Illyriad
Encyclopedia
Illyriad is a free to play
massively multiplayer online
browser-based strategy game developed by the UK software company Illyriad Games Ltd, the company's first full online strategy game, first released in beta in 2010, and launched in 2011.
Like many browser games, there is no set goal. The game is played on an infinite-round basis—there are no resets planned. The game uses pure Javascript
Web technology, and is not based on Adobe Flash
, unlike many other browser-based games.
An interview by Massively with Illyriad's "GM Stormcrow" focused on the game's origins: Illyriad was born out of a conversation "along the lines of: 'Wouldn't it be great if there was a free-to-play MMORPG and RTS
empire-building game in a persistent, hand-crafted world that didn't treat players like cash cows? And -- graphics aside -- why can't you have the depth of a big-budget sandbox production like EVE Online
in a 2-D, cross-platform, browser-based game?'"
Illyriad was showcased in the Mozilla Labs 2010 Game On Gallery.
– when a player logs out, the game continues. Player start with a single town in which they construct and upgrade buildings and conduct research to unlock new technologies. Player civilizations can be expanded by conquering cities, sending settlers to colonize new lands or claiming sovereignty to expand player influence. It has a gameworld of over 4 million squares - the majority of which can be settled with a city.
"I love the look of Illyriad ... It has a nice, hand-drawn feel to it and appears warm, inviting, and epic. Scrolling across the map feels like scanning an actual cloth map, complete with hidden areas and scattered empires."
The game has four playable races, each with their own advantages and disadvantages: Humans, Elves
, Dwarves, Orc
s.
There are five main types of basic resources: Wood, Clay, Iron, Stone and Food. They are available from the Lumberjack, Clay Pit, Iron Mine, Quarry and Farmyard respectively. Mana and research are produced by the mage tower and library, and used for magic and research. Gold is the currency in the game, which pays the wages for troops, caravans and diplomats; as well as player to player trade in the marketplace. Advanced resources are built from other resources: horses, livestock, beer, books, spears, swords, bows, saddles, leather armour, chainmail, plate armour and siege blocks. These are used in the construction of units.
It also has magic with several spell schools; a commodities trading marketplace
and quests which are different based on player race.
Illyriad's military unit categories are: Infantry, Spearmen, Cavalry, Archers and Siege engines; with multiple strategies including attack, raid
, feint
, occupy
, reinforce, blockade
and siege
. Combat is both PvP
and PvE
. Army commanders gain experience
from combat which the player can use to train the commander's skills.
The "diplomatic" research options include: Spying, counter-intelligence, theft, sabotage and assassination.
With the right technologies researched, using an army a player can claim sovereignty
on occupied territory for various advantages.
To research a new technology, it is first necessary to research the prerequisite technology - also some technologies have a prerequisite building level that must be built (for example, Smelting can only be researched after Craftsmanship has been researched and the town has a level 7 Quarry).
Researched technology is on a per city basis, so when a player settles a new town, they must research the technology for that town separately. The game's technology tree displays all the non-discovery techs in the game and their relation with one another, and allows the player to queue up to 2 technologies per town for research. Discoveries when found are at that point revealed to the player and do not require to be researched.
Completed researches count towards the players overall research score.
of the battle ground and types of units engaged. Units' offensive and defensive abilities vary with the terrain they occupy. For example: "mountains favour ranged units and nimble spearmen, and penalise cavalry heavily. Attacking swordsmen are also hampered by the passes, gulleys and canyons that make frontal assaults more difficult."
While there are many more terrain sub-types (e.g. Light Tropical Cover, Rockhewn Monastery, Dense Jungle, Dense Rainforest), the main overall terrains for combat purposes are:
In Jun 2011 the geography of one part of the world became infected
and changes on a daily basis.
s, and are provided with alliance forums
, chat
and a central treasury. Alliances interrelationships begin neutral, but they can choose to enter different states with each other such as: Confederation
, NAP
or War.
