Evony
Encyclopedia
Evony is a browser
-based multiplayer online game
with graphic elements reminiscent of Civilization. The game is set in medieval times where a player is to establish a city, begin developing various technologies, and build supporting structures to generate armies and resources for the purpose of attacking other players and in-game opponents. Evony is also about making friends, and being part of a community, which in Evony is called an alliance.
–when a player logs out, the game continues. A new player is given "beginner's protection" which prevents other players from attacking their cities for a total of 7 days or until a player upgrades the town hall, the centre of a city to level 5 or higher. This gives new players the opportunity to accumulate a few resources and troops and get accustomed to the game before the challenges begin to surface.
A player begins by acting as lord or lady of a city. The player gives instructions on production and construction with the initial resources. The resources in the game are Gold, Food, Lumber, Stone, and Iron, and the city's population. As with many real-time strategy
games, one first has to increase the city's population and hourly resource-collection rates through the construction of certain buildings in the city, and then start developing other aspects of their city and building an army.
Evony features player versus player (PvP) gameplay, making it possible to attack another player's cities. The level of the attacking city determine how many troops can be sent in one attack. Unlike Age of empire, buildings cannot be destroyed, but a city can be lost - even if you are off-line. When member of an alliance, your friends can reinforce your city. (Requires an Embsassy). Various army units are available, and all battles are based on a player attacking an other players city, or a Non-Player City (NPC). NPCs arise when a city is abandoned. This happens if a player (which has not paid real money) don't play for a period of time, but more commonly when a player, after building a new city on a level 4 or 10 valley, and then abandoning it. It is neccessary to attack these level 4 or level 10 NPCs for resources (called farming). Therefore there are a lot of level 4 NPCs around mid-level players, and level 10 NPCs around the better players. There are certain troop setups to attack these NPCs favourably.
An NPC can be taken over, and if its a level 10, all buildings will be at level 10, saving huge amounts of resources and time. However, certain reconfigurations must be undertaken. Taking a NPC level 10 close to an opponent is a well known strategy for staging attacks.
Evony offers many items, purchased with cents (evony money) which can be bought with real money, through its Item Shop or won at the reel or in battle, most of them in some way accelerating the player's progression through the game.
The construction of buildings, researching of technologies, and training of units consume time and resources and have various prerequisites. Each building can be independently upgraded from level 1 (initial construction) to level 10. Level 10 require a special item which may be won throug battle or purchased. Initial construction may take from under a minute to several hours or even days, during which the player must find other aspects of the city or army to manage. Each upgrade requires double the cost of the previous level in every resource and time required. There is a Speed up button, that instantly finish buildings with building time less than 5 minutes. There are also some items that can shorten bulding time or instantly finish a building. Technologies however start with level 0 and can be researched using an academy.
One important aspect of the game is the concept of Heroes.
- A Hero can be assigned as Mayor. (Optional, but important)
- A Hero must lead attacks on other players cities, valleys and barbarian cities (NPCs).
- A Hero may be assigned to lead Scouting missions. (Optional, but useful)
- A Hero may be assigned to lead Reinforcement missions. (Optional, but useful)
- If your city is attacked, the Hero with the highest Attack attribute will defend your city.
The Hero earns Experience points from these tasks, which increase his level, and provide one attribute point to the Hero, which you place in either Politic, Attack or Intelligence. You can easily waste DAYS of research/build and training time if you do this wrong.
The Heroes have certain attributes, which are crucial for succeeding in the game: Politics, Attack and Intelligence.
- A high Politics attribute of the Mayor will shorten the time for building buildings, walls and wall defence.
- A high Intelligence attribute of the Mayor will shorten technology research time.
- A high Attack attribute of the Mayor will shorten troop training time.
- A high Attack attribute of a Hero defending, leading an attack, reinforcement or scout mission, will increase the fighting abilities of your troops.
