The Aftermath

January 4th, 2010The Orkfian Times1 comment

So here we are.

Its been a few hectic days.

Lets have a look at how things turned out.

The punishment was dealt about 19 hours after it happened, the outcome was five suspended tribes. The two LEs getting 24 hours for the use of this loophole that LnO in discussion with Martel deemed to be a bug. 12 hours for three tribes who in the alli channel supported what was happening, not taking part in any way other then writing down their support.

I have no problem with the two 24 hours suspensions, even tho I wouldnt classify it as a bug but rather a loophole which used this way lead to something extreme but still working as intended. I will come back to this later on.

What I find questionable is the suspension of someone who didnt participate at all in this abuse other then writting their support for it, this sets some new and atleast for me totally unheard of standards. I could drop a number of examples here but I guess all of you can imagine how this is just plain stupid.

Lets go through what else this has lead to.

Martel posted a “Stricter rules for Game Talk” topic in Game Talk, calling for a more strict forum section to apparently make sure the staff doesnt miss valid points amongst the “spam” taking place there.

Alliances at War has now a third version, the three are: The Live one, a Balancing server and an Experimental server, this is to finally try to avoid having us players being beta testers every single age.

Light Elf should now be fixed. No question about it that that was needed.

Balrog was just after the initial suspension of the tribes be changed at the same time as Light Elf, this has apparently been changed and nothing seems to be done about them until next age change.

The aatw staff will apparently try to communicate better in the future.

Martel himself says he doesnt have an official comment about this whole situation atm.

Personally Ive now also been kicked out of #orkstaff, not that I had any official reason being there in the first place but Ive been there for around a year and a half, so I guess its quite a statement on how this statement we did with LE was not appreciated.

Martel himself said when he first logged in and saw this that he was upset that we went this far and that we could had gotten to him about this with a way less aggresive way. Thats just the problem tho, it wasnt Martel we tried to reach, it was the Head of devlopment we tried to reach.

Someone might say that we could had convinced Iluros with something less abusive and easier, well fact remains, he himself was a 9k balrog and couldnt see anything wrong when his main job is development which includes balancing not just having a race in pushing through changes.

We had the same issue with the whole toughness and industry thing, we even started a petition here on the portal which quite a few people signed, me and quite a few with me were pleased to see it getting delayed atleast for another age.

Someone might now argue that there is no one in charge in the dev team, that suprises atleast me a bit since it clearly states Iluros as head of dev. Lets see what else people we have in aatw dev.

• Iluros
• Joe
• Bolle
• Halcyon
• Amiralla
• Robokop

We have covered Iluros. Joe stated in game talk that he voiced the opinion in dev that Balrogs were/are overpowered, he even went so far as playing as them to prove it, this however was changed when KP went all Eagles thus making his statement ruined.

Bolle were at the time arguing for Balrogs, not seeing the obvious flaw with them.

Halcyon is for those that isnt aware of it playing in #17, the alliance that consisted of six balrogs (is now five cause one reset), having 50% of one race can only be described as intentional, I don’t believe any of the players in #17 are stupid so they gotta have been aware of the overpowerness in the race.

Amiralla has been inactive during this period of time so I assume he havent taken part of the discussion in dev.

Robokop is obiviously against Balrogs overpowerness since it was him and me that were the two Light Elves.

If dev had been a democratic group without a lord/head of resort then it should had been Joe & Robokop vs. Iluros & Bolle with Halcyon as a joker. Since Balrogs is overpowered I can only assume that IF the aatw dev is democratic then Halcyon joined with Iluros and Bolle.

So either way democratic or with a special leader it still came down to convincing Iluros.

Something that seems to keep occuring is that everyone is blaming someone else, ppl in staff are blaming eachothers, some staff even goes so far to blame the players for not doing the balancing for them.

This community is small but great, but it is not our job to find the flaws in stupid pushed changes, now that sentence and sure this whole article might have pissed someone off but the fact still remains, we are not some beta testers, before you go all defensive on your ass spend some extra thoughts on whats being said. Before its to late.

Cheers

~A player who gotten tired of seeing the devs misstakes beeing blamed on the players a.k.a Acwder

Sort it out

January 3rd, 2010The Orkfian Times0 comments

This is yet another petition against the changes taking place in aatw, and further more a protest letter against how things are currently being treated.

Lets start with the facts.

This will consist of three things. 1. Balrogs, 2. Light Elfs, 3. The mentality of some Dev people.

First of Balrogs. Currently 7 of the top 10 tribes in Alliances at War are all Balrogs.