As well as the "hard power" of alliances in war, diplomacy, protection and politics; alliances in Illyriad allow players to cooperate to achieve things that would be beyond them as individuals. This includes investigating and solving mysteries spread across the world and competing in server wide tournaments.
"Search the map for alliances and you witness how many lines are indeed being drawn. Despite the very friendly community, I never once stop thinking about the battles and wars going on at that very moment."
s in which players compete and players are rewarded individually and at the Alliance level. These tournaments have been also used to introduce new gameplay dynamics like creature drops.
The tournaments have been month long events and have been as follows:
standards; including mobile devices (e.g. iPad
, iPhone
, Android, BlackBerry
). Unlike many other browser-based online games, it doesn't depend on the proprietary Flash
plug-in. Illyriad is supported by Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer 8+. Further, the game has a special Facebook-mode, using Facebook-specific features such as Facebook connect, game announcements and other community features. Illyriad is also featured in the Facebook application directory.
"Illyriad shines in its ability to be played across any device, anywhere, over any connection."
can be purchased via PayPal
, mobile payment
using Fortumo
, Google Checkout
and Facebook Credits
for Facebook players.
Research, troop builds and advanced resource production cannot be sped up through the use of in game currency. "Despite the fact that players can purchase "prestige" to help speed up deliveries [caravans] or building upgrades, research is unaffected by any boosts. This means that players have to wait to become smarter, as in real life."
.
James Niesewand, Illyriad Games founder, described the process: "From start to finish it took us about a year to get something playable ... for us that was just the point at which we had something fun that people could enjoy. At that stage we put the game live, invited people to play, and worked on improving the game in line with the players’ feedback."
Critical development software included Microsoft ASP.NET MVC and jQuery
. Illyriad uses Microsoft SQL Server for persistent game data.
ly generated including topographical features: mountain ranges, lakes, forests, hills, oceans, islands, rivers etc. This was then followed by the introduction of biome
s including desert
, jungle
, marshes
and the polar north
; as well as regions
and NPC Factions
.
Rather than continuing the development with a single internal team, Illyriad Games used a highly distributed model; composed of remote workers in different countries and outsourced suppliers. They bought on board Quantic Labs for the graphics which were used to relaunch the user interface. Their "artists and writers [were given] a lot of creative freedom" when producing new graphics and content.
This brought a number of changes:
authentication was introduced for new and existing players to sign up or link their account using their Google, Yahoo, AOL, myOpenID, OpenId, Wordpress, LiveJournal, Blogger, Verisign, ClaimId, ClickPass or Google Profile accounts.
on a trip to the desert island Illyriad was one of them: "...I would have to go with Illyriad, the fantastic browser-based city-builder.... Illyriad is a delight to play." and added: "Given Illyriad's realistic trade, amazing community, and variable-speed gameplay, I would be insane to leave this one off the list."
It was also selected for the top eleven (in no particular order) of Massively's Fifty games for the mobile lifestyle: "This little surprise [Illyriad] has taken hold of me. Imagine an epic RTS but with killer lore and an awesome community."
Free-to-play
Free-to-play refers to any video game that has the option of allowing its players to play without paying. The model was first popularly used in early massively multiplayer online games targeted towards casual gamers, before finding wider adoption among games released by major video game...
massively multiplayer online
Massively multiplayer online game
A massively multiplayer online game is a multiplayer video game which is capable of supporting hundreds or thousands of players simultaneously. By necessity, they are played on the Internet, and usually feature at least one persistent world. They are, however, not necessarily games played on...
browser-based strategy game developed by the UK software company Illyriad Games Ltd, the company's first full online strategy game, first released in beta in 2010, and launched in 2011.
Like many browser games, there is no set goal. The game is played on an infinite-round basis—there are no resets planned. The game uses pure Javascript
JavaScript
JavaScript is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed and has first-class functions. It is a multi-paradigm language, supporting object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles....
Web technology, and is not based on Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
, unlike many other browser-based games.