The game sports 20 technologies, and allows the player to control up to ten cities through gain of titles and rank, both requiring medals gained by buying in-game coins or by attacking valleys. Each of these cities has 74 building slots at their highest level. There are queue options for army unit production and wall defenses, but not for research. Until the introduction of Bernini's Hammer in Age II, there were not any queue options for buildings as well.
Evony has two different monetary systems. The in-game monetary system revolves around gold. Gold can be obtained by completing quests and by taxing the player's population. It is also possible to sell resources for gold on the marketplace to other players, or gain gold by raiding non-player cities. In lieu of this, a player can use real money to buy game cents with which to purchase items and resources from the in-game shop.
Prestige is a measure of a player's rank in the game. Players gain prestige by following quests, building and upgrading structures, training armies and successfully attacking valleys and cities often during the game. Honor is also a ranking system; however, it only changes with a successful or unsuccessful attack of or defense against another player. These are two of the main ways in which player rankings are visible. The overall ranking system that is displayed in the players window is based solely on their prestige compared to the remaining server population. Evony allows the player to control up to ten cities depending on title, not rank. To increase the number of cities the player can control, the player must obtain higher titles through the collection of certain medals.
The game was cited as doing "an amazing job at making the game look and feel appealing to all gamers" by New Zealand
-based Stuff
, although it was criticised for the amount of time and effort needed to excel in the game. Stuff also noted the shortcomings of a system like Evony's where one could essentially buy one's way through the game.
The Guardian
pointed out that it was so similar to Sid Meier
's Civilization series
that it felt like a ripoff, going so far as to essentially steal its name.
Evony has also been accused of promoting the game via "millions of spam
comments left on blogs".
A campaign for PopCap Games
' game, Plants vs. Zombies
, included online advertisements that parodied Evony's. They featured cartoon images of female zombies like those featured in the game, in similar poses to the women in Evony's advertisements. Similar slogans were also used; instead of "Save the queen!", one ad tells the onlooker to "Save Your Brains!" AdventureQuest Worlds
has also parodied the campaign. Its ad shows a warrior's shadows who is shown to be in blue boxers; it also says "They told ARTIX his ads needed MORE SKIN; EPIC FAIL". The game Alteil
also parodied the Evony campaign, with an ad that contained a picture of a female character, and the text "She is actually in our game my lord". There is also a Bloons TD
advertisement about number 4. It says "Pop me now, my lord.". This advertisement seems to still exists, it was shown on the hacked version of BTD3 on Pictogame.
.
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
-based multiplayer online game
Multiplayer online game
A Multiplayer Online Game is a multiplayer video game which can be played via a game server over the internet, with other players around the world...
with graphic elements reminiscent of Civilization. The game is set in medieval times where a player is to establish a city, begin developing various technologies, and build supporting structures to generate armies and resources for the purpose of attacking other players and in-game opponents. Evony is also about making friends, and being part of a community, which in Evony is called an alliance.
Gameplay
Evony is set in a persistent worldPersistent world
A persistent world is a virtual world that continues to exist even after a user exits the world and that user-made changes to its state are, to some extent, permanent...
–when a player logs out, the game continues. A new player is given "beginner's protection" which prevents other players from attacking their cities for a total of 7 days or until a player upgrades the town hall, the centre of a city to level 5 or higher. This gives new players the opportunity to accumulate a few resources and troops and get accustomed to the game before the challenges begin to surface.
A player begins by acting as lord or lady of a city. The player gives instructions on production and construction with the initial resources. The resources in the game are Gold, Food, Lumber, Stone, and Iron, and the city's population. As with many real-time strategy
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
games, one first has to increase the city's population and hourly resource-collection rates through the construction of certain buildings in the city, and then start developing other aspects of their city and building an army.
