screwed
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- Fever
- Soar throat
- Shivers
Oh hang on now, that isnt the age changes
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Petition: Don’t change the game to Alliances of Messed up Changes
Hello. Christmas is just around the corner, this christmas our present from Alliances at War is the name change to Alliances of Messed up Changes. Jamzi and myself will in this post comment the latest age preview where fame gets two friends named Toughness and Industry.
Here is the preview post to make sure everyone is up to speed:
Fame, toughness and industry are a reflection of how you play.
The playing style you use will influence what kind of score that you have in each. The actions you take, and the events that happen to you, will have a effect through these three rankings on the relevant goals and needs of your tribe.
Fame
- Return offense bonus to 1% per 1000
- Remove population bonus
- Add 1% extra guild space per 1000
- Add 1% extra hideout space per 1000
- Fame gains and losses work slightly differently. You gain fame independently of the fame you take, so you can gain fame from someone who doesn’t have any fame. However, if the person has more fame relative to yours, you still gain more as usual. Losses themselves will be halved.
- Everyone will keep the fame they have now. However, the fame that you inherit or otherwise begin with, will change. After dying you will keep 7.5% of the fame you had at the time of your death.
Toughness
- +1% defense per 1000
- +1% resistance to magic per 1000
- +1% protection from thievery per 1000
- Toughness is gained whenever your buildings are destroyed, you take military losses, your land is seized, or your resources are destroyed. The gains are independent from your fame lost from these things.
- Toughness is lost by exploring, training military, and other actions that boost industry. The losses are independent from your industry gains for these things.
- People playing currently will start with 0 toughness. After dying of old age, you will keep 5% of the toughness you had at the time of your death. After being killed, you will keep 10% of the toughness you had before your death.
Industry
- +1% population per 1000
- +1% production bonus to mines, farms and yards per 1000
- Exploring (regularly or via land grabs), training military, raiding, pillaging and performing thief self ops gives you industry
- Performing some aggressive actions makes you lose industry. The industry you lose is independent from the fame you may gain from these actions.
- People playing currently will start with 0 industry. After dying of old age, you will keep 10% of the industry you had at the time of your death. After being killed, you will keep 5% of the industry you had before your death.
- It will be possible to have negative fame, toughness or industry. An attribute which has gone into the negative will give a penalty instead of a bonus
- Due to the above, there is no minimum bonus on any of the three, in the way that there is a minimum bonus to fame now
- As a bonus for creating an account, you will start with some points in each attribute. Restarting your account will give you 0 of each instead.
- Due to the nature of the gains and losses, it will be possible to accumulate high rankings in two of the attributes at the expense of the third. It will not be possible to have high rankings in all three (though in some cases you might be able to get medium scores in all three). Your playing style will determine which two attributes are the highest.
This list of changes is apparently as Iluros puts it:
They have a purpose, social engineering if you will, and they needed to happen.
~ Iluros
Adding Toughness and Industry is apparently aatw’s way of solving the old problem of bigger ppl hurting smaller ppl who can’t do anything about it, this is kind of a huge change. Here is Jamzi’s take on it:
Despite our playerbase for AATW and Classic being relativly small to other games of a similar nature, we do have some of the most passionate players and staff. This has long been one of the virtues of Orkfia over the other games. However in the last few months it has seemed to myself and others that the development staff in AatW have become a bit over-excited by their responsibilities and wildy throwing anything that enters their heads into the game.
Change is not necessarily a bad thing. We all encounter change every day and some changes in the game in the recent past have been great. Such as tidying up the way spells/ops are casted, improving the range of ops/spells/attacks available has spiced things up too. However the reason Orkfia was popular in the first place was because it was a fun game to play. The simple game mechanics made it one of those games that was simple-to-learn but hard-to-master against other real life people.
