EXCITING NEW FEATURE COMING SOON - Unit Desertion

A feature that was promised before R7 and R8 released is finally coming!!

From the earliest days of Realm of Empires, we've struggled with the problem of too many fake attacks. Attackers felt compelled to send as many as possible, defenders found themselves with too many attacks to manage.

As ROE veterans can appreciate, its a hard problem to solve since fake attacks are a core tactical tool in attackers toolbox.

In R7 and R8, we are releasing a 'Unit Desertion' algorithm aimed at minimizing this issue. Minimizing is the key here. We are not removing this tactical option just limiting it.



The algorithm in a nutshell:

1. Some troops sent over a long distance will desert thus forcing you to send more and more troops over longer distances
2. The more troops you send, the fewer will desert
3. The longer the distance, the more troops will desert
4. Including a governor with the attack boosts the troops morale and prevents any desertion
5. Sending more than 300 "population-worth" of troops prevents any desertion
6. There is no desertion if the distance is 13 squares or less (roughly a 19x19 map)
7. Troops desert the moment the attack is launched
   

The above applies to attacks only.

Definition: population-worth, ie size of an attack
For the purpose of this algorithm, we calculate the size of the attack as the sum of population/food of all troops involved.

Ie, Citizen Militia consumes 1 unit of food therefore it has population-worth size of 1
Ram consumes 10 units of food therefore it has population-worth size of 10
and so on...

What we want to achieve with this algorithm, is to prevent clans from being able to send huge amounts of fake attacks over very long distances. You may still do so, but you will take higher losses.

At the same time, we did not want to automatically remove this tactical tool thus there is the minimal distance of 13 squares in which there is no desertion.

We hope that this will limit the number of fake attacks incoming to players who find themselves in a big war yet people close to each other can still play as they do now.

Keep in mind that it is still experimental and we may tweak it over the next weeks and months based on your experience and comments.

Some comments on new features released today

Today we are pleased to make yet another release with some great new features and updates!

Summary of today's release:

1. From attack report, can paste attacker & defender into battle simulator as attacker or defender (much more flexible than what we had before)
2. From attack report, can paste the intelligence info available in the report, about the attacker or defender, into a note on a the village. That paste uses the new troops and report BBCode to nicely format the report, gives you a link back to the original report and more.
3. Paste your troops into the battle simulator in various ways
   
4. New BBCode [troops] - allows you to list the troops in some village in a nice way
5. New BBCode [report] - renders a nice box around whatever text you want signaling that this is a report. Will be expanded further in functionality in following releases
6. BBCodes now supported in Village Notes (notes on other villages)
   
7. Both player and village overview, when clicked from the map, open in a popup just like quick attack/support thus allowing you review the info without leaving the map. On those popup you can see the incoming/outgoing from this village/player, as well as your notes.
8. Quick attack & support windows now have an option to close the window after sending the attack - no need to click the close window icon each time
9. Easier to see your notes on village/player when hovering over a village on the map
10. Ranking areas - probably one of the more exciting new features we are introducing. The map is divided to a number of 100x100 square areas and you can see how you rank against players in your area. Currently, this has been implemented for Player Ranking only but Clan Ranking will also be divided into areas in the next release. We have great hopes for this to create more localized clans as new player will by default see the top clans in his area rather than realm wide.
    

Pasting Report to village Note and the new BBCodes

We wanted an easier way for you to relate a report of your choosing to a village. Ie, an easier way to see what troops a village may have according to the intelligence you have.

To get this nice troops table, simply put [troops]0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0[/troops] where the 0 is some number of troops. Put "?" if you don't know. Available anywere BBCodes are supported


Doing more from the map
We want to allow you to do more from the map without having to refresh it and loose your place.

For this, we've improved the quick attack/support (even more improves coming in future releases) and made the player and village overview popups.

Imagine browsing the map - how many times have you wondered:

• what notes do I have on this player /village?
  
• do I have a spy report, or any intelligence on this village?
  
• do I have attacks / support incoming from this player?
• am I attacking this player or village?

