EI January 2009

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eRepublik Arena

Published on 28 January 2009 - Day 435 of the New World

Dear citizens,

We invite you all to participate in the contests that will be held in the new eRepublik Arena.
Every week there will be a tournament to test your skills. From time to time, we will also release some surprise quizzes between the scheduled weekly contests. Winning these quizzes could be as easy as answering first!

Two days ago, the first contest of the Arena began. The topic of this contest regards Chile, the newest country to join the New World. This country was launched on the 14th of January, day 422 of the New World, and has gathered 500 citizens in the first 10 days of existence. We are wondering what the population of this country will be by day 450 of the New World.

The most accurate answer will be awarded an extra storage pack for one month. If there are multiple winning answers, all of them will be credited with an extra storage pack. The correct answer will be decided by using the population of Chile as displayed on the country page on day 450 at 00:00 eRepublik time. Post your answer in the forum topic before 07:00 eRepublik time, day 440 of the New World.

Rules of the Arena

Each citizen has the right to one answer only. Multiple answers from the same citizen and edited posts are considered invalid, as well as answers posted by organizations.

More Contests

This board will also host a permanent competition for suggesting contests. What you have to do is make suggestions for a contest that could be held here. If we decide to pick a contest, a surprise award will be given to the author.

Invite friends

Suggest your friends to participate in these contests also. We would love to have many winners. Concerning inviting friends, we also have good news for you: we have fixed an older issue regarding invited users. We have added Icon - Gold.gif 5 GOLD for each accepted invitation, if the citizen reaches level 6, and added it to the society builder achievement count.

Community Coverage of the latest events

Best regards,
The eRepublik team

Updated map of the New World

Published on 26 January 2009 - Day 433 of the New World

Dear citizens,

In the article published at the beginning of January, we announced that one of our tasks for this year would include updating the eRepublik map.

The latest version of the New World map is now available. Offering a better layout and a higher resolution, the new map has also been improved by adding the country names to ease us by citizens.

Remember that high detail country maps are available by accessing the “on the map” feature in every country menu.

In the end, let's all welcome India, South Korea, Germany, Poland, Slovakia, Finland, Belgium and Denmark back onto the New World map and let's also hit for the recent states that have joined eRepublik since our last map update – Croatia and Chile!

Download the New World map: www.erepublik.com/country/worldImage/permalink/Chile

Battlefields

After closely analyzing the latest events that occurred in the New World, researchers decided that a full testing phase of the entire war module would be necessary in order to have battles influenced by citizens, not by system issues.

As the testing will last until the end of this week, citizens are asked not to open new battlefields, as they will be closed.

The battles that were active at the moment of this decision will be continued after the testing phase. A decision will then be made after analyzing and retesting the war system to determine the exact moment to reopen the battles.

Proper software development tools have been implemented in order to avoid unacceptable problems such as the ones that occurred last week.

We hope you will enjoy the New World's updated map!
The eRepublik Team

The New World is back – a new approach

Published on 24 January 2009 - Day 431 of the New World
  • A 24-hour complete software update and testing has been completed while the site was down. Two teams worked around the clock (12 hours each) in order to improve the loading time and solve as many of the issues that occurred last week.
  • Citizens that want to apply for candidature in the Congress elections are asked to send an e-mail to moderators@erepublik.com, until 9:00 AM eRepublik time (day 431 of the New World). The following information must be sent to us: your citizen name and ID, your party name and ID, the link to your presentation article (if you have one) and the name of the region where you want to candidate. E-mails received after 09:00 AM, will not be considered.
  • Party presidents are kindly requested to start managing their congress candidates list after 1:30 PM. This way, we make sure that no updates to any list will be made after this hour and the party presidents can be sure that during that time frame the list will not be modified any more.

Update: In the next 2 hours we will process the rest of the Congress candidature requests.

  • The active battles that have been stopped yesterday will be restarted at 2:00 AM eRepublik time, day 433 of the New World. Also, no battles are to be opened until then. Any new battle will be closed and the Gold paid for opening it will be lost. This decision has been taken in order to allow more testing time for one of the most important modules in eRepublik.
  • As requested by the community, the article comments will be placed as before (the oldest comments will appear first) - it is a temporary solution until we will implement further newspaper improvements. Thanks for your feedback.
  • Nobody will lose the 'Hard Worker' medal due to the period of 24 hours when eRepublik was under the process of server maintenance.
  • We've learned a lot from the mistakes in the past couple of days and new systems have been implemented, not only technical ones but also improvements to the in-house processes.

