First Post!
Hey everyone -
So, at this point, I guess you’ve all been wondering what’s going on over here at OMAC, in regard the games. With that in mind, we’ve set up this blog to keep you updated on the day-to-day goings on. The blog, in conjunction with the forums, will be prime sources of information for anything and everything to do with the development of the games.
Our first priority will be to update the user interface and manuals somewhat, to ease entry for newbies. Then we’ll start to advertise, and hopefully bring fresh players to the games - we expect the games to grow quite rapidly over the next year. Once we’ve reached that point, we’ll begin to make more major updates to the games - adding some of the features you’ve requested, and some we think you may enjoy. We intend to work closely with players, so we expect plenty of suggestions and thoughtful input ;)
As you can see, we’re starting out slowly on some of the smaller things - this is to give us a chance to play and get to know the games, before we make any major game altering changes.
I’ve been playing on both Utopia - WoL and now Genesis - and some of the Earth servers, and am really enjoying both. The everyday interactions with people I have found to be one of the most rewarding aspects of these games so far. I think at this point I’ve made almost all the nub mistakes - and my nwpa is finally looking a little better! I’ll tell you more about my adventures in future posts, provided I’m not PKed, or worse…
I’ve talked to a few of you now both via email and IRC, and we’re hoping - at some point - to talk to more of you on IRC, in the future - but more of that later.
Right now we’re finishing up a full development plan for the games, and were setting up some ancillary resources - like this blog, and the new forums. We’ll try to keep you updated here, as we continue to work on the games - and if you have any questions that need answers, or would like to see us talk about something in particular on the blog, let us know, and we’ll try to accommodate it!
Róisín
July 24th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
Keeping us up to date is ftw Róisín <3
July 24th, 2008 at 11:37 pm
After playing in a ghetto for a while you should get in a top kingdom and see the play difference :)
July 25th, 2008 at 5:41 am
Har har.
Admins playing the games = bad:/
But heck … good luck with it. I hope Utopia will be what it have been before, with plenty of players and hell of fun …
July 25th, 2008 at 9:15 am
I would really enjoy see some new players flow into Utopia world which would lead not just to new players but many from the old ones either to come back or be more active.
I think you way of changing the game is very good. Talking with players and being there to see it first hand is the best thing. I would suggest also going slow with changes because sometimes a slight change/boast or tweak/ of a thing on a race/personality might make like half of the utopia world be that race/percsonality next age which in a way is boring to see yourself 10,000 times :).
I have big anticipations for not next age but the one after it. A lot of my old friends would also come back playing only because OMAC.
Looking forward to see the development or discussing any changes.
Gratz
July 25th, 2008 at 10:23 am
Look, a reply! I hope you feel special now Róisín :D
July 25th, 2008 at 1:51 pm
Nice way to keep us informed :)
Could someone tell me what the IRC channel is… since #OMAC is invite only…
July 25th, 2008 at 2:09 pm
Wow, great to see that you’re taking communications seriously. Great idea with this blog, updates every week sounds awesome. Keep it up!
Btw tzar is nub
July 25th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
We don’t have an official channel, yet - but you can expect to hear more about IRC later :)
July 25th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
tzar ftw
Ireland ftw!
So far so good:P
80k new ppl should be enough:o
July 25th, 2008 at 3:05 pm
Thank you much for getting us up to date so quickly with possible changes. I know it will be a busy time for you guys.
I’m gonna go ahead and suggest one SIMPLE change for next age - one that I believe should have been put in ages ago.
On the Kingdom page.
War Wins: # Draws: # Losses: #
as oppossed to Wins: # Losses: #
I think that would give a more accurate picture of a Kingdom, and speaks better of how a Kingdom succeeded throughout the age.
July 25th, 2008 at 3:39 pm
the new forums look kind of cool actually in spite of my initial skepticism about them.
Thank you for posting this, I look forward to seeing what kinds of developments you will have in store. :)
Also look forward to chatting. We have plenty of suggestions for earth but I think most of us will be just greatful to have an active admin again:)
July 25th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
I’m glad to hear you’re going to be working on the user interface as an early priority - that’s a big issue for me, being the maintainer of Seraphiel and all. Incidentally I’d love to discuss such things if y’all are interested.