An interview by Massively with Illyriad's "GM Stormcrow" focused on the game's origins: Illyriad was born out of a conversation "along the lines of: 'Wouldn't it be great if there was a free-to-play MMORPG and RTS
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....
empire-building game in a persistent, hand-crafted world that didn't treat players like cash cows? And -- graphics aside -- why can't you have the depth of a big-budget sandbox production like EVE Online
EVE Online
Eve Online is a video game by CCP Games. It is a player-driven, persistent-world MMORPG set in a science fiction space setting. Characters pilot customizable ships through a galaxy of over 7,500 star systems. Most star systems are connected to one or more other star systems by means of stargates...
in a 2-D, cross-platform, browser-based game?'"
Illyriad was showcased in the Mozilla Labs 2010 Game On Gallery.
Gameplay
Illyriad is set in a persistent fantasy 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. Player start with a single town in which they construct and upgrade buildings and conduct research to unlock new technologies. Player civilizations can be expanded by conquering cities, sending settlers to colonize new lands or claiming sovereignty to expand player influence. It has a gameworld of over 4 million squares - the majority of which can be settled with a city.
"I love the look of Illyriad ... It has a nice, hand-drawn feel to it and appears warm, inviting, and epic. Scrolling across the map feels like scanning an actual cloth map, complete with hidden areas and scattered empires."
The game has four playable races, each with their own advantages and disadvantages: Humans, Elves
Elves in fantasy fiction and games
In many works of modern fantasy, elves are a race of semi-divine humanoid beings.-Characteristics and common features:Modern fantasy literature has revived the elves as a race of semi-divine beings of human stature who are friendly with animals. Fantasy elves are different from Norse elves and the...
, Dwarves, Orc
Orc
An orc is one of a race of mythical human-like creatures, generally described as fierce and combative, with grotesque features and often black, grey or greenish skin. This mythology has its origins in the writings of J. R. R. Tolkien....
s.
There are five main types of basic resources: Wood, Clay, Iron, Stone and Food. They are available from the Lumberjack, Clay Pit, Iron Mine, Quarry and Farmyard respectively. Mana and research are produced by the mage tower and library, and used for magic and research. Gold is the currency in the game, which pays the wages for troops, caravans and diplomats; as well as player to player trade in the marketplace. Advanced resources are built from other resources: horses, livestock, beer, books, spears, swords, bows, saddles, leather armour, chainmail, plate armour and siege blocks. These are used in the construction of units.
It also has magic with several spell schools; a commodities trading marketplace
Marketplace
A marketplace is the space, actual, virtual or metaphorical, in which a market operates. The term is also used in a trademark law context to denote the actual consumer environment, ie. the 'real world' in which products and services are provided and consumed.-Marketplaces and street markets:A...
and quests which are different based on player race.
Illyriad's military unit categories are: Infantry, Spearmen, Cavalry, Archers and Siege engines; with multiple strategies including attack, raid
Raid (military)
Raid, also known as depredation, is a military tactic or operational warfare mission which has a specific purpose and is not normally intended to capture and hold terrain, but instead finish with the raiding force quickly retreating to a previous defended position prior to the enemy forces being...
, feint
Feint
Feint is a French term that entered English from the discipline of fencing. Feints are maneuvers designed to distract or mislead, done by giving the impression that a certain maneuver will take place, while in fact another, or even none, will...
, occupy
Military occupation
Military occupation occurs when the control and authority over a territory passes to a hostile army. The territory then becomes occupied territory.-Military occupation and the laws of war:...
, reinforce, blockade
Blockade
A blockade is an effort to cut off food, supplies, war material or communications from a particular area by force, either in part or totally. A blockade should not be confused with an embargo or sanctions, which are legal barriers to trade, and is distinct from a siege in that a blockade is usually...
and siege
Siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...
. Combat is both PvP
Player versus player
Player versus player, or PvP, is a type of multiplayer interactive conflict within a game between two or more live participants. This is in contrast to games where players compete against computer controlled opponents, which is correspondingly referred to as player versus environment...
and PvE
Player versus environment
Player versus environment, or PvE , is a term used in online games, particularly MMORPGs, CORPGs, MUDs, and other online role-playing video games, to refer to fighting computer-controlled enemies—in contrast to PvP .Usually a PvE mode can be played either alone, with human...