Their stats is the following:

• Instantly replenishes 1 mp for every 75 citizens killed during attacks
• +1.5% bonus to mage level per 1000 fame
• 1 weaponry counts as 0.75 guilds
• 15% fewer homes allowed
• Balancing traits—Takes 25% less damage to buildings and military from invasions, thievery and mystics; Mines, farms and yards produce 50% of normal; 50% market/barracks space efficiency; 50% of normal military upkeep.

• Basic: Damned Soul 0/0 100 cr
• Off: Devil 23/0 1,340 cr
• Def: Occultist 0/16 1,100 cr
• Elite: Demon 15/13 975 cr
• Thief: Spy 0/0 400 cr

There is a few factors here making Balrogs not only really good but also really imbalanced. I will here state a few of the imbalances with Balrogs and things around Balrogs

1. 15% homes and the reduced dmg taken makes Balrogs close to impossible to kill with EQ/DM/Arson unless the tribe is really really inactive and very very low deffended
2. The racestats combined with the weaps working as guilds makes Balrogs a superb attacker, currently not being match by any other race.
3. Due to how the failrates works atm with 50-200% for mages and thieves, tms cannot do anything against an attacker thats much bigger, attackers can on the other hand due to loads of changes recently improving attackers do raids, BCs and Razes on any tribes at any sizes (as long as they can beat them ofc), I personally experienced that my last lifespan (as Balrog so I know how imba it is and the attackers targeting me was 2 balrogs and a mori more then twice my size), I recieved about 22 attacks in the period of just above 48hours. loosing over 1.2million raw def (at ~11k acres).

Balrogs made their return in Age 26. There are currently 20 Balrogs in play making them the third most played race in aatw, only beaten by Eagle (31) and Spirits (also 20), tho having a look on the sizes of these races makes the statistics above kinda misguiding.

Out of those 20 Spirits playing only 11 tribes are above 400 acres, infact only 14 of them have tribes with any acres at all. Eagles on the other hand have 29 tribes above 400 acres, this mainly due to KP deciding to reset and going all Eagles.

Balrogs got 19 tribes bigger then 400 acres, out of the 151 tribes being bigger then 400 acres, making it 12.6% of all played races atm.

Taking a look at top 10 you’ll see that 7 out of the current top is all Balrogs (as mentioned earlier)

Now lets take a closer look into Balrogs immortality. I will base the calcs on a typical Balrog both in the top10 and one of the smaller to prove its immortality both on big and on small acres.

A 3,xxx acre Balrog.

• Homes: 15%
• Markets: 8%
• tmdeff: 18% acads (with fame bonus making it ml 20)
• (This is a tribe in growthmode)
• 68% citiz

To kill this tribe with Arsons, DMs, EQs and Razes would require 89% of the Balrogs Homes. 89%.. thats sick, that is ofc not voided, but its still a huge ammount, at these small % the dmg from tms are really low.

Raid/fb killing could be a option for smaller Balrogs but you need alot of raids/fbs to do so, don’t forget about pestilence that boosts the citz regen even more and nightmare if the alliances have any economics (we failed a fb/raid kill on a 2.6k balrog that had 20% economics, even voided he was almost 100% citz again before the attackers could raid again.

A 13,xxx Balrog

• Homes: 15%
• Markets: 8%
• tmdef: 26% acads (ml 36 with fame bonus), 7% ghs
• (Semigrowth mode)
• 65% citz

Here you need 85% homes if not voided.

The point here is not that the only are immortal (really really hard to kill) they are also damn good attackers, I personally believe them to be the best attackers ingame atm and I think this opinion is shared by alot of people.

You have to be a fool not to see the overpowerness with Balrogs yet the last age changes only held improvements for the race other then reducing the ammount of citz the non homes holds (which is a drop in the ocean as a change)

Moving on

To cut it short, Light Elf has a ability where any dark spell results in 1% mp recharged for the targeted Light Elf, it was noticed that even people from the same alliance could throw spells like visions and the LE would get his mp recharged, this could be used to such extent that two LEs could achive an unlimited ammount of mp.

This is ofc overpowered, and I say overpowered cause its working as intended, it wasnt written in any other way in the dev forum, nor in the guide nor in the age changes list. it litterly says:

Replenishes 1% of total mana whenever targeted by a dark spell

The current definition of dark spells is everything you can throw on someone else except for the alliances spells.

This is again something utterly overpowered.

