Derrick
ლ(ಠ_ಠ )ლ
- Joined
- Nov 22, 2010
- Messages
- 5,085
- Reaction score
- 5
Medieval feudal war in the age of information
Picture, if you will, feudal Europe in the Middle Ages. Local lords jostled each other for position and rank, vying for their king’s favour, seeking to broaden their territories and their power base. Enter Evony (previously, during its development and Beta-testing stages known as Civony), a free-to-play, massivelymultiplayer online strategy game that runs in your Web browser. Such browser-based games have come a long way, and are getting quite sophisticated these days.
This one immediately impressed me in terms of its graphical fidelity, with the visuals reminding me very strongly of Age of Empires – and not just the first one! But the production quality doesn’t end there: the game also has amazing depth and a certain complexity that manages to not be daunting.
The basic premise of the game is that you are a fledgling feudal lord, eager to carve your place in the world. You start with not even a rude village – all you have is a site, and some resources. The early game quests act as a very effective tutorial, guiding you through the process of developing and advancing your village into a town, then a city, along with commensurate armed forces. The tutorial rewards you by often refunding the resources you spent, so your first town goes up pretty quickly. However, once you establish your second settlement, the game is truly on.
Of course, when you start out you are very small fry, so the game places you under seven-day beginner’s protection, during which time other players cannot attack you; but conversely you cannot attack them. Use this time to build up, so that you are ready for the big world once you emerge from your cocoon! During the course of the game, you will erect buildings, upgrade them, set up town defences, train an army, juggle taxes and the population’s morale. You’ll manage mighty heroes who will lead your armies and run your towns, and lead your armies into battle to hopefully conquer territories and towns, and thereby expand your little empire. Beware: if you bully those who are too far beneath you, or beat on the same, defeated opponents too much, your reputation for honour will be tarnished. But fight ambitiously, and you will be seen as honourable. Advance your society, and your prestige will rise, as it will for battle victories. Prestige, gold, and medals of recognition will earn you promotions in rank and title, entitling you to build or conquer more cities
You can, and should form or join alliances (strength in numbers!). That will allow you to broaden your trade options, as well as offer or accept humanitarian or military aid.
Overall, this is a most engrossing game. It starts off frantically busy, as you go about learning the ropes and establishing the basis
of your first town, but the pace does slow down somewhat, meaning that you can check on it periodically to see what might require your attention, and otherwise leave things to go on without you. Even while you are offline, your construction and research projects will continue, as will your resource gathering.
This makes it ideal to have in a minimised window while at work, for example. My only real complaint is the lack of sound of any kind.
Picture, if you will, feudal Europe in the Middle Ages. Local lords jostled each other for position and rank, vying for their king’s favour, seeking to broaden their territories and their power base. Enter Evony (previously, during its development and Beta-testing stages known as Civony), a free-to-play, massivelymultiplayer online strategy game that runs in your Web browser. Such browser-based games have come a long way, and are getting quite sophisticated these days.
This one immediately impressed me in terms of its graphical fidelity, with the visuals reminding me very strongly of Age of Empires – and not just the first one! But the production quality doesn’t end there: the game also has amazing depth and a certain complexity that manages to not be daunting.
The basic premise of the game is that you are a fledgling feudal lord, eager to carve your place in the world. You start with not even a rude village – all you have is a site, and some resources. The early game quests act as a very effective tutorial, guiding you through the process of developing and advancing your village into a town, then a city, along with commensurate armed forces. The tutorial rewards you by often refunding the resources you spent, so your first town goes up pretty quickly. However, once you establish your second settlement, the game is truly on.
Of course, when you start out you are very small fry, so the game places you under seven-day beginner’s protection, during which time other players cannot attack you; but conversely you cannot attack them. Use this time to build up, so that you are ready for the big world once you emerge from your cocoon! During the course of the game, you will erect buildings, upgrade them, set up town defences, train an army, juggle taxes and the population’s morale. You’ll manage mighty heroes who will lead your armies and run your towns, and lead your armies into battle to hopefully conquer territories and towns, and thereby expand your little empire. Beware: if you bully those who are too far beneath you, or beat on the same, defeated opponents too much, your reputation for honour will be tarnished. But fight ambitiously, and you will be seen as honourable. Advance your society, and your prestige will rise, as it will for battle victories. Prestige, gold, and medals of recognition will earn you promotions in rank and title, entitling you to build or conquer more cities
You can, and should form or join alliances (strength in numbers!). That will allow you to broaden your trade options, as well as offer or accept humanitarian or military aid.
Overall, this is a most engrossing game. It starts off frantically busy, as you go about learning the ropes and establishing the basis
of your first town, but the pace does slow down somewhat, meaning that you can check on it periodically to see what might require your attention, and otherwise leave things to go on without you. Even while you are offline, your construction and research projects will continue, as will your resource gathering.
This makes it ideal to have in a minimised window while at work, for example. My only real complaint is the lack of sound of any kind.