Utopia (online game)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Utopia is a massive multiplayer internet-based strategy game. It is a highly successful game, having won the People's Voice Webby Award for Gaming Site of the Year twice (2002 and 2003). According to the official site, the World of Legends server alone has nearly 30,000 active accounts. [1] Utopia is free to play; the game is supported by revenue from banner and pop-up advertising. Players can either pay a small fee for each Age or a one-time fee permanently for some minor in-game bonuses and removal of all advertising in the game.
Gameplay is divided into periods called "Ages," with each Age lasting between three to four months. At the end of an Age, all accounts are reset to their initial states to give players a fresh start, any new balance and gameplay changes are put into effect, and the competition begins again. On March 7th, 2007, the game entered its 35th age, which is called the Age of Triumph.
Until recently there were three game servers available: "World of Legends," where both new players and more casual players were encouraged to play, "Battlefields," where the game's most competitive players were found, and "Genesis," an experimental server where possible play changes are tested. As of Age 30, the Battlefields and the World of Legends servers have been merged, uniting both servers under the name of World of Legends. The Genesis server retained its name.
The game site no longer has the Battlefields server. Instead, another competitive server was born in its place - the Utopian Stand-Off Server. The Utopian Stand-Off is a unique one-time only tournament server in which players get randomly assigned a kingdom and have the opportunity to compete until only one kingdom is left standing. All players sign up in advance of the game starting - once kingdoms have been assigned, no more players are allowed into the game. The game is designed to get more difficult as time progresses and is expected to last no more than about 3 months.
As of May 13, the Stand-Off has been officially brought to a close. It has since been replaced by "The Great Utopian War" which offers a newly revamped style of play in that kingdoms will participate in a series of wars until one is left standing. These wars will last a random amount of time (usually 3-5 real time days) following up with a general recovery period of 2-3 days.
Contents |
[edit] History
Utopia came online in January 1999 after a series of betas, referred to by players as "First Beta," "Long Beta," and "Short Beta." Game creator Mehul Patel was involved in the BBS-based gaming movement, and authored the very successful BBS games BRE and SRE prior to moving to the web with Earth: 2025 online multiplayer game.
Utopia's earliest rounds are often spoken of as a golden, chaotic age by the game's most experienced players. Because kingdoms were broken up after each of the betas, players initially assumed they would also be broken up, after each round, once the game officially went online. When that didn't happen, many players formed strong loyalties and attachments to their kingdommates, but this started to create minor stagnation among the game's societal structure, particularly among the most successful players and kingdoms in Utopia.
After Utopia's first three rounds, Patel attempted to correct the stagnation and created the only forced game-wide kingdom break-up in its history. Ironically, this led to wide-scale cheating throughout the game as players traded accounts to reunite with their former kingdommates or to create "super kingdoms" comprising the game's most competitive players.
The result was to compound the stagnation tenfold. Although there had been some minor account trading taking place in the early rounds, it was generally unspoken of. After the shuffle, it became common knowledge and an openly-endorsed strategy by Utopia's competitive players. Before the shuffle, kingdoms where the individual players weren't particularly competitive, but had strong loyalties to each other, were usually able to band together to take down a harassing individual of stronger size but who was less well-integrated into their own kingdom socially. With trading, having a well-socialized kingdom took far less effort and the more competitive players were able to dominate the game's hierarchy.
Patel eventually cracked down on the practice, but it remains popular among the playerbase.
Utopia was originally created under the company Solaria Games, which had its roots as early as 1996. In 1999 Solaria Games was renamed to Echelon Entertainment, only to be renamed in July 2000 to Swirve.com.
[edit] Gameplay
[edit] Overview
Like in many browser-based strategy games, Utopia has a real-time gaming environment. A player's province continues to grow, produce resources, and recruit soldiers even when he or she is not logged on. This also means that a province may be attacked even while its player is not logged in. For this reason, many kingdoms encourage their players to log in frequently to better respond to conditions in-game.