When this was noticed earlier we started discussing it in our alli channel (Im playing in #45 in aatw), and me along with the staffmember that reported it (he also reported it right away as a issue) decided to go and kill Iluros the dev responsible for all this (he was at this time playing Balrog and being quite a big one aswell), we would then move on to kill the 7 balrogs in the top10, this would be to prove the point about both imbalanced and overpowered races and no fixes were anywhere to be seen.

So we started doing some fbs. About 1.3k of them, we didnt kill Iluros but he came online and sent to LnO that this was a bug and thus we should be suspended. My arguement has the entire time being that if Light Elves should be suspended due to using a overpowered function then so should all Balrogs, but this opinion wasnt shared.

I could now go on and on about the discussion that took place both on #orkstaff @ irc and on the ingame forum but I want to point out with this post is once again that players are taking the consequenses of stupid changes that wasnt thought through and pushed into the game, its getting annoying being beta testers every single age.

A LE fix was on devork just a few hours after it being noticed, Balrogs on the other hands wasnt even planned to be changed until after this whole convo, a change is now on devork, I won’t even comment that change but I can’t believe that it takes this much arguementation to show something obvious..

All LEs are now paused until this fix has been uploaded, Balrogs on the other hand are left free to play around tho Iluros stated if they would be paused they should have the lost years repaid.. And Iluros put it:

Balrogs are overpowered. People playing balrogs receive an unfair advantage from their choice, but their intent at least explicitly is not to take advantage of the imbalance.

So you do deserve to get suspended according to Iluros if you picked Balrog cause they are the best attacker in the game atm due to their overpowerness.

This post have now taken so long time to write down due to being busy on so many other places argueing about all this that most of the discussion is over.

Ive decided to post this anyway. Now for crying out loud spend some more thoughts and testing into the changes you go live with before you no longer have a game to change.

I hate to write another of these longwinding posts so please sort it out so I don’t have to do it again.

Imbalance is a bitch

Cheers

~An annoyed Acwder…

FUN’s disbandment (2005) part II

December 22nd, 2009In the Rear-view Mirror0 comments

Hey.

As most of you know by now I was once a FUN member, its that one alliance that made me stick with this game, I had been playing Utopia and a few other games in the past but thx to Jappie and his FUN I decided to stick with this game.

A report on the disbandment of FUN was posted last month, while going through some old data I found this log which is one of the thread in our forum that very last age.

Reading through it I was touched by some of the words and saw so many players mentioned that isnt playing anymore, I guess some might consider this log as private but I want to share it, it being christmas and everything.

note: This was written at the time of the real disbandment, the earlier article was when FUN ended at the end of Age 17, this is at the end of Age 19 where FUN temporarly resurected.

So here it is:

Topic: The End

Purple
Purple Rain

2005-07-26 23:53:50 Thnx all for the wonderfull moments i was lucky enough to share with u all in this game and beond, the ally the team this group off friends is breaking up and for me its also time to take another road.

hope to see u all on irc!!! maybe we all join up and bring fear to orkfia once again.

cheers, Supreme

Morningsun
Cyan Dawn

2005-07-27 00:44:45 first of all: thanks jappie for have faith in me.
I really learned a lot about being elder and the less fun things about that too. Still I liked it and enjoyed most of the things we did together this age (trying to war etc )

Once again some people really amased me in a very positiv way (shade for example) so I’m thankfull I’ve played with those. Too bad so many of us got killed and couldn’t get on a nice size anymore.

now this age is over I’ll leave orkfia again so real life stuff can be picked up again. hope to speak some of you on irc/msn once in a while tho

the best to all of you

Jappie
Golden Sunshine

2005-07-27 01:36:52 First of all I want to thank you all for having the faith in me and my alliance to be with me for all there ages!

One person has been with me every age and I’m very gratefull to have such a friend and he feels to me as a brother. MeMerlin! I know he’s on vacation and won’t be able to read this post but still I wanted to name him!

Second I need to thank the Old Time FUNners! I know that still some players aren’t names yet but as this is the end of this alliance for God know how long I need to make this post according to the people who been with me.

Kakarot, Wai and Acwder been in this alliance a long time. (Acwder been out for a long time but still he’s an oldtimer). We played together in the generation of Pestilens, Neandrian, Glenn and some other players long time forgotten by this game! Hell this even include some bad recruits such as Bart and Peach (most likely only known by some). The 3 names at the start been with me for many ages in a row and they have been a key part to this alliance as well. They have helped and served #FUN each age they were in it! In 2003 when I was in Ghana for 7 weeks they kept the allinace allmost fallen apart. These players stood by me and had the trust that #FUN was an alliance to stay!