I know people think I and those who think like me are set in our ways, but whatever happened to the old “if it ain’t broke don’t fix it”?? The changes are easy for you to understand if you invented them i’m sure so you might not see my point but to explain what I mean let’s take the game of Chess. Let’s imagine you have been playing for many years in a Chess league and then at the start of the season you turn up and find some notices pinned on the wall. If it’s a tuesday then Kings can move 4 spaces at a time, if it’s between 4:45pm and 5:17pm all pawns can move backwards… If your name has a J in it you do not have bishops. This sounds stupid maybe but this is how AatW feels to me at the moment. There are so many strange rules in AatW now that I have long ago given up trying to keep up with them and I know others who have said the same to me so I am certain I am far from being the only one who feels this way.
I have even heard a theory that perhaps this is Iluros’s continuation of a campaign he had against AatW when his alliance quit and this is the revenge – to sabotage what is left for the rest of us. I don’t believe this is true but I can see why people may think that.
It is a fundamental concept of business that keeping things simple is the way to go (Keep It Simple Stupid – the KISS principle). AatW needs to go back to it’s Orkfia roots and declutter.
~Jamzi
That sums up what I think about it pretty much aswell. Ive been hosting Orkfia Classic for over a year now, been somewhat responsible for it even longer, some of the very first misstakes I did was to change stuff just cause I could, thats a lesson most people thats responsible for development has to learn, some quicker then other, my own misstakes cost me some great staff and some great players.
This is what I see happening in aatw atm aswell, there has been some huge changes done lately, the most noticable is the interface changes and I really like that bit, the things I don’t like tho is where it looks like dev is sitting and looking at the game thinking “What more can we add”, not due to “We have this problem, what would be the best solution” but more cause “Well why not, the more stuff the merrier”.
I would like to clearify that this is no witchhunt for a individual staffmember nor is it a personal attack on aatw from me since Im running Orkfia Classic, Im a active player in aatw aswell and even if less clever development might get more players into Classic Id be really annoyed to have a game Im playing ruined.
Now then lets have a look at the problem they are trying to solve, are they trying to solve the problem itself or are they adressing the effects of the problem? What will these changes do?
First of this seems to be the definition of the problem according to the Lord of Development in aatw:
The reasons they have been (badly) needed has to do with the way the game is played now, and how that has made much of the people who used to play quit.
The fame rape thing that Origin points out is actually one of the main problems these changes were designed to fix, at least in regard to toughness. The new people in smaller alliances which get beat up by the big alliances will accumulate toughness, giving them an advantage against the top alliances who are left alone by most players due to their dangerous nature. Those new players, in gaining toughness, will have a reason to stay, whereas before they just got beat up.
The other issue that has plagued aatw since its creation, is the arm’s race between explorers and attackers, each becoming increasingly troopfat relative to one another in order to grow. With toughness and industry implemented, it is likely that this problem will cease to exist. Actions that previously were a gamble by themselves will be fruitful. If you do an explore and have it grabbed, you lost the resources that you put into that explore but gained a boost that will help you down the line. This means that growth will be easier for players who will no longer be as hesitant to take risks, and interaction between players will increase.
Will putting your time into growth make you lose some of the toughness you gain? Yes. But certainly not all. You will keep most of the toughness you gain, and the industry you gain will be more than the toughness you lose. In this way it’s quite possible to have both, albeit one higher than the other.
~ Iluros
The first section mentions famerape, this is where people would attack targets to increase their own fame bonuses on a regular basis, the optimal target would be someone with low thievery or magic defense and somewhat high fame. This could be classed as harrasment if you’d like. Lets have a look at why it happens.
Famerape
There is as I see it two reasons why someone would famerape.
1. To get even more out of the fame bonuses, which atm is:
- +0.75% offense per each 1000 fame.
- +1% population per each 1000 fame.
These bonuses is quite tasty when you in full warmode can famerape someone for almost 1000 fame every 8 hours or something which is why fameraping can do quite alot for you, now if these bonuses or fame gains would be smaller would this kind of famerape still be at the same level? The answer is no cause then players would focus their attention on something else more awarding.
2. Cause you can / To piss people off.
This is more like proper harrasment, you target ppl just cause you can and to either piss the target of or to entertain yourself. This kind of harrasment won’t stop no matter what you do, if someone dislikes another person in a game then they will find another way to do it.