Upon selecting a server and creating an account, players are given a choice of Race (Human, Elf, Dwarf, Avian, Orc, Halfling, Undead, Faery) and Personalities (Merchant, Shepherd, Sage, Rogue, Mystic, War Hero, Warrior, General, and Freak). Each Personality and Race has its own strengths and weaknesses; some have access to unique spells, some have bonuses to offense or resource production, and so on. In addition, each Race has access to a unique military unit called an Elite, and, until the most recent age on both the main server and the experimental server, each Personality used to have a bonus related to the number of Elite units.
Players' provinces are grouped into Kingdoms; each Kingdom is a team of up to 25 provinces. Provinces within the same kingdom can send resources to each other, have a private forum for discussion, and can elect the leader of one province to become a Monarch. The Monarch is elected by a vote among the provinces in a Kingdom, where players with higher levels of Honour (see below) has more than one vote. The Monarchy is also automatically given to any province obtaining over half of the combined Networth (see below) of the Kingdom. This Monarch can then decide whether or not any of the other provinces should get Monarchy instead. A Monarch has total control on political issues such as declaring wars on other kingdoms and moderating the kingdom forums, but otherwise does not have any direct power over other players. The Monarch also has certain bonuses in resource production and defense during hostilities.
In the interval between the end of an Age and the beginning of another, players are able to log in to their accounts and interact in the forums in order to plan ahead. However, no actual gameplay takes place, and although players may issue commands to their province, no changes will happen until the game officially begins. Once the Age proper has begun, players are given 72 real-time hours of protection, some land and a fixed amount of resources to develop their province before military attacks are allowed. New players joining later in the game also receive the 72 hours of protection, but start with more resources and land than they would have been given at the start of the Age.
The measurement of In-Game Time correlates with Real-Time measurements, but with different units. One Utopian day (the smallest In-Game unit of time) is equivalent to 1 real-time hour. One Utopian Month is 24 Utopian Days (or one real time day; 24 real time hours). One Utopian Year is 7 Utopian Months, January through July (or one real time week; 7 real-time days; 168 real-time hours). The year begins on January 1 (Sunday, 12:00a.m.), and progresses so forth. This system allows for easier coordination within the kingdom, due to the fact that players from across the world exist in the same kingdoms and using standard chronology of GMT would be too complicated. The days of the Genesis server 'ticks' at the half hour, to reduce stress on the servers.
[edit] Strategy & Growth
Gameplay in Utopia usually revolves around one key resource: land.
Land increases the total population of a province, providing more peasants which can be taxed or drafted into the military. Buildings can be constructed on owned land to provide further bonuses, and the combination of buildings built by a province is usually a major part of its strategy. Land is measured in acres; each unbuilt acre supports a population of 15, each acre with a normal building supports a population of 25 and provides 25 jobs, acres where Homes are built supports a population of 30, but no jobs.
Land can be acquired in four ways; Exploring, casting the Paradise spell, casting the Land Lust spell, or through attacking another province.
- Exploring is simply paying your soldiers to settle new land. The land is taken from the Kingdom's Explore Pool, a given number of acres available for exploration. Players who choose only to explore their provinces to abnormal sizes are in general frowned upon, as they (usually) don't contribute in any way to the overall growth and prospering of the Kingdom, they take up a place which could be filled with a more valuable player, and they occupy a disproportional part of the Explore Pool.
- The Paradise spell creates new land, not occupying acres from the Explore Pool. It is the most difficult (benign) spell, with the highest Rune cost (the Faery race has free spells), and is thus mostly used by T/Ms (see below).
- The Land Lust spell captures land from anyone it is cast upon. It is the most difficult and costly (malign) spell, with the highest Rune cost, and is only available towards Kingdoms with which one has a hostility level of Unfriendly or higher (see below). The difficulty and cost means that this spell is mostly used by T/Ms.