I also want to thank Tommies for co-founding this alliance with me and MeMerlin. We meet in beta age 4-5 or so when we were playing in ICE his alliance. You stood by me for many ages and for many ages you took your own path. But you allways came back to this alliance. Also we have meet couple of times IRL and I’m gratefull of knowing you. You’re powers to play this game helpen FUN and somethimes you left us but you allways came back!

Other key players to the FUN alliance as most of us know it are Rhodry, Suprem, JooP. Helping this alliance with eldering and making strats. Never hesitated to tell me when I was wrong and they allways gave their honoust opinion! Cheers to you all! Especially after you all joined here we made the ranking! I can write personal thanks to you all but I’m sure you all know how i feel All I can say is thank you for helping this alliance the way you have! You all put in loads of time and energy into this alliance and this game! ORKFiA shoudl give you all a veteran status for the work you have done and will do in the upcoming ages! One day I will be very proud to play with you again!!!!!!

I also want to thank Rye, Luth and Cheris! They came with us invited and without loads of ages expiences. I remember TJ asking me if his friend Rye could join us so we could teach him the game. Rye never left and TJ never got his well trained recruit join the alli he played . Well maybe next age Rye can finally play with you TJ .

Cheris was invited here by Suprem! I remember that Suprem asked me if his friend from an other game could join us and FUN allways took in friends. So Cheris joined and ever since proven to be a valuable active member! Allways willing to help and allways willing to give his opinion as well. For that I thank you Cheris! You told what was on your minds espeacially last ages!

Luth joined us from utopia. Actually to be honoust I don’t really remember who brought you in to be honoust. I’m ashamed of that. But you were a sunshine to our alliance You learned this game with patience and allways wanting to double check to be sure you did the right thing!

We also have a girl in our alliance that has been with us, left and rejoined and who is also a sunshine in our alliance! kiloWatt!
I know the first time I meet her was on a Dutch meeting in Leiden en I remember she was somewhat quiet but we did chat a bit. After that meeting we meet again in the Dutch Arnhem meeting and we decided to go out once. We grown to be friends and I appriciate that! You been sick last months and recovered mostly and I’m glad about it. For you I have the following msg: You won’t play orkfia ever unless you play with me

Now we’re down to the newer members:
Gurra and Tabore joined us 3-4 ages back! You were actually one of the limited players recruited by us. You both have shown us to be real team players and we coudl allways rely on you. Your first age the both of you have showed great activity and you helped winning wars with your teamplay in this alliance. It was like you were with us for many ages! It was very special to have new members that fitted in like you guys did!

Our latest members:
Shade, Adam, Glenn, TJ and Pao
TJ we have met long time ago and ever since we kept in touch. I been asking you many times to join us and this age you decided to join but it wasn’t as you expected. I’m sorry for that because I knew you could have outgrown me. nad never steal our market again

Shade we have met in #Sk and that age you impressed me alot! I promised myself not to invite any #sk player to #FUN after I would leave after that age but I noticed yu would leave anyway to a larger alliance so I decided to invite you! Ever since the most ingame msg I have are from you! Our playing together have grown to friendship and I will surely come to Florida once to meet you! Glad you are with me again next age!

Glenn, I was glad you joined. We have meet before but for real at R&D and we spend quite some time there on things we can’t discuss here But I will allways look for you on irc to have a chat with you. I wish you much luck with girls and surely we will play again together!

Adam, I know you will stop and that makes me sad. I know why you stop and I understand that. But I will remember you as a very enthousiastic player! There to help the alliance and to give your opinion! I hope this girl you have now is to stay!

Myeloou, first time we played together was in Herous of Orkfia. We never really chatted a lot but who knows we might play together again in the future

Luthien
Crimson Sunrise

2005-07-27 03:02:20 Jappie, your words are more than kind…. and I treasure your friendship, and hope maybe someday I will travel to Holland, or you will travel to California and we can meet in real life sometime.

You, and the other FUNners have been so good to me, despite my being a senile old lady…lol. i definitely feel blessed to be considered to be a part (and the official “queen”) of FUN.

I’ve made some very dear friends here, and I hope we can stay in touch on msn/irc (i’ll try to pop in there once in a while when work isn’t killing me).

And if any of you should ever come to california, PLEASE tell me, I’d love to be able to meet you face to face!

I don’t know yet what I’m doing for the next age, as i have another vacation coming up, and considering it took me all damn age to catch up after going to New York, I’m not sure i want to get involved.

Once I’m back though, i may setup a tribe with Niels, but I’ll decide that later.