These two reasons is kind of what I believe is why people are doing it. (Yes the famegain do vary depending on a few variables but its still possible to gain loads of fame.
What will the new way of Fame, Industry and Toughness do about famerape?
It will be usefull for the most extreme sides of the table, the ones continuously targeted will get more def but unless its overpowered it wont stop famerape if its the second kind of famerape. The first kind of famerape kinda disapears tho, the offbonus are best for attackers (obviously) and they will keep gaining their fame through attacking and also gain industry cause of the new bonuses. This makes it actually better for attackers, which looking at the changes last few months have been improved time and time again, the % of bonuses they are recieving is getting quite big.
Back to the actual point, will this stop the fameraping? It might lower the ammount of famerape but people will just find another way to do their harrasments, its still a war game where the goal is to kill and war other alliances, (“Alliances at War”).
Conclusion: These changes is partly an attempt in preventing harrasment as in fameraping. Will it work? highly unlikely since its threating the effects not the underlying cause. Not only is ut unlikely to work as intentioned it is also highly likely to cause unwanted bieffects that will take an age or two to find, get abused and hopefully fixed.
The idea as a concept isnt so stupid, its almost clever but its hard to implement and I don’t believe its something Orkfia should get to complicate things even more.
The ammount of variables needed to calc attacking and killing is getting huge, tiny % here and there, some not even mentioned in the guide, even the attackcalcs are getting huge.
Lets move on to the other issue thats apparently is a part of why these changes are planned, the race between explorers and attackers. Apparently being troopfat is a huge problem in todays aatw, to fix this problem they are adding the Industry to give population bonuses when you explore and when you grab. The first thing that came to my mind when I saw that was that the ones getting rewarded the most by these changes are the landfarms, you explore, gets industry bonuses, you get grabbed due to low def and gets toughness bonuses, just keep doing that for one age and recieve the % heritage mentioned above and you have some sort of head start.
Another thing this causes is that Industry will be highest amongst the biggest tribes since they have explored the most and grabbed the most on their way up to the top, which means that the top tribes will be even harder to kill.
Now lets have a look at where this troopfatness comes from. Suprise it comes from a long line of race changes and game changes that ended up with the current situation. Instead of sorting the source where racce changes keeps producing imba races (Im not saying its easy to balance races, its a huge job, but the result is still that each age more imba races keeps poping up from the changes).
The gains and losses of these different sections are still to be seen but not only are the actual numbers mentioned risky the whole idea of adding them is all from obvious.
Are these changes really wanted? Just cause it looks cool doesnt mean it should be added. There is just so much stuff you can do to a game before it losses it roots and transforms into a new one. Maybe a new game is what everyone wants, or is it? Ive experienced it first hand with Classic, some stuff was so poor in our view atleast and needed to be changed, but for every change you add you really need to think more then once or twice about if its really something we need, why do we need it, what will the outcome be. How will the players deal with it?
This is our petition to Alliances at War, please don’t lose sight of what aatw is. If you would like to join us in our petition just contact me and I’ll add your name to the bottom. I’ll end this post with a quote from the age preview topic.
Whether the changes are good or not for a more dynamic, fun and complex game is not really the question. The question is really are if these type of changes will actually IMPROVE the game, and maintain it’s players. I really don’t see how it could be.
In short I don’t think the changes are BAD, I just don’t think they will help Alliances at War at all. Just make HaRRy do unnecessary work
~ Canto
The whole topic with the age preview can be found here: http://www.alliancesatwar.com/forums/game/216501/0-25.
So, what we want to achieve with this petition is to bring the people running and developing aatw to see this from our point of view, a view that sees loads of changes, little reasons, lots of bugs and a lost sense of direction.
This petition has been signed by:
- Acwder
- Jamzi
- BiltesKrieg
- EM
- Martel
- Robokop
- Cecil
New Layout
Here it is, the new layout of the Orkfia Portal.