- Attacking is the most used method of expanding your land. Through training an offensive army, you can send out troops to attack another province and capture some of its land. The land gained is calculated from your net worth and land relative to your opponent, and the time it takes before your army returns with the captured land is calculated from how far apart you are from the province you attack. There are many factors which can affect your ability to attack another province (or defend yourself from attacks). The most straight-forward are the modifier Buildings. Aggressive buildings are Training Grounds (increase Offensive Military Efficiency), Barracks (lower attack time) and Hospitals (reduce losses). The defensive buildings are Guard Stations (decrease enemy gains), Forts (increase Defensive Military Efficiency) and Hospitals.
[edit] Inter-Kingdom Relations & War
There are five levels of relations possible between kingdoms. Most relations are not reciprocal, i.e. it is possible for a kingdom to be hostile to another, even if the other kingdom has not declared any relations. The only exceptions are Ceasefire and War.
- Ceasefire: Usually, a ceasefire results from two kingdoms breaking off from war. However, a ceasefire can also be proposed by a kingdom in order to avoid war in the first place. A Ceasefire prohibits hostile action between kingdoms (e.g. attacking).
- No Relations: The standard relations between any two kingdoms. No special bonuses or penalties are incurred; however, only a limited number of spells and thievery operations are available against a kingdom which has no relations to your own.
- Unfriendly: Unfriendly relations result from a small number of attacks. Once Unfriendly relations have been reached, most spells and thievery operations become available. However, at this point they are relatively ineffective and difficult to perform. Unfriendly status also gives the kingdom small bonuses.
- Hostile: A large number of attacks will bring about the Hostile status. Thievery operations and spells cost less resources to perform and are more effective. Unique bonuses are also granted to both aggressor and defender. If both kingdoms reach hostile level, each will gain all applicable bonuses.
- War: War allows two kingdoms to engage in extended conflict without outside interference. War can break out between two kingdoms through hostile actions towards each other and formal declarations of war. Once the aggressor kingdom gains Hostile status, its target can declare war as long as it has reached Unfriendly status. Thus the 'less hostile' kingdom earns the right to declare war. If both kingdoms have reached hostile status, then the 'less hostile' can declare war at any time. Spells and thievery operations are at optimum effectiveness only in war. War does not end until one kingdom surrenders or withdraws, or both kingdoms negotiate a mutual peace. The results of all a kingdom's previous wars are displayed on their status page, and is often a good indicator of how good a kingdom's teamwork is.
In Age 30, Stances - which had been tested previously on the Genesis server - were instituted on the World of Legends server. Stances are packages of modifiers that affect the entire kingdom, and which can be chosen by the kingdom's monarch. Stances do not work during times of war and cannot be changed during protection.
[edit] Objectives
Utopia keeps track of the players and kingdoms with the most land, honor and net worth throughout the world, and on each individual Island. At the end of each Age, the highest-ranked provinces and kingdoms are enshrined in the Hall of Honors. In addition, there are unofficial player-made lists for War Wins (though the value of such a ranking is disputed), and there are also player-made rankings for alliances.
- Land is the key resource of the game. In addition to a player's skill, a province's size at the end of an Age is also relative to whatever curves are created by changes in the gameplay mechanism from round-to-round, and the prevailing strategies of Utopia's top players in reaction to the changes.
- Honor measures a player's renown. Generally speaking, Honor points cannot be produced like other resources, but must be taken from other players. There are nine different Titles of Nobility (Peasant, Knight/Lady, Lord/Noble Lady, Baron/Baroness, Viscount/Viscountess, Count/Countess, Marquis/Marchioness, Duke/Duchess, Prince/Princess) which are determined through one's Honor. Successfully casting hostile spells, performing thievery operations, or invading another province all take Honor from the victim and give it to the aggressor. In addition, a military attack made during war generates new Honor for the attacker. Having a greater Title of Nobility gives a player some minor bonuses, the bonuses becoming more beneficial as one's Title of Nobility increases. Though if the player chooses to be an orc as his or her race, he or she will not receive any bonuses from Honor.