Thank you all for your support especially this week,
The eRepublik Team

Better communication with the team

Published on 22 January 2009 - Day 429 of the New World

Dear citizens,

One of our priorities for this year includes improving the communication between the eRepublik Team and the community.

For this purpose, we have implemented a new forum category named Administration and created inside it the letters/1 Open letters board. The official channel to communicate with the eRepublik team remains the contact form, however, the new forum board is open for public messages addressed to the eRepublik staff. Articles that are considered to be “open letters” addressed to the team, will be moved to the forum board and later these articles will be deleted in order to continue the conversation with the team in one place and not to have duplicate content.

As imagination is the only limit for changing the future, we invite you to post in the Suggestions board ideas concerning what you would like to see implemented in the New World.

Remember to keep an eye on the Updates board. New features and improvements will be announced and debated in this area.

Furthermore, only the official channel (Contact us ) will be used for requesting support from the eRepublik Team. This way, the newspaper articles and the forum threads will be more efficient in reaching their goal: to be a tool used by the eRepublik citizens to communicate and organize better.

The team will continue debugging

The communication improvements that were implemented today are planned since one month ago and will help our community department gain easier your feedback regarding the events in the New World. The engineers will still focus on debugging in the next period of time. Today, their main task is to fix the avatar issues and the articles that get a 500 error.

The new 10 eRepublik laws

To better moderate citizens' events and actions, it has become clear to everyone that the old laws need some proper adjustments. As a result, we would like to communicate some of the revisions going forward.

One of the changes in the new set of rules is that citizens will not be allowed to accuse each other without posting relevant proof. This is the first step toward a Judicial System (administrated by citizens) that we would like to have in eRepublik.

No public multi-account accusations are allowed. Candidates throwing free charges against one another during the course of an electoral campaign should also be avoided. Reports of such cases are to be made only using the contact form.

In parallel, a new penalty system based on forfeit points (FP) has been implemented. For every break of the law a warning (0,5 FP), a temporary ban (FP equal to the number of banned days) or a permanent ban will be applied to take into consideration the severity and the frequency. A permanent ban will also be applied if a total of five or more forfeit points are received. Every forfeit point is deleted two months after it was applied.

The new version of the 10 eRepublik Citizen Laws will also be applied to the organization accounts, until the specific entity laws are developed.

Thank you for your support,
The eRepublik Team

New servers and solutions

Published on 21 January 2009 - Day 428 of the New World

Dear citizens,

Yesterday the team went through a difficult process of server changes and database optimization. This process was highly needed as it will solve many issues regarding the scalability and back-end activity of eRepublik. Also, the loading time was improved due to the actions taken yesterday.

There were several unforeseen issues that occurred during the process of making yesterday’s major improvements. We realize that these unexpected issues caused a lot of rightful frustration – for this, we deeply apologize and will make every effort to ensure something like this does not occur in the future. Fine-tuning and server optimization are our team’s highest priority at the moment and the actions taken yesterday will fix the bugs experienced by citizens going forward – we will work to make sure that this process happens more smoothly though. Your future feedback is much appreciated as we are able to detect where these problems appear more easily.

One of the important updates included restarting the battles that ended unexpectedly almost 12 hours ago:

  • Battle for Southern Great Plain between Romania and Hungary will restart at 11:22 AM* and the battle will last for another 12 hours and 8 minutes.
  • Battle for Azores between USA and Portugal will restart at 7:06 AM* and the battle will last for another 13 hours and 14 minutes.
  • Battle for Madeira between Spain and Portugal will restart at 11:08 AM* and the battle will last for another 3 hours and 26 minutes.

*eRepublik time. All battles will restart on day 429 of the New World.

The battles will restart with exactly the same number of defense points in each region as before the battles ended. Also, the battles will end at the same hour as were previously planned by country presidents when they decided to attack those specific regions. This will help presidents re-organize their plans in terms of how to secure or conquer the region.