July 25th, 2008 at 5:07 pm
I am very pleased with your plans for utopia. The people whao are still in utopia are loyal, die-hard veterans of the game for the most part and we are all anxious to see the improvements you have in store for the game and us.
“Thank goodness somebody called OMAC! We’re saved!”
July 25th, 2008 at 10:38 pm
I have been playing Earth for a really long time and I do still enjoy it and the community that developed around it.
I agree that Advertising and some New player orientation would be a great thing. Bringing in new players is essential to keeping the games going.
Earth specifically, there are many issues I feel would help. Better New player protection from excessive farming, recovery from cheater attacks (country restore ftw), expanded game moderation/administration and rejecting open proxies are just a few.
I hope to hear from you.
July 26th, 2008 at 12:54 am
Catwalk needs to stop with the brown nosing… seriously.
mbab ftw
July 26th, 2008 at 3:37 am
Bring back earth chat!
lol
Thanks for the updates yada yada
July 26th, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Country Type: treehugger is needed
attacking costs 20 turns or more each way.
one half of attacking forces defect to the attacked both ways.
July 26th, 2008 at 9:39 pm
I agree that gradual changes would prolly be best, too many sudden changes could make it difficult to pinpoint balancing issues…
July 26th, 2008 at 11:38 pm
I wasn’t brown nosing you tzar, I meant what I said.
July 27th, 2008 at 1:01 am
Excellent! Great to hear from you. Can’t wait for a public IRC so we can contact you guys easier other than spamming you with emails =)
July 27th, 2008 at 4:23 am
I hope I didn’t run over your KD :P
July 27th, 2008 at 6:19 am
I don’t think developer can play in SK properly with all the wake up at wave, bla bla.. also they can’t enter SK before they become quiet known player at IRC.. or reveal theirs identity. Also keep remember that even playing utopia since age 0 doesn’t guarantee you can master the game.
coss, about admin play the game.. it depends on how mature is the admin. With playing the game, you can understand the game more, not just ‘from developer sight’. But immature admins, tend to only update for the benefit of certain people or ban people to win war, etc.
BTW, nice layout and banner this blog have.
July 27th, 2008 at 7:10 am
catwalk is nub!
July 27th, 2008 at 1:44 pm
thank you for bothering to keep us up to date, all the best of luck. I think all of us are eagerly anticipating the changes you will bring to utopia =)
July 27th, 2008 at 2:23 pm
rosedragon ftw
clarey ftw
<3 girls:$
July 27th, 2008 at 3:42 pm
My suggestion: Stay in a ghetto/semi-ghetto. Stay there and learn what is needed for the average player. Currently there is maybe 10000 people who actually play, at one point there was 80000. The reason for the decline, the changes have been made for the 1250 that reside in the top 50 and less for the other 78750 that are playing. Learn what makes the game fun for these people. What makes the game interesting and how that can be improved.
Listen to the newbs if you want the game to be better.
July 27th, 2008 at 8:09 pm
Actually the changes were meant to help nubs. I don’t see how someone could have misunderstood that. This game became easier over the ages.
July 27th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
nice i have left and came back with utopia meny times!!!
one of the problems was that some of the banners (ads) caused problems like blank screens with no confirmations of done actions within the game the ads in question where william hill ads.
the other reasons for leaveing the game was that i had just brought a new game for the pc i tend to spend 48hrs playing a game the first 3 days of buying it
will host banners for the game on my website when i get it up an running(games section only!) the only thing i am currently using my webspace for is contacts, and war! (war playlists! and war papers not linked to my frontpage)
July 28th, 2008 at 1:55 am
Don’t listen to Smokey - there were *never 80000 players! There *might have been 40k players and 40k shell accounts.
And dont listen to noobs, either, they dont know enough to know what they don’t know.
Perhaps if it went back to the multiple server concept where there was a server for noobs, one for “regular” players, and then one for nutjobs. Kd’s used to get promoted and demoted after an Age. Problem was, of course, ppl sneaking down a level so they could win.
July 28th, 2008 at 6:51 am
This looks and sounds good, we’ll be eagerly and patiently waiting for future posts/announcements.
Don’t worry about feedback. We’ll be glad to flood you’ll with it, plus some extras along with it.