Anyway, I wish all of you the best in wherever your lives take you, and I hope that someday your lives and mine will cross paths…

Thank you for all the FUN!

*supersparklyrainbow huggles and smooches for everyone*

(oh, and it was Rhodry who invited me into FUN initially when I was going to quit because of my really bad elder in my last alli).

I love you all…

Frank Murphy
Blue Thunder

2005-07-27 04:19:50 I’ve never been one for big speeches. I know you’re all thankful for that right

Anyway, I’d just like to say that it is always a pleasure to game with FUN members. Uncle Jappie you’re a great friend and I look forward to the day we can hang out on the beach in Sunny South Florida!

kWatt, you are and always will by my little girl Daddy’s proud of you!

Luth, my California dream girl! Will miss you take care sweets!

To the rest of you FUNners good gamming with you!

Holm
Teal Shadow

2005-07-27 06:03:36 Military service awaits me so this is my last age for quite some time, hope to see atleast some of you when I return.

thank you all for FUN

btw jappie I still got that peach on msn but she’s been blocked since well since she left FUN:P

bamboozle
Fuschia Night

2005-07-27 06:51:37 i dont have much to say, but
THANKS! THANKS! THANKS!

this alli has been and will always be my home, all of u people are unbelievably friendly
till next time evryone

Pinky and the Brain
Pink Horizon

2005-07-27 12:57:50 Thanks everyone, most of all Jappie & tommies for asking me to join. I also want to thanks tommies, even though i havnt known him as long as the old time funner i have known him quite a long time and always looked up to him as a player and a friend, so thanks for that.

Then there ofc is all my friends here…. i am reluctant to name them as i really dont want to forget anyone out.

But i sincerely love you all.

I also want to apologise to kaka for pissing him off so much this age. Sorry kaka! But thanks for arguieing with me.

I dont want either adam or karin to leave, but each of our times will come…. thanks for some great times, until we next meet

We will all speak soon, thats for sure.

Until the next time!

I hope to one day see you all returned to the world of Orkfia, that would be a great christmas present

Cheers

~Acwder

Petition: Don’t change the game to Alliances of Messed up Changes

December 20th, 2009Alliances at War, Orkfia Portal, The Orkfian Times11 comments

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

Orkfic Chapter II

December 6th, 2009OrkFic0 comments

Chapter I

In the east, a shadow fell over the moons of Orkfia. The radiant visage of Deam at last succumbed to the cover, albeit timidly illumined the night overcast, a corona of ill omens. Yet despite the heavy clouds filled to the brim with spite and rain, the shining comet could not be denied from the eyes of those that looked to the heavens. It pierced through the shroud as if to mock it, the reminder of its approach never dulled for a moment. No one could be permitted to forget its presence.

Hairen pulled his hood farther up over his head, hiding his features. The stirring lights of the firmament cast haunting shadows beneath the canopy of the Darkwood. The others gathered were likewise cloaked, their faces hidden. These were the guildmasters, lords among the thieves in his lands. He could not let his identity be known here. Nor they to him. Most among the dark elves thought their existence to be a mere story.

The priestesses warned to be wary when crossing the path of a thief. Be ever wary to never let your eyes leave them, lest they plant a knife in your back. That was the saying. The elfchilds were bidden to not wander too far in the night, lest the thieves come for them.

Few knew just to what extent the thieves were spread, hiding and watching. It suited Hairen just fine. They were useful, though he did not trust them.

None could know of these secret meetings, for they belied the true power held over these lands. It was a mystery wrapped in enigma, painted with deception.

Hairen was High King of these lands. He was not supposed to know about the guildmasters, indeed in these conclaves they plotted openly to manipulate him for their own ends. Nevertheless he had infiltrated their order, and attended every meeting that he could. Their hand was open before him. It had been like this for many Ages, and had become a simple game for him.

Thieves didn’t know mages also dealt in illusions and trickery.

“Reports account that our ‘righteous cousins’ are expanding into the north,” One of the robed figures began, his voice muffled; “It seems they are seeking the Library of Arathos.”

The others nodded quietly. There was no first among equals here, no one could be permitted the distinction of being made leader. Thus the guildmasters plotted behind one another’s back, always seeking to gain a secret advantage. At least one person had been brutally tortured to yield the information that had just now been spoken. Who knew how many messangers it went through before at first coming to the ear of the speaker? They fed on one another as well.