Well, now with the village overview as a popup, and ability to paste report into the note, you can see get this information easily.

We've just begun to expand functionality in this direction and plan to continue with the 'do more from the map' philosophy. I wish I could share with you a road map but things change SO quickly that I rather announce features when they are ready, or almost ready at least!

Ranking Areas

This existing new feature is in its infancy right now. Implemented only for Player Ranking for now in order to get you guys to experiment with this as soon as possible.

Basically, we divided up the realm into 100x100 square boxes or areas.

By default, you view your ranking in your area, the area that you current village is in.

We will soon expand the clan ranking to include the areas as well. You will be able to see the rank and points of your clan in your (or some other) area in addition to realm wide as it is now

Realm Of Empires helps Haiti earthquake victims!

Realm of Empires will donate 20% of PayPal sales to the American Red Cross - Haiti Relief and Development fund on all servant packages completed in the week starting January 19th

With your support, we will help more of those in need!

Details:

• The transaction has to be completed in the time specified (Jan 19th to Jan 26th)
• This is for the PayPal sales of packages between 30 and 2000 servants, not for servants purchased through 3rd parties like OfferPal or SuperRewards
• Donation will be made promptly after Jan 26th to the American Red Cross http://www.redcross.org/

Examples for clarification

For clarification, the 20% is on the gross sale. I.e., If you purchase 100 servants for $4.95USD, we will donate $0.99USD to red cross. 200 servants for $8.95US package results in $1.79USD donation. Purchase 2000 servants and not only will you have servants for a very long time, you can also feel great about helping Haiti victims with approximately $10USD

Help Haiti, Support further development of the game, and enjoy our great premium features!!

Thank you in advance from the Realm Of Empires team!

Blog for servants! Earn 10,000+ servants!

As mentioned a number of times, we are actively looking for ways for our players to earn servants. Today we are rolling out a ‘blog for servants’ offer! Basically, we want to reward you for helping spread the word about Realm of Empires!
So, if you have a blog, know someone with a blog, write for a magazine, know someone who writes for a magazine etc, and you can either write a favorable blog, publish an article about us, or influence someone to do so, then we would like to reward you handsomely!
You do not actually have to write the article, but at least influence someone to write one. If the author will confirm you as the reason for writing the publication you will be rewarded!

Rules

• The article / blog must be favorable towards realm of empires and must include a link to http://www.realmofempires.com/
• One offer per person unless you clear it with us first
• NO SPAM! Anything that could be considered as spam is not allowed.
• This is a limited time offer.
  

How we determine the reward amount
We ultimately decide if the article/blog is acceptable for this offer and every article that is accepted will earn a minimum of 50 servants. We will then decide how much more is the publication worth based on the following:

• Popularity of the blog / magazine
• Quality of the publication (is it engaging, is it well written, proper grammar and spelling, length, presentation, how favorable it is to Realm Of Empires etc)
• Relevance of the blog / magazine to the game (an online strategy game magazine/website will be considered more relevant than a food magazine :)
• Presentation of the publication - does it include nice screen shots of the game? Does it include nice images?

How much can I expect to get?
A paragraph length blog entry on a personal blog with minimum popularity will earn you 50-100 servants. Article on a relatively popular gaming website will easily earn you 10,000 servants. Get us into wired magazine, and there will be servants coming out of your … ears! :)

However, a new blog, created just for this offer, with no readers, will normally not be accepted.

Maximize your reward - Include nice images!
Feel free to use any of the game images you choose. We also creted a few nice images for you to use here: http://s650.photobucket.com/albums/uu225/RealmofEmpires/

Maximize your reward - promote your blog!
Remember that the goal of this promotion, is to help spread the word about realm of empires. If you write an blog that no one reads, it has very minimal value to us. However, you can increase its value greatly, and hence increase the reward, if you try to prmote your blog in some way. Consider posting it on:

• digg.com
• buzz.yahoo.com
• delicious.com
• slashdot.org
• stumbleupon.com
• reddit.com
• ping.fm
• twitter
• etc

How to claim your reward

Email cases@roe.fogbugz.com with subject “blog for servants offer” (please get the subject right for prompt response!). Include a link to the article with any explanation, or metrics on the blog/website/magazine that you feel are relevant. Send using the email that identifies you are the author of the publication. If you are not the author, include the author on the email and he will have to verify you are the reason for this blog/article.