July 28th, 2008 at 1:00 pm
Wolfy .. dont talk just to talk smack .. there was over 120.000 players in the game …
IMO you should have a meeting with some of the top players . you can do that by sending emails to them ingame
You have have a private convo on an irc channel … and see what theyexpect from you
Core kingdoms are whats keeping this game alive
Also … middle ranked kingdoms need to be listened too … but thats what 90% of the people in the forum are ^ ^
July 28th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Rubbish! Maybe thats what the stats told the advertisers, Noobs, but the machines can only count accounts and hits. If you’ve been around for more than 5 minutes you know there were scriptkiddies with multiple accounts *everywhere! Apparently the urge to cheat is overwhelming for lots of ppl that play this game. And I attribute part of that to it being free.
July 28th, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Well the only concern I got is that how you are thinking when it comes to shapen up a game that is going down and has done so for quite some time now. Are you involving old players of the game when you now take it over or what are the strategy you will be using?
Would also be nice to see hwo you will tackle the well spread cheating in this game.
July 28th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
Just post the changes for the new age already! :)
July 29th, 2008 at 9:05 am
120,000 people. Been around far too long and never saw that much PLAYERS. When scripted started poping in then we had a big amount of players but shortly after that/2-3 ages/ Mehul get rid of Battlefield. Back then it was more like Normal Kds server n Scripted ones. If someone feels good if he cheats and builds up a good shell kd with fake provinces n friends it is up to him….imo. Most of the players play this for the fun of playing, for the fact that out there are many “friends” and stuff and not just to build the super Warring kd n all. Well yes it is part of the game to be up the ladder but for those who just dont spend their whole RL in the game it is fun playing and for all other it is fun being on top. Tbh those people might be some with some “problems” with RL n need a proof in the fake utopia world but in both cases using cheats is just dull n kills the game and moreover it is not just ” I would get you 1-2 provinces in ur KD” it is like no trace of a kd and next age woop 25 provinces in a new formly kd and alliance. All who play attention have seen a new alliance just pop up with tons of Kds n most with full kds….Maybe it is Miracle dunno but i dont think it is normal ;)
Regards
July 29th, 2008 at 2:33 pm
I’ll go with “its a miracle.”
July 29th, 2008 at 7:39 pm
Good going Róisín! Nice that we have this blog! Wooot moving up to 2008 hehehehe!
July 30th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
i would like to establish that i pwn.
thats all. :P
July 31st, 2008 at 4:03 am
A special thank you to Róisín and OMAC!
I’ve been playing Utopia for numerous years now and i’ve seen it through the best times and now the worst times; OMAC is stepping in at the perfect time to resurrect it. Utopia is now composed of the old-timers and the super-dedicated, and we are left with a decreasing family of gamers and gen has been reduced to a pool of people you already know. I miss the times where noobs turn up in your kd and need coaching. Utopia needs a new facelift and a larger gaming base to survive, hopefully the change in management can do that.
I offer my support, as should the rest of utopia supporters.
July 31st, 2008 at 8:46 am
I like the idea of new changes to the game utopia
but my main concern is the security of the website itself
because to tell the truth i get tired of having to disable my firewall to login
i login in just fine i see the monarchs message and all
click to go to my kingdom i get an error saying invalid
password so then i have to leave disable my firewall then log back in then turn my firewall back on
i have done some tests for spyware also
before i come to utopia to play i do a spyware scan
make sure nothing is there play utopia
when done log out i click no ads or anything
i just play the game then x out of IE
then run a spyware scan and it find alot i have found up
to almost 40 different spyware items
2 times i have found keyloggers from utopia only
i have had viruses from playing the game
and another major issue i had which should of been top priority
over anything else my account was hacked into
and swirve did nothing at all i sent messages to them
nothing it was so bad that i actually thought it was someone from swirve that hacked into it
and that probably because swirve was hacked into itself
i found out months later that from the begining of this year over 200,000 websites was hacked into mostly less known gaming sites and it was a password stealer
because i even changed my password to my email
i tried to login it said my password was wrong
luckily i kept the activation code tucked away
because thats the only way to get your password
i got my password and it was changed
so im online next thing i know it says my password is wrong
this is after im online and navigating around for bout 1 to 2 minutes
i try to login real fast i cant my password had been changed
i send for my password im right it was changed
i login again im online for bout 30 seconds same thing happens
i finally get on long enough to change my password
but it was to late i had been killed off by our hacker or his friends i reported it as being hacked and nothing was done
swirve could of had the balls to tell me that they had been hacked into instead of hiding it or said we will look into it
but to do nothing thats the worst thing they could do
i hear ppl talking bout multis/cheaters
i could care less bout that
im more worried bout getting viruses/spyware in my computer
and being hacked more than if someone is a multi
sorry for the long post but security for the game is very important to me now
July 31st, 2008 at 3:38 pm
Played this game since the Age after boats went away and *never had any of those sorts of problems. Never.
