen wird mit einem sachten Schulterzucken (Ich werde keine Werbung für fremde Spiele machen).

    @badidol auf Stomt habe ich dir bereits geantwortet, ich hoffe, du gibst meine und die Wünsche von den anderen Usern "weiter".

    Besonders auf dem türkischen Instanz scheint es Verzweiflungswünsche von den Usern zu geben, liest man sich die ganzen Stomtwünsche ein.

  • srbinas wrote:

    @badidol auf Stomt habe ich dir bereits geantwortet, ich hoffe, du gibst meine und die Wünsche von den anderen Usern "weiter"
    Wenn ich nicht gerade, wie die letzten 10 Tage, im Urlaub bin, erfolgt auf stomt auch Feedback, doch. Sollte man eigentlich auf stomt auch sehn.

    Concerning the initial topic: sorry, but I won't go into further detail here. You apparently are PL users, so I suggest you contact the PL CoMa who should have answers to all of your questions.

    Am Anfang wurde das Universum erschaffen.
    Das machte viele Leute sehr wütend und wurde allenthalben als Schritt in die falsche Richtung angesehen.

  • badidol wrote:

    Concerning the initial topic: sorry, but I won't go into further detail here. You apparently are PL users, so I suggest you contact the PL CoMa who should have answers to all of your questions.
    Vorstöße aus der deutschen Community sind für die Entwicklerfirma oftmals leider weniger wichtig, was nicht selten damit begründet wird, dass es einen solchen konkreten Vorstoß nur in der nicht so bedeutsamen deutschen Community gab, und in den anderen Communities nicht. Dies könnte unter Anderem daran liegen, dass die unterschiedlichen Communities nicht so gut informiert sind, was in anderen Communities so vor sich geht. Und so könnte man immer behaupten, in jeder Community für sich, das sei nur PL, DE, EN, ..., und daher nicht so wichtig. Ich gehe daher davon aus, dass der polnische Vorstoß, mit dem bulgarischen Unterstützer in Post:
    Ikariam: 23 postulates – an open letter to the Gameforge AG
    nur ein Versuch darstellt, diesen Mangel der Interaktion der Communities zu beheben, dass eben das Argument der nationalen Unwichtigkeit nicht mehr ziehen kann. Wäre es nicht besser, wenn ein internationales Forum (Sprache dann Englisch), für alle Ikariam-Spieler weltweit geöffnet wird, damit Spieler und CoMas sich weltweit auf einer Plattform austauschen können? Dann bestünde das Problem "DE (EN/FR/...) ist zu klein" vielleicht nicht mehr so häufig, wenn Vorstöße international gutgeheißen werden.


    Gottlosigkeit macht sich im Charakter bemerkbar.

  • Der Kater wrote:

    Wäre es nicht besser, wenn ein internationales Forum (Sprache dann Englisch), für alle Ikariam-Spieler weltweit geöffnet wird, damit Spieler und CoMas sich weltweit auf einer Plattform austauschen können?
    Tatsächlich wäre ich da sofort dabei, haben wir erst neulich in vielen anderen Spielen auch gemacht, da gibt es keine x Foren mehr, sondern nur noch eines fürs komplette Spiel. Leider ist das keine Entscheidung, die ich alleine treffen kann und einige Kollegen befürchten, dass die Mehrheit der Spieler (Forennutzer) da abspringen würde und ganz viele kein einheitliches Forum für alle haben wollen. Ich persönlich glaube, ein einziges Forum für alle Ikariamspieler wäre die sinnigste Lösung, aber damit stehe ich bislang eher allein auf weiter Flur.

    Wie sowas aussehen kann, kann man sich bei Gladiatus, KingsAge, Bitefight, BattleKnight, Elsword, etc. ansehen.

    Am Anfang wurde das Universum erschaffen.
    Das machte viele Leute sehr wütend und wurde allenthalben als Schritt in die falsche Richtung angesehen.

  • Hi,

    Thanks for your response (both here and at the Stomt platform - stomt.com/ikariam/read-ikariam…ates-pen-letter-gameforge). We appreciate it. Nevertheless, this wasn’t precisely what we expected.

    To be specific, we wanted this topic (“Ikariam: 23 postulates”) to be an international thing (now this thread (DE) is the primary one). Here is the list of all the related topics:

    What about other communities? These are the main reasons why it did not appear at their forums:
    • We did not obtained approval to publish such a post (“This thread will remain inaccessible for others until approved by a moderator”).
    • We couldn’t publish anything at all.
    • The thread was blocked.
    • The thread was deleted.
    • The account was banned.

    All the best,
    TI

  • I am well aware of what you're trying to do, however, I must unfortunately tell you that this is somewhat of a pointless endeavour in the form you've chosen. You're tearing the discussion apart into x different pieces by having it in all those different communities and at the end it all ends up on my desk again anyway in the form of the reports of the respective Community Managers who then in turn get their information from me. So what's the point, other than causing an unreasonable amount of people an unreasonable amount of extra work?

    Your Community Manager is completely capable of answering your questions, it would have been more than sufficient to have this conversation in your community, in your language.