Evony features player versus player (PvP) gameplay, making it possible to attack another player's cities. The level of the attacking city determine how many troops can be sent in one attack. Unlike Age of empire, buildings cannot be destroyed, but a city can be lost - even if you are off-line. When member of an alliance, your friends can reinforce your city. (Requires an Embsassy). Various army units are available, and all battles are based on a player attacking an other players city, or a Non-Player City (NPC). NPCs arise when a city is abandoned. This happens if a player (which has not paid real money) don't play for a period of time, but more commonly when a player, after building a new city on a level 4 or 10 valley, and then abandoning it. It is neccessary to attack these level 4 or level 10 NPCs for resources (called farming). Therefore there are a lot of level 4 NPCs around mid-level players, and level 10 NPCs around the better players. There are certain troop setups to attack these NPCs favourably.
An NPC can be taken over, and if its a level 10, all buildings will be at level 10, saving huge amounts of resources and time. However, certain reconfigurations must be undertaken. Taking a NPC level 10 close to an opponent is a well known strategy for staging attacks.
Evony offers many items, purchased with cents (evony money) which can be bought with real money, through its Item Shop or won at the reel or in battle, most of them in some way accelerating the player's progression through the game.
The construction of buildings, researching of technologies, and training of units consume time and resources and have various prerequisites. Each building can be independently upgraded from level 1 (initial construction) to level 10. Level 10 require a special item which may be won throug battle or purchased. Initial construction may take from under a minute to several hours or even days, during which the player must find other aspects of the city or army to manage. Each upgrade requires double the cost of the previous level in every resource and time required. There is a Speed up button, that instantly finish buildings with building time less than 5 minutes. There are also some items that can shorten bulding time or instantly finish a building. Technologies however start with level 0 and can be researched using an academy.
One important aspect of the game is the concept of Heroes.
- A Hero can be assigned as Mayor. (Optional, but important)
- A Hero must lead attacks on other players cities, valleys and barbarian cities (NPCs).
- A Hero may be assigned to lead Scouting missions. (Optional, but useful)
- A Hero may be assigned to lead Reinforcement missions. (Optional, but useful)
- If your city is attacked, the Hero with the highest Attack attribute will defend your city.
The Hero earns Experience points from these tasks, which increase his level, and provide one attribute point to the Hero, which you place in either Politic, Attack or Intelligence. You can easily waste DAYS of research/build and training time if you do this wrong.
The Heroes have certain attributes, which are crucial for succeeding in the game: Politics, Attack and Intelligence.
- A high Politics attribute of the Mayor will shorten the time for building buildings, walls and wall defence.
- A high Intelligence attribute of the Mayor will shorten technology research time.
- A high Attack attribute of the Mayor will shorten troop training time.
- A high Attack attribute of a Hero defending, leading an attack, reinforcement or scout mission, will increase the fighting abilities of your troops.
The game sports 20 technologies, and allows the player to control up to ten cities through gain of titles and rank, both requiring medals gained by buying in-game coins or by attacking valleys. Each of these cities has 74 building slots at their highest level. There are queue options for army unit production and wall defenses, but not for research. Until the introduction of Bernini's Hammer in Age II, there were not any queue options for buildings as well.
Evony has two different monetary systems. The in-game monetary system revolves around gold. Gold can be obtained by completing quests and by taxing the player's population. It is also possible to sell resources for gold on the marketplace to other players, or gain gold by raiding non-player cities. In lieu of this, a player can use real money to buy game cents with which to purchase items and resources from the in-game shop.
Prestige is a measure of a player's rank in the game. Players gain prestige by following quests, building and upgrading structures, training armies and successfully attacking valleys and cities often during the game. Honor is also a ranking system; however, it only changes with a successful or unsuccessful attack of or defense against another player. These are two of the main ways in which player rankings are visible. The overall ranking system that is displayed in the players window is based solely on their prestige compared to the remaining server population. Evony allows the player to control up to ten cities depending on title, not rank. To increase the number of cities the player can control, the player must obtain higher titles through the collection of certain medals.