“Naturally scouts have been deployed to secure the information for ourselves,” Another broke in. The first speaker stirred, the slightest hint of discomfort showing in his movements. A loose string had disheveled his plan. It was clear as if he had spoken it aloud. Many would suffer in punishment of that grievous error.

“What are those white wizards seeking?” A third inquired, the distaste on her voice. There was no doubt she was a priestess underneath that hood. The Maidens of Ciorin held no love for these newcomers, the light elves. They claimed to come from the realm of the gods, but recognized none that were worshiped by these people. Hairen smiled in secret, knowing the truth of the matter. They were one in the same, their names warped by the passing of Ages. None now called them by what they were known when they walked the lands of Orkfia, in the beginning.

There was a silence. Perhaps no one knew the answer to that question, but it was more likely that they merely thought it too important to share. Hairen dispelled their ambitions.

“They are seeking a lost source of power,” He explained, just as he had heard from Ancero; “Drawn from something else entirely than the Comet.”

A few were unable to contain their surprise, expressed as discreetly as it was in a quiet gasp. So, he knew a great bit more than any of they. Good. The sooner it would change the ways of the dark elves.

“What is this source of power?” One figure demanded, angry at not having been the first to know of it.

“It is Creation, the opposer to Destruction,” Hairen answered; “With it they shall restore the shattered force of Preservation, and return the world to peace.”

Many began to speak at once. It had always been the case that the Comet was the source of all mystical power. And through it, destruction and war surged, ravaging the lands. As the guildmasters rightly ascertained, a new source of power would put the thieves to a disadvantage, and furthering such goals as peace would surely clip their own aims.

“We should destroy it,” One concluded finally.

It was really quite simple. As the world unraveled before the power of Destruction, the thieves profited on the decay. So they fed the chaos, tending it like a weak flame until it roared into calamity. All for gold and power. They were unable to see the lasting consequences that their actions held for them, the ruin that awaited their short-sighted greed. Hairen would use it to crush them.

“I agree,” He lied smoothly. All was going exactly according to his plan.

FUN’s disbandment (2005)

November 25th, 2009In the Rear-view Mirror1 comment

This is a in the rear-view mirror post, about the disbandment of FUN in 2005. The ages named in this post is reffering to pre infinity ages.

FUN’s disbandment
By: Adam
Date: 9th of May, 2005
Source: The Orkfian Times (with Ulysses as editor)

It was at the end of Age 17, a great warring alliance decided to split for a while, the elders and founder were having problems keeping up with work in their life and with managing a top alliance at the same time. Age 17 was a great age for FUN, although they were beaten by the number 1 alliance at the end of the age the rest of the age was full of surrenders from opposing alliances after learning that FUN were killing opposing alliances off too easily.

FUN had been around in the early ages, people coming people going, no matter what type or amount of players that were in FUN they were always great, never going for ranks, however always gaining land, strength, fame and science from many wars every age. FUN always put back something into ORKFiA that no other alliance could, they weren’t afraid to war top alliances but saw it as having fun, and that’s what they did.

The disbandment of this great alliance was always going to be sad for its members, old and new, but for the longest lasting members it was shattering.

People come, people go, alliances split, they return, it’s what happens, it sometimes can be avoided, sometimes it can’t, for this alliance it couldn’t have been avoided. A few of the new players were hoping to play as FUN again for Age 18 (the following age) but after talks with the other members it was agreed that it wouldn’t be the same without the founders and the elders.

FUN decided then that their disbandment wouldn’t be a long term arrangement, after talks they decided that after the elders and founder had finished with studies and work in their lives they would re-group in a few ages time.

So for those who love FUN remember, they won’t be away for long, and for those who hate FUN, well, you remember it too.

FUN will return one day when the members are good and ready and the founder feels he is up to managing this fun loving alliance again.

~Adam

Information about FUN:

Created by Jappie, MeMerlin and tommies way back in the early ages of pre infinity time. FUN was as you can guess all about having fun, here is a few others that played their fair share of ages in FUN: me (Acwder), Adam, Gurra, Guran, KiloWatt (kw), etc etc. Several of us old players hope that Jappie and MeMerlin one day will return to the world of Orkfia and bring the rebirth of FUN, and who knows maybe they will.