Remember to help us out in determining the popularity of the blog, website or magazine. Help us get the proper information, or offer us the matrics if you have them.

We will review your entry and will get back to you as soon as possible ( we aim for a 5 day turn around)


Yeah, yeah, you will just not 'accept' my article won’t you!?
No, we plan to accept every entry unless it is very poorly done/trivial, does not promote us at all, or even worse, damages us. We want to encourage you to use your talents to help us grow accepting articles will help us accomplish this goal.


Can I get an estimate before going to the trouble of writing?
Definitely! If you are thinking of taking advantage of this offer, but not sure if it will be acceptable, or what the reward amount will be, submit your idea to rewards@realmofempires.com and we will get back to you as soon as we can. Include as much relevant information as possible.


Examples of what will NOT be accepted
Remember that the idea behind this offer is to reward you for helping to promote Realm Of Empires.
Creating a brand new personal blog just for the purpose of this offer, a blog that has no readers of any kind, does not promote us and will not be acceptable. This offer is for exising blogs, website or articles with at least some popualrity /reader base.
Blogs with spelling mistakes, gramatical errors will not be accepted

Allowing Realm Of Empires to publish short stories to your wall

At realm of empires, we only publish relevant stories about significant events in the game ( read about stories we publish ).

We strive to make the stories fun, interesting, appealing to the eye to your and to your friends.

Being able to publish stories to your wall, helps us grow! Facebook may publish those stories to your friends news feed hence increasing the chances that Realm Of Empires will be discovered by others.

If you are enjoying the game, and would like to help us grow, we would very much like to ask you to allow us to post stories to your profile. As explained here we publish very few stories, and only of significant events in the game.

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE for helping us grow!

Allow Realm Of Empires to post stories to your wall in 60 seconds.

Step 1: Login to Facebook and click the Applications button on bottom left of the screen


Step 2: Click the Edit button.


Step 3: Locate Realm of Empires and click Edit Settings



Step 4: On the Wall tab, select 'Allow Realm of Empires to publish specific story size (...)" and select "Short" as the story size.

Stories Realm Of Empires publishes to your wall

As seasoned facebook user, you probably know that Facebook Applications you authorize, can post stories to your wall.

Those stories are supposed to tell your friends significant events in your 'life'. Unfortunately, many applications spam their members.

Many game post as many stories as the they possibly can, mostly of trivial events events such as of you inviting friends to the application ("Bill has invited his friends to join him in something wars") or clicking a complete quest button ("Bill stashed away a hoard of gold in Dragon Wars")

At Realm of Empires, we aim to only publish significant stories. Here are the stories we publish:


You registered at a realm


You joined or created a clan


You accepted a new title


You conquered a new village



We plan to make those stories more interesting and relevant by including unique graphics to every title, different graphics, and your statistics in conquered village story etc.

Cannot enter realm of empires - 3rd party cookie issue

Problem

I cannot enter the game. Everytime I click on Login or Enter, it just takes me back the main screen.

Reason

We use cookies to remember who you are, ie to log you in. Because Realm Of Empires is running inside Facebook iframe, Realm of Empires is considered a '3rd party' so you must enable 3rd party cookies.

Solution

While in Beta, we only support Fire Fox 3.x and Internet Explorer 7. If you are using a different browser and find a solution to this problem, please send us some information so that it can be added here

Fire Fox 3.x

Enable 3rd party cookies. Go to Tools->Options go to Privacy tab and check mark 'Accept third-party cookies'

Internet Explorer 7

You must allow Third-party cookies or, add http://www.realmofempires.com/ as a trusted site.

Under Tools->Internet Options, go to Security Tab

There you can add http://www.realmofempires.com/ to trusted sites:

OR, go to Privacy tab



There either lower the security level to High or lower OR, click Advanced and enable third-party cookies