Critical reception
Reviews for Evony have praised the appearance, but have been mostly critical of its derivative gameplay.The game was cited as doing "an amazing job at making the game look and feel appealing to all gamers" by New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
-based Stuff
Stuff.co.nz
Stuff.co.nz is a New Zealand news website owned and operated by Fairfax New Zealand, a subsidiary of the Australian company Fairfax Media. Stuff hosts the websites for Fairfax's New Zealand newspapers, including the country's second and third highest circulation daily newspapers The Dominion Post...
, although it was criticised for the amount of time and effort needed to excel in the game. Stuff also noted the shortcomings of a system like Evony's where one could essentially buy one's way through the game.
The Guardian
The Guardian
The Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
pointed out that it was so similar to Sid Meier
Sid Meier
Sidney K. "Sid" Meier is a Canadian programmer and designer of several popular computer strategy games, most notably Civilization. He has won accolades for his contributions to the computer games industry...
's Civilization series
Civilization (series)
Civilization is a series of turn-based strategy, 4X video games produced by Sid Meier. Basic gameplay functions are similar throughout the series, namely, buiding a civilization on a macro-scale from prehistory up to the near future...
that it felt like a ripoff, going so far as to essentially steal its name.
Advertising campaign
Evony's 2009 online advertising campaign was criticized for featuring what The Guardian called "a string of increasingly racy images." The images depicted females who, as the ad campaign continued, became increasingly unclothed, none of which had any relevance to the game itself. A more recent ad features what appears to be a fogged sauna door with what appears to be a nude woman behind it. The next two ads displayed a topless woman lying on her stomach in a bed and another woman in bed lying on her back, wearing only her undergarments. More recently, there has been a new ad of two women in suggestive poses, only wearing their undergarments, seen on download sites.Evony has also been accused of promoting the game via "millions of spam
Spam (electronic)
Spam is the use of electronic messaging systems to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately...
comments left on blogs".
A campaign for PopCap Games
PopCap Games
PopCap Games is an American video game developer and publisher, based in Seattle, Washington, United States. It was founded in 2000 by John Vechey, Brian Fiete and Jason Kapalka, and currently employs about 400 people...
' game, Plants vs. Zombies
Plants vs. Zombies
Plants vs. Zombies is a tower defense action video game developed and originally published by PopCap Games for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. The game involves a homeowner using many varieties of plants to repel an army of zombies from "eating their brains". It was first released on May 5, 2009,...
, included online advertisements that parodied Evony's. They featured cartoon images of female zombies like those featured in the game, in similar poses to the women in Evony's advertisements. Similar slogans were also used; instead of "Save the queen!", one ad tells the onlooker to "Save Your Brains!" AdventureQuest Worlds
AdventureQuest Worlds
AdventureQuest Worlds, often shortened to AQWorlds or simply AQW, is a browser-based MMORPG or massively multiplayer online role playing game developed by Artix Entertainment in 2008. Unlike most massively multiplayer role playing games, AdventureQuest Worlds was developed entirely in Adobe Flash...
has also parodied the campaign. Its ad shows a warrior's shadows who is shown to be in blue boxers; it also says "They told ARTIX his ads needed MORE SKIN; EPIC FAIL". The game Alteil
Alteil
is a story-driven, Flash-based online collectible card game produced by Dex Entertainment. It was released in Japan in 2004, and released in English in 2008. Alteil claims to be the most popular online card game in its home country ). The images on the online cards were designed by a team of...
also parodied the Evony campaign, with an ad that contained a picture of a female character, and the text "She is actually in our game my lord". There is also a Bloons TD
Bloons TD
Bloons Tower Defense, often abbreviated as Bloons TD or BTD , is a series of tower defense-style games under the Bloons brand produced and created by Ninja Kiwi...
advertisement about number 4. It says "Pop me now, my lord.". This advertisement seems to still exists, it was shown on the hacked version of BTD3 on Pictogame.
Gold farming
Allegations have been made that the game is linked to WoWMine, a Chinese operation known for online gold farmingGold farming
Gold farming is playing a massively multiplayer online game to acquire in-game currency which is then sold to other players. People in China and in other developing nations have held full-time employment as gold farmers....
.