Orkfic Chapter I

November 24th, 2009OrkFic1 comment

As the ethereal conclave of mages plotted in the World of Dreams, the storm unleashed the entirety of its wrath upon the land. Once begun by magic, it raged on its own, an entity of independent will and power. Gales of wind swirled shrilly over weathered masonry and battlements, the rising energy in the air reaching its climax high in the atmosphere beyond where the winged races flew. Dark, furious clouds roiled and sputtered gouts of lightning and peals of thunder. It worked its way into a keening blizzard, coating the landscape of the forests of the North in white. Many a child hid his face in his mother’s skirts in the face of the monstrosity, itself started only hours before as Ancero’s retaliation. The hills themselves were rended by the wrath of the winds. And then, just as quickly as it had formed, the storm vanished. The world was once again eerily calm: the trees were unbroken, the land dry and uncovered by snow or mangled bodies. It was as if it never were, but in the memory of those that lived it.

With each use of magic, the fabric of existence itself shuddered. Destruction poured through the cracks of the Void, a hungry miasma that devoured reality itself. Looming in the wind-tossed firmament, the Comet approached the end of its procession; within that blazing rock the Sleeping God waited. A nameless and primordial terror, the deity had been imprisoned for far too long. But soon It would be unleashed.

All over the world of Orkfia below, ignorant mages tapped into Its dark ocean of power. Bits of rock crumbled and burned away. Threads of Time strained as the ancient spell once again neared its completion.

Little by little, all of Creation threatened to shatter under the pressure.

Soon this age would end. It would be the ending of all ages to It, the dark God of Destruction.

Deep in the bowels of the earth crowned by the impassable Iron Mountains, an army waited in the darkness. Most were goblins, small of stature and of courage. The bigger breed who ruled the slave horde, the orks, were also among them in chains. As were the hulking ogres and towering trolls. These beasts all together were made captives here. All stood waiting before the precipice, not daring to gaze down into the abyssal darkness. Infernal heat fumed from the stygian depths to the stony roof of the cavern, carrying with it the smell of brimstone and death. All were silent, save for the occasional whimpering of a child accompanied by the brutish thud of the mother to quiet the brat.

Opposite to the gathering of greenskins, a massive creature stood. The demon was a creature not quite of the world, its shadowy form shifting and flickering as flame. The only permanent feature to it was the face: a skull-like visage topped with curling horns and eyes that burned like awls. All the while it chanted a spell in a guttural tongue not unlike what the orks themselves spoke. In truth it was the origin of such.

Then, it spoke.

“Forward,” It intoned, its voice like a chorus of cacophonous screams, each calling for blood, booming throughout the cavern. In it was a malice beyond the comprehension of the greenskins. Sure, they knew of bloodlust and the chaos of battle and reveled in slaughter. But this was a death much darker. The will of the creature crashed down upon their simple minds like a burning avalanche. To their horror, their limbs stepped forward. The misshapen masses hobbled and limped stiffly, their eyes wide in terror as the first wave stepped over the edge.

It was then that the screaming began. Their bodies flailed helplessly for a moment before being consumed by the blackness of the chasm. Their shrieks and wails echoed above them. And then, a dreadful silence. There was no sickening crunch as they came to the end of their fall. It was as if they had ceased to exist altogether. The rest quivered in fear. Then, the second wave spilled over much like the first. Again and again, until each living soul was extinguished.

Pooled in the shadowy recesses were the remains of the victims. The fleshy bodies themselves were incinerated by the magma that rose to the surface. It was their souls in fact that stirred just above like a blanket of smoke. It was now vast and terrible, and directed towards one purpose.

The cabal of heretics approached the collossal demon with some trepidation. Though they lived no longer, this creature had the power to show them an even more terrible death than their first. Prostrating themselves before the hellish entity, they awaited its commands.

“Bring more living souls,” The voices roared mercilessly. The brittle bones and dessicated skin of the cultists creaked dryly as they scurried away, fearful to be the last one out of the vaulted chamber.

Yes, soon. The Comet would be sundered. All would fall under the power of Destruction.

Ancero felt an unearthly chill as the ripples of the spell traveled all the way to his northern kingdom. They were but a whisper now, distant in space and time, but full of anguish and suffering. Some foul deed had come to pass in the night, far to the West. The wicked forces of the Enemy were gathering their strength, as sure as the hair on his neck stood tall. Around him, the light elves gazed with worry towards the direction of the setting sun. They could feel it too, and it made them even more uneasy. He made something approaching a calming gesture, though in truth he knew little of their ways.

Arathos was a distant memory in his mind, clouded by his last death as it always was. He could vaguely recall it lay even farther north, beyond the White Mountains on the rocky coast of the Winter Sea. The Library there contained many ancient secrets, and he had always searched in vain for an answer.

Invariably, it would be too late by the time he realized his course of inquiry was a dead end, and the Age would end.

Not this time.