Presidents of the countries involved in these conflicts were already provided with these updates and we are counting on each one of you to shout this news all over the New World.

Sorry for any inconvenience and thank you all for your support in the last couple of days,

The eRepublik Team

Fun time in the New World

Published on 18 January 2009 - Day 425 of the New World

It was a chilly Sunday afternoon in the northern hemisphere of the eRepublik world. The researchers were checking a few political statistics concerning the latest congress elections. When suddenly the economic analyst from the team received a notification. One of his tools that is used on a frequent (every 6 hours) basis to check the status of major economic indicators provided some interesting information. There was 8% more gold in the market!

Knowing that the amount of gold usually increases by less than 1.5%, it was pretty sure that something went bad in the last 6 hours. The analyst quickly shared this news with the rest of the researchers and the team started applying the actions planned for these types of cases:

  • find out the weak spot, close the module until it will be fixed;
  • find out the snakes (that's the name he gave to people that were using exploits), restrict their access to the New World and take away their wealth.
  • check the snakes transactions, donations, actions and any connection that they might have with other citizens (others might have gained a part of that undeserved wealth and these types of transactions are cancelled).

The analyst and his colleagues managed that night to take out 90% of the gold created. The rest was blocked in the accounts or companies of the banned snakes. Further investigations are to be done, as tomorrow will be a really busy day.

Have a great week,
The eRepublik team

LATEST UPDATE: Researchers found out that the benefits obtained due to this weak spot, were gained only for a few hours. All the actions realized in this time frame were analyzed and most of them were reverted. Other transactions involving large amounts of Gold that occurred in past were already analyzed and actions were taken against the snakes back then. Also, the team of researchers consider resetting eRepublik the same as pressing the nuclear bomb button, which isn't fun at all.

eRepublik of Chile

Published on 13 January 2009 - Day 420 of the New World

Dear citizens,

Beginning the 14th of January, Argentina and Indonesia (due to its expansion) will have a new neighbor – Chile.

Every new citizen of the New World that decides to settle in one of the five Chilean regions will receive their citizen fee of Icon - Money.png 50 CC in a new currency: CLP (Chilean peso).

The treasury of Chile will receive Icon - Gold.gif 1000 GOLD and 100.000 local currency. Also, we are looking forward to the general elections of Chile - its first elected president will be granted access to an organization with a CLP account of Icon - Money.png 50.000 CC units.

Researchers that worked on determining the level of raw materials found iron in Norte Chico, wood in Zona Sur and fertile lands in Zona Central.

The new country is protected against any war until the end of February, the same period for which it cannot declare war. Chile will use this time to grow as much as possible. Croatia's development could be a good example for any new country.

We welcome all Chileans and we send them our best regards.

Further countries to be added in eRepublik

On the 11th of February we will be welcoming Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Serbia as they join the other countries of the New World.

Help researchers by suggesting cities for the new countries, as well as the regions that should be assigned to them.

Information can be sent using the contact form or by e-mailing one of the following specific addresses: malaysia@erepublik.com, philippines@erepublik.com, singapore@erepublik.com, serbia@erepublik.com.

Please also let us know if you are interested in helping with translations of the press releases covering each country’s addition.

Later Edit: Due to the increase of visits registered in the last weeks, we have decided to introduce Serbia on the 11th of February, instead of Taiwan.

Taiwan will be joining the countries of the New World as soon as we will implement a more complex Resistance module.

Best regards,
The eRepublik Team

The eRepublik API (eAPI)

Published on 7 January 2009 - Day 414 of the New World

Hold on to your hats people, the way for citizens to build third-party applications on top of eRepublik is finally here. The API is almost ready and we need you to test it out.

That’s right, we’re giving a handful of developers the privilege to start working on their eApps before everybody else has a chance to.

What can you do to get in? -- we hear what you say -- well, just send us an email at api@erepublik.com with the following questions answered and we’ll let you know if you qualify to be among the first batch of eAPI ninjas:

  • What's your citizen name?
  • What’s your real name and where are you from?
  • What’s your preferred programming language?
  • What do you do for a living and for how long have you been doing it?
  • What other applications (websites included, mind you) have you recently worked on?
  • What other APIs have you used before and what was the last one(s)?
  • What type of eApp would you have in mind for eRepublik?