- Net worth (NW) is not a resource, but an approximate measure of a province's raw power. Land, buildings, military and more all have a set value of Net worth, and larger, more powerful provinces will usually have more Net worth. Because attacks are most effective against players of similar size, having a high Net worth per acre is desirable.
[edit] Styles of Play
Most players choose one style of play and follows this throughout the Age, and this style of play affects his choice of Race and Personality, as well as building strategies. The most common styles of play are (approximately ranged after popularity):
- Attacker (A): A province whose main goal is to build a strong offensive army to capture as much land as possible. These often cut down drastically on defense, following the idea of Offense being the best Defense.
- Thief/Mage (T/M): A province who focuses on having large amounts of Thieves and Wizards, using Thievery Operations (ops) and Magic Spells to steal from or harm other provinces. These rely on exploring or spells to grow (see above), and have a strong defensive army, to try to fend off potential attackers.
- Hybrid (A/t, A/m): The Hybrid is mainly an attacker, but with either a large amount of Thieves or Wizards, so that it is able to harm another province in two ways. This style of play is used by most 'Super Kingdoms'.
- Explorer: A province whose only goal is to grow as large as possible through exploring.
- Super Mage (M): A province who focuses only on having a very high amount of wizards, and a strong defense.
- Super Thief (T): A province who focuses only on having a very high amount of Thieves, and a strong defense.
[edit] Society
Utopia tends to encourage social interaction between players. For some, the social aspect is the main reason for play; with 40,000 possible accounts per server, and the chance to meet players from around the world, the social possibilities seem infinite.
Players are encouraged to interact with other players in the same kingdom; each kingdom has a private forum that is accessible only to its members. Players that do not wish to remain in the kingdom they are assigned to can defect to another kingdom. However, defecting costs 15% of everything a player owns - land, military, honor - and is usually only used as a last resort.
One social aspect of the game which makes its way into play are alliances. Alliances are not officially endorsed by the game's maintainers and are often disdained by non-alliance players, yet are treated with a certain level of tolerance as an inevitability. Alliances form when groups of competing kingdoms decide to band together and operate as a group. The first organized alliances rose as defense against "unofficial" alliances (not public, just friends working together etc) or multies, but through the ages alliances have formed for a variety of reasons from almost purely social, often nationality-based ones, via educational ones, to defensive ones who's main purpose is to defend their members against "unfair play", and finally to offensive ones who actively use their alliance to gain advantages over others. They often employ tactics that single kingdoms can not use, such as overwhelming an opponent by outnumbering them. The basic structure of the game itself was not designed for these kind of groupings and Utopia gives few defenses against such strategies. Alliances usually coordinate their operations using non-Utopia forums and other non-sanctioned communication channels.
Players also commonly use IRC and instant messengers, such as ICQ, MSN, AIM and Yahoo Instant Messenger, to aid in communication outside the game. However it is against the rules to force other players to use these methods against their will.
[edit] Tools
The player community has developed many free Utopia-related tools that not supported by the game developers. Most are formatters, designed to help players quickly share in-game information with each other. These tools include Utopia Angel, Utopia Prophet, Utopia Pimp, and Utopia Metatron. Some of these, like Utopia Angel, are third-party software that have to be downloaded and installed on the player's computer, while other tools like the "All-in-One Formatter" from Utopia Temple are used through a web browser.
Utopia also hosts several interactive forums, these being the Bugs and Suggestions forum, Strategy Talk, Utopia Talk, General Talk, Politics, Roleplaying and the now defunct Relations forum. There are three other forums here which only moderators may post in, which are a vital source of information regarding the forums and much outdated information.
Utopia has eleven forums in use, seven of which are open to the players, three which are read-only boards and a special board exclusively for moderators.
The seven open boards are Bugs & Suggestions, Strategy Talk, Roleplaying, Utopia Talk, General Talk, Politics and Relations Discussion.
The three read-only boards are Announcements, Moderator Comments and Questions & Answers.
The Moderators' board cannot be viewed by a non-moderator/admin, and as such information on it is only assumed.