I’ll be tracking down any remaining layout errors soon and also have to sort with the new forum layout.
More news to come.
Cheers
~Acwder
Orkfia Portal
Two games for the gamers under the sky to use,
two games for the admins in their madness to abuse,
two games with changes the staffers is too afraid to refuse.
One Portal to merge them, one Portal to find them,
one Portal to bring them all and with its functionality bind them.
On the Orkfia Portal where the creativity lies.
Hey. the Portal is getting close to another renewal, The current design has it positive stuff but Im not satisified with it (shocking news for people that watched the designs here since it got launched;) ).
several tweaks and other stuff to sort before it will be launched but I’ll post some sneak peaks next week, first of tho is to cover the new interface in Alliances at War and its race changes. That will be posted early next week and hopefully a few comments from the staff team.
Cheers
~Acwder
Very Sad News
Saura, 22 minutes ago, edited
It is my sad privilege to notify you all that Chris known by most of you as Hawkwing, HW, Penguin Feather, among other names through out his ORKFiAN career has passed away.
He was involved in car accident two nights ago while driving through St. Louis en route to his Family home in Raymore Missouri from Flordia.
He was critically injured in the crash, leaving him in pretty bad shape, but after tests this morning it was determined that there is no brain activity.
Funeral services have not yet been announced but I will let you all know more as I am updated. Please keep him, his friends and family in your thoughts and prayers.
—————————————-
On a personal note, I know this post seems kind of void of emotion…I don’t deal with death well. Please forgive me that but, being as close to him as I was I know he would want you all to know what happened.Merry Part my dear friend…you will be missed
That is what is known at this point.
R.I.P Hawkwing.
I wish to pay him some type of tribute, my idea is to either create a new race Hawks with Hawkwing as elite unit or something like that, if anyone else has a better idea how to pay tribute and to have something to remember him of please get in touch.
~A sad Acwder
Alliances at War Slow
Hey, Alliances at War has been slow for a few hours
Hopefully its a quick fix and can either sort itself or by Martel tomorrow morning.
Stay tuned for more information on the issue.
Btw. Haven’t been much activity here on the portal lately, I just got back at my uni flat and uni starting up again so lots of stuff to sort, Orkfia Classic got a higher priority then the Portal for me ofc so it is suffering a bit, but don’t worry, it will change soon (not the priority^^).
Cheers
~Acwder
More funky stuff
Hey
Last week we had a poll here asking for what people wanted more of on the Portal, the ones with the most votes were “more articles” (the Winner), “better design”, “its fine as it is” and “more funky functions”. The last three being on split second place.
The goal now is to have way more articles posted, ofc quality before quantity. Have the current layout improved without to much extreme changes and more funky functions.
First out is the launch of a new function and a preview of a coming function, first of Live Help. This is for people who have any questions involving the world of Orkfia, if a operator isnt online then you are given the option to send us a mail.
There are already several ways to be helped, friends, irc, ingame etc etc but this is gonna be live, instant, no need for any client, etc etc.
If you wanna help out by being one of the operators then feel free to contact me.
Preview: Orkfia Wiki
We are launching a Wiki here on the portal which is gonna consist of well the world of Orkfia fit into a wiki, well the posibilites for a wiki is quite endless, making a history for changes with races etc comes to mind, the ability to add more depth to the current guides also comes to mind. This is a work in progress and its planned to be launched at the start of Age 40 (ORKFiA Classic)
Stay tuned for more stuff, the Orkfia Portal Shop is still in beta version, more information to come
Cheers
~Acwder
Introducing the weekly poll
Hi, this is long overdue but finally here is the Orkfia Portal – Weekly Poll.
This has been on the todo list since the huge survey we had months ago (If there is any volounteers that would like to make graphs out of the rawdata then please let me know, dunno how relevant the data would still be but atleast it would be fun to see.) so here it is, every monday there will be a new poll posted. Starting of with what version of the game you play.
The weekly Poll can be found here on the sidebar.
Finished Polls can be found in the archive which is linked on below the Poll.
Cheers
~Acwder