A member of our team will contact you for further information about the API.

Looking forward to your email.
The eRepublik Team

Presidential election coverage – January 2009

Published on 6 January 2009 - Day 413 of the New World

Dear citizens,

The voting polls for the 14th presidential elections in eRepublik were closed a few hours ago. Here are the newly elected presidents in each country:
***The list of Presidents was moved and it can be viewed here: Presidents - January 2009***

The victory of Roby Petric in Croatia was expected by many citizens while in Pakistan the newly elected president is GnolTac as a sign of revitalization from the Stardust Crusaders party.

While some candidates won easily because they were alone in the presidential race (DKN in Germany and bruno goethals in Belgium), others had their share of emotions due to tight competition (Red Duck with three votes more than his runner-up and srachit became president with a difference of two votes).

An interesting event is happening in Russia, in which the newly elected president lic_ptg is already under impeachment by congress after rumors were heard that he was Romanian and succeeded in a Political takeover of Russia.

Congratulations to all the winners and thank you all for your support,
The eRepublik Team

Plans for the first half of 2009

Published on 5 January 2009 - Day 412 of the New World

Dear citizens,

The eRepublik team wishes you all a happy new year and many accomplishments in your eRepublik careers this year. After considering the achievements of 2008 in the last article, we've decided to share our challenges for the first half of 2009. The priorities in the near future are:

  • Improving the experience of citizens. The existing modules will be improved in order to make them more easily understood by new citizens and also to provide a better overall eRepublik experience.
  • New citizen laws The new set of laws will replace the eRepublik 10 laws we have now and it will bring more complete coverage of the events that are taking place in the New World.
  • Visual improvements. Usability and game experience can be upgraded by improving several visual aspects of the New World. This process will be a constant challenge for our team throughout the year.
  • Tools for general managers. Yes, the inclusion of the famous company statistics is one of our top priorities as it has been one of the most highly requested modules by the community.
  • API system. A teaser of the API was released last year and can be found here. The deadline for this complex project is approaching fast and our developers are working full-speed on bringing this new product to life.
  • Translation in other languages. No web project is cool enough without being translated into other languages. The first steps were done and 2009 will bring new languages to the New World
  • Moderator module. This community module will help citizens perform moderation tasks. As the eRepublik community is a fast-growing one, these types of tools are highly needed in order to provide a more complete and timely moderation.
  • A cool eRepublik map. While the wars are developing fast, the map of the New World is constantly changing and a cool system is needed in order to display the new borders of the eRepublik countries.
  • Citizen ads. The possibility to promote your party or your company in eRepublik is something our team is very keen on, therefore ads regarding the entities in the New World will be one of our challenges in 2009.
  • eRepublik shop. T-shirts, eRepublik passports and badges will be fun things to have this new year.
  • Add new countries. After Slovenia and Croatia, several other countries will be added constantly to eRepublik. The next one will be announced here.
  • War improvements. Improving the current war module is one of our main challenges and with the feedback received from you, we shall make the proper changes regarding this module.
  • Customization. Citizen / game customization is something we will start adding in small increments throughout the year.
  • Newsletters. One of the tools that will help citizens keep up to date with the latest news around the New World.
  • Adviser system. The tool used in the Beta will be back in V1, but Plato will have a more complete and fun coverage of what's happening in eRepublik.
  • Poll system. The poll system shall be used by parties, organizations and other entities in the New World and our team will use it to have a more complete view of the citizens' needs.
  • A new way to add improvements. Starting in February the changes will be uploaded only once a month and announced at least a few days beforehand.

New communication tools for citizens and improving the existing ones are also among our priorities. Along with all of these front-end features, many other improvements will be made to the modules that are not visible to the citizens as these back-end modules help our team respond quickly to your needs.

All of these priorities are just a glance of what we expect in the next few months, several other features will be added in time. Remember to keep an eye on the eRepublik updates topic, the place where the new modules, features and improvements will be announced on a regular basis.

Thank you for your support throughout last year and together let's make the New World a better place.

The eRepublik Team