    However, to just quickly pick some of those points from your list:

    The Initiative wrote:

    Great server merging is necessary to be held. Its main purpose is to change numerous deserted servers into a few lively ones. It would be also worthwhile to consider establishing servers based on old game engine version (the most desirable of which are 0.3.2 and 0.4.5), so-called Classic, Retro or Vanilla servers (in this case it is acceptable to set it pay-to-play, that means getting access by paying some kind of subscription costs), or dedicated international servers.
    Merge is the number one topic on our to do list. However, unfortunately re-enabling merges is not a small issue, the current merge system did not grow and evolve along with the rest of the code of the game and therefore it is currently not usable. It's a rather complex system so it's not easily changed. With the resources currently assigned to Ikariam this unfortunately takes a long time.

    The Initiative wrote:

    The players that do not invest real money in inner-game premium currency (Ambrosia) shouldn’t be put in noticeable worse position. In the terms of game development they also weigh when it comes to the total income (because of large playerbase being a massive group of responsive instances, which allows to have relatively high game immersion, while having low quantity of “no player control” facilities). Purchasing the premium currency shouldn’t give players unjust superiority, which causes widespread loss of trust in game mechanics. Meanwhile, Ikariam PLUS shop is full of pathogenic premium functionalities being the explicit denial of the fair play game, especially in the terms of piracy or the early days of servers. Ambrosias must be way more balanced and the prices should be better adjusted.
    You'll always have to invest something; either time or money. If you do not invest time you'll have to invest money and if you want people to invest money the goods they can get for it must be attractive. Balancing this is never easy and yeah, we might have made some mistakes there along the way, I am not going to deny that. However, this decision is made on a whole different level and not by me. I can assure you that this will be - not for the first time though - forwarded respectively, however, there will always be a discrepancy between what non-payers deem reasonable and ok and what payers expect to get for their money.

    The Initiative wrote:

    Black Market and its functionalities has to be subjected to some kind of minor restrictions which main purpose is to diminish the scale of malpractices related to the misusing of this building’s functionalities.
    Going from your postulate as well as by all the feedback I've ever received about the black market I'd say a complete overhaul of the black market feature as such would be necessary. Unfortunately I don't see that happening with the current amount of resources diverted to Ikariam.

    The Initiative wrote:

    The duration of rounds in both overland and naval battles has to shorten along with the passing of time.
    I am not sure that this will work. If you make rounds shorter, especially with some fancy algorithm that's supposed to change the duration with time rather than just a simple fix change to one constant number, you will end up just creating more rounds. I am not quite sure what would be gained by that. On the technical side this even makes things worse because the database where rounds are stored will be filled even more and a lot quicker on top of it all. I personally don't think simply making rounds shorter would do us any good. I think the battle system as such would need substantial changes that go a lot farther than that, however, that again leads us to "With the current amount of resources diverted to Ikariam I unfortunately don't see that happening any time soon.".

    The Initiative wrote:

    Charging the miracles has to be individualised for every player.
    A rework of the miracle system is no small feat to achieve and would require a lot of Game Design first and certainly is no small task for development as well. With the current amount of resources diverted to Ikariam I don't think this is something we would be seeing any time soon.

    The Initiative wrote:

    Postulate 9 /A1:B3/
    With the current amount of resources diverted to Ikariam I don't think this is something we would be seeing any time soon.

    The Initiative wrote:

    Postulate 13 /A2:B3/
    With the current amount of resources diverted to Ikariam I don't think this is something we would be seeing any time soon.

    The Initiative wrote:

    Game needs events which will be organised regularly, excluding Happy Hours and the time-constrained bonuses (because of them not being the outright events). These should be still available but the main kind of events may be lines of challenges and tasks restricted by the time or some other forms of those. Nonetheless, these events should provoke players to take part in with interesting content and prizes.
    Poke your responsible Community Manager. Each Community Manager is in charge of their community's events, contests and rewards. They only need to request aproval from me in terms of rewards etc., but in general each Community Manager is free to run contests or special events (bonuses, etc.) ingame at any time.
    As far as ingame events in terms of automated, integrated "event features" go...we have the daily tasks for example. Anything more than that would require a lot of Game Design first, followed by quite substantial amounts of Dev and QA time, I suppose, which in turn leads us back to "With the current amount of resources diverted to Ikariam I don't think this is something we would be seeing any time soon.".

    The Initiative wrote:

    Piracy system should be optimised in the matter of cheats and illegal actions, especially in the terms of the early phases of a game. Because of this problem being multi-faceted, it remains an open question.
    I am missing any sort of idea on what exactly to change in this postulate. However, the piracy system is huge and complex and can't just be changed on a whim. Changing that would require a lot of Game Design first, followed by quite substantial amounts of Dev and QA time. Definitely not something that would be happening any time soon.

    The Initiative wrote:

    Postulate 17 /A3:B2/
    With the current amount of resources diverted to Ikariam I don't think this is something we would be seeing any time soon.

    The Initiative wrote:

    Postulate 18 /A3:B3/
    With the current amount of resources diverted to Ikariam I don't think this is something we would be seeing any time soon.

    Am Anfang wurde das Universum erschaffen.
    Das machte viele Leute sehr wütend und wurde allenthalben als Schritt in die falsche Richtung angesehen.