July 31st, 2008 at 3:44 pm
And BTW, @Matt - dunno where ur at, but I have *5 compete n00bs in my Gen kd right now.
“Complete” as in - and this is a direct quote - “I don’t know how to grow”
So… maybe an even more basic, noobie-friendly “How to play this game” page on the site would be really good!
July 31st, 2008 at 10:19 pm
Well if Furto and Coss post here how can i miss it ?
Really nice to see a blog for utopia development .
I was close to make a big post again wow :)
My advice as a long time utopian player is if u read this , play in a ghetto and try to make it succesful .U will see then real problems of the game .
Else is so NICE to see fresh things on utopia .
August 1st, 2008 at 1:06 am
An earlier post mentioned to gradually make changes to the game because they didn’t want to see everyone playing that change at one time because it is boring. I would like to see ALL of the suggested races in the forums added and All of the retired races brought back. Imagine how cool it would be to have that many options and the possible variety it would bring to the game.
Glad you folks are here and welcome. Look forward to seeing the fruits of your hard work.
August 2nd, 2008 at 1:46 pm
As if i could leave Furto and Catwalk post here and not do the same.
I like the blog. Cant say im overly enthused by OMAC using irc. It is sort a player based venture. Somethings need to stay sacred! What next? Omac writing articles for ar?
You guys are working hard on it, must give you credit for that.
Really like the EUT idea.
I reiterate my availability for tea and biscuits at your Dublin Office
;)
August 4th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Utopia is no fun at all, I in 30 kd in past 2 1/2 years and I was always in kd with same people, who were in my kd and in all other kds
people I mean two, three people haveing all accounts in my kd, and same people in kds when we were in war
All game is set up, they are paid to play
why is that I cannot understand
but even that would be ok if they are not so fucking stupid
they talk shit all the fucking time
this all game is a program with thousand variants of forums and play set ups
and when I register it is made my own utopia world
and that is just stupid
August 4th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Why not bring back the daily ad clicking bonuses? I’m sure that practice brought in a considerable revenue that could be used for advertising the game elsewhere on the web.
August 9th, 2008 at 7:58 am
Nice touch with this blog, it’s nice to know someone cares enough to interact with the players.
but seriously, after reading through some of the posts, you may have created a MONSTER! LOL
Playing over 20 ages now and excited to see the new changes :)
Thanks!
September 13th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Everybody knows Blake Gifford is Absalom!!! You know it, I know it! ;)
Why not Roisin!
September 13th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Starfucker, your posts make absolutely NO sence at all, if you dont have something constructive to bring to this debate, why say anything?
October 10th, 2008 at 4:31 am
Hey the only thing you need to change is the abilty to change your email address. Not sure why u have it this way but u guys are making me mad. I created an account and put the wrong email when setting up and was unable to get the code to be able to play. I wasn’t able to change the email and also unable to delete the account. I really wanted to try playing this game so i made another account so i could. But you guys deleted my account.
You can set it up to be able to change the email address and keep it secure as well. Just when they ask to chage the email information just have them enter there userid name and password and other questions if wanted like kindoms name. I really wish i can make an account and be able to play with out trying to log in 24 hours later just to see your account has been deleted
Thank you for your time and maybe you can let me know and i hope to allow me to play this game which i hear wonderful things about.
November 6th, 2008 at 2:01 pm
The topic is quite curious, i must say
November 11th, 2008 at 4:53 am
whats the deal been week and a half and still cant log in?????????