The light elves had told him somewhat of the force of Creation as they knew it. It had embodied itself in the souls of Men, and entrusted to them the fate of Orkfia. But nevertheless the gods had sent these elves to aid their cause. It seemed that putting faith into mankind had proved an error in their judgment.

He knew now that Creation and Destruction turned in opposition to one another, bound at the center by Preservation which maintained the balance between the two. The Seal of Preservation had been the barrier that prevented each from directly interfering in the affairs of Orkfia, but somehow it had broken long ago, when the troubles began. This had been the innate power of the elves, the remnants of its power fading away after the passing of each age. But now, these new elves stood only for Creation.

The secret to its power was far different than what he had become accustomed to during his many lives drinking from the Comet. It as altogether a different experience. The divine mystery swam just above the unclaimed outlands of his mind, whispering gently of wisdom and power. Yet it would melt away into nothingness as he bore it his attention. Force and domination held no sway over Creation, unlike the power of its counterpoint.

He would share his knowledge with his allies. Perhaps if enough of them learned it would be enough to save them. Already there was too little time.

War Report – [Bamse] vs. MH (2004)

November 11th, 2009In the Rear-view Mirror, War Reports0 comments

This is a rear view mirror war report written back in june 13th 2004.

June 13th 2004

[Bamse] had just ended a long and intense war with OTF (#355), and was soon becoming awear of the growing concern Mostly Harmless – MOstly Themeless (#349). As the age slowly ran from mid-age too late-age [Bamse] stod befor 2 choices.

We could either continue too grow as would MH and procrastinate a future to come battle or we could fight them out now. The choice was quiet obvious to [Bamse].

The decisions was many, plans was slowly made. MH was looking rather nasty with thier 6 immortal High Elves, and supported with some heavy Wood Elves (and a few other TMs), which made us unsure if we were making the right decision.

Finally the buildings were built, we were hoping for a suprise attack, but didnt count on it.
A killtarget was set, guilds almost filled, last recons were made, showing thier HEs increasing thier CH/GH’s, the cover was blown (as suspected would be), but at 05:01:48 ST the final blow was lade in Weeee Cartoons Rule! NOT (#349) a ~7200 acre High Elf.

This woke MH up for real, thier TMs was getting the guilds and the acads, but [Bamse] set a new killtarget, Kewl d00dz (#349) had been chosen, and after surviving the first wave of OPs he shortly realised he would die, so he realsed allmost all his offence a sum of ~280k sages, all gone but ~60k.

Shortly after a thired target would be chosen, a some what harder one aswell, With 20/20 % CH/GH + ML 1 Going |llll|llll|llll|-y alone (#349) was chosen as second target. This was proved to be a tough and long kill, as we had unluck with DMs gettingn throw and he was lucky they didnt. But after a long stuggle the final blow was aswell laid in Going |llll|llll|llll|-y alone (#349) at 04:06:59 ST, a ~7400 acre High Elf.

Mostly Harmless – Mostly Themeless (#349), were now responding with heavy TM artillery on [Bamse] Teddy (#3), but gave up seeing as he keept surviving thier kill attempts. MH change target, and started on [Bamse] Surre as he had a larger amount of money on himself proven to apperently not be around he died shortly after and the final blow was laid in [Bamse] Surre 11:00:05 ST, a ~6000 acre Wood Elf.
As the fourth target had been elected, and at 15:00:18 ST the final blow was laid in Jelloman (#349), a ~7200 acre High Elf.

Now the real WAR decleration came, at 16:47:58 ST war was declared on by [Bamse] #3.

Mostly Harmless – Mostly Themeless (#349) showing they wouldnt lay still, continued on [Bamse] Burre, getting him down too 67k citz the first update, surely proving his death the rest of [Bamse] keept thier phones ringing but without a answer, though here the luck was shown, precisly at xx:58:20 [Bamse] Burre logged on and saved himself from a sure death. Building his homes and securing his tribe for a short while.
But at 18:00:28 ST the final blow came at [Bamse] Burre, a ~3600acre Wood Elf.

A hour later we coul se: 2004-06-12 19:03:16 Alliance #349 surrendered! You won the war!, befor the war started, kind of funny.

Shortly after a tripple kill were made on [Bamse] Vargen, a ~3000 acre High elf. [Bamse] responded with attitude and made a kill on Catching Butterflies (#349), a ~4200acre Wood Elf.

And from here came some failed kill attempts on [Bamse] Skalman, [Bamse] Snaskus sork, and from [Bamse], failing to kill Pillow Humpers of Orkfia (#349).

Written by Wheelie