Bugs & Suggestions - As the name implies, this forum is used for reporting bugs found in the game and making suggestions to improve the game.
Strategy Talk - This board has two major purposes. The first is, as the name implies, talking strategy with other players, and trying to improve your own skill. The second, a common practice, is requesting aid or showing off one's province by posting of intelligence. It should be noted that this board tends to be somewhat cliquish, though not nearly so much as the Utopia Talk and General Talk forums are.
Role Playing - This board is a place to go and enjoy a more laid-back game with other posters. While each individual RP can have its own rules, the board as a whole tends to follow traditional RP rules.
Utopia Talk - This forum is used as a general catch-all for any Utopia-related chat. Like all of the boards there, it generally holds its own group. The only real difference between the Utopia Talk forum and the General Talk forum is that the Utopia Talk is limited to game-related chat.
General Talk - A board where just about anything and everything goes, these posters are generally people who have stopped playing the actual game, but have remained despite their stopping to chat with old friends. Topics range from ranting to lusting, pointless spam to impressive commentary, and is as random as one can expect.
Cynics might say that this place is a deliberate ploy to keep undesirables in one place rather than allowed to roam elsewhere, this makes sense when looked at in relation to the nature of UP.
Politics - This board is a hot-bed of activity where moderation is low, permitting the many various ideas about the world events to be shared, some more than others. The majority of the chat which goes on here is generally considered to be flaming and biased ranting, though interesting and informative discussions about the current events around the world are not unheard of.
It is to be noted that about three years after the formation of the Politics board, a separate web forum (www.utopia-politics.com) was created by those who frequented the board. The complaints were that the moderation team was both biased and ineffective. Today complaints are still common that the moderation team is biased and lax on consistency.
Interface, Layout and Guide - This board is used for making suggestions regarding the mostly-outdated appearance of the game. While the majority of suggestions for game changes are made in the Bugs & Suggestions forum, cosmetic changes and changes to the game's appearance and guide are to be made here.
Relations Discussions - This forum, which was once another hot-bed of activity, has now been removed. It was originally made for forum members to offer their thoughts and ideas on a new relations system when Swirve was looking to make a complete overhaul. The board was removed near the end of the 32nd Utopian Age and replaced with the "Interface, Layout and Guide" board.
In addition to the actual boards hosted on the Utopia website, there is also an IRC community which has channels ranging from assistance for people new to the game to channels for individual kingdoms and alliances, and also many channels not directly connected to the game but used generally by people who play or have played the game.
The unofficial IRC server (there is no official one hosted through Swirve) is located at irc.utonet.org. (To learn more about IRC, please go to Internet Relay Chat. To view a list of channels on the server, type /list.
[edit] External links
- Official Utopia website
- Official Guide to Utopia
- Utopia Temple - Fan site, home of "Utopia Angel", a popular province-managing tool, often thought of as a required program in many kingdoms.
- Alliance Rankings.com - List of currently tagged Utopian Alliances and their current rankings.
- Utopia Pimp - Popular Utopia Warforums, containing vital tools that work with Utopia Angel to update stats. Use of this website is often expected in kingdoms.
- Utopia-imp - A cross-platform intelligence formatter, manager and calculator.
- Utopian Chronicles - Website dedicated to Utopian players' profiles and interviews, articles and essay about the game and beyond.
- Utopia New Players Guide - New Players Guide, a walkthrough for the less experienced players.
- Utopia Targetfinder Knoeffnet - Targetfinder, CB library, war targets, individual targets, inactives.
- Utopia Wiki - A Wiki containing Utopia formulas and strategy information.
- Utopian Thieves' Guild - *Currently Not Updated* Fan site, home of "Utopia Metatron", a powerful Firefox extension which streamlines much of the information in Utopia.
- Metatronplus - Updated version of the original Metatron.
- Utopia Target Finder is a Up-To-Date target and ranks finder for Utopia with API (Now back online!).
- Utopia Info is a free site which holds track of all the provinces and kingdoms in Utopia who have been in the top 100 charts of their islands.