. Army commanders gain experience
Experience point
An experience point is a unit of measurement used in many role-playing games and role-playing video games to quantify a player character's progression through the game...
from combat which the player can use to train the commander's skills.
The "diplomatic" research options include: Spying, counter-intelligence, theft, sabotage and assassination.
With the right technologies researched, using an army a player can claim sovereignty
Sovereignty
Sovereignty is the quality of having supreme, independent authority over a geographic area, such as a territory. It can be found in a power to rule and make law that rests on a political fact for which no purely legal explanation can be provided...
on occupied territory for various advantages.
Technologies
Illyriad's technology tree has 290 research options. They are categorized into 7 research areas: City, Diplomacy, Quest, Magic, Military, Trade and Sovereignty. There are also discoveries which are found via quests.To research a new technology, it is first necessary to research the prerequisite technology - also some technologies have a prerequisite building level that must be built (for example, Smelting can only be researched after Craftsmanship has been researched and the town has a level 7 Quarry).
Researched technology is on a per city basis, so when a player settles a new town, they must research the technology for that town separately. The game's technology tree displays all the non-discovery techs in the game and their relation with one another, and allows the player to queue up to 2 technologies per town for research. Discoveries when found are at that point revealed to the player and do not require to be researched.
Completed researches count towards the players overall research score.
Terrain
The outcome of battles is not determined only by the size of armies, but is also influenced by the terrainTerrain
Terrain, or land relief, is the vertical and horizontal dimension of land surface. When relief is described underwater, the term bathymetry is used...
of the battle ground and types of units engaged. Units' offensive and defensive abilities vary with the terrain they occupy. For example: "mountains favour ranged units and nimble spearmen, and penalise cavalry heavily. Attacking swordsmen are also hampered by the passes, gulleys and canyons that make frontal assaults more difficult."
While there are many more terrain sub-types (e.g. Light Tropical Cover, Rockhewn Monastery, Dense Jungle, Dense Rainforest), the main overall terrains for combat purposes are:
|
|
|
Evolving World
The world of Illyriad changes and evolves over time. Mysteries and special locations are added to the world such as The Temple of Reason, The Heroic Statues and the Steampunk brewery. "For the game as a whole this is really nice. It means that players can stumble upon local oddities, and investigate (or ignore) these as they choose."In Jun 2011 the geography of one part of the world became infected
Infection
An infection is the colonization of a host organism by parasite species. Infecting parasites seek to use the host's resources to reproduce, often resulting in disease...
and changes on a daily basis.
Alliances
Players can form allianceAlliance
An alliance is an agreement or friendship between two or more parties, made in order to advance common goals and to secure common interests.See also military alliance and business alliance.-International relations:...
s, and are provided with alliance forums
Internet forum
An Internet forum, or message board, is an online discussion site where people can hold conversations in the form of posted messages. They differ from chat rooms in that messages are at least temporarily archived...
, chat
Online chat
Online chat may refer to any kind of communication over the Internet, that offers an instantaneous transmission of text-based messages from sender to receiver, hence the delay for visual access to the sent message shall not hamper the flow of communications in any of the directions...
and a central treasury. Alliances interrelationships begin neutral, but they can choose to enter different states with each other such as: Confederation
Confederation
A confederation in modern political terms is a permanent union of political units for common action in relation to other units. Usually created by treaty but often later adopting a common constitution, confederations tend to be established for dealing with critical issues such as defense, foreign...
, NAP
Non-aggression pact
A non-aggression pact is an international treaty between two or more states/countries agreeing to avoid war or armed conflict between them and resolve their disputes through peaceful negotiations...
or War.
As well as the "hard power" of alliances in war, diplomacy, protection and politics; alliances in Illyriad allow players to cooperate to achieve things that would be beyond them as individuals. This includes investigating and solving mysteries spread across the world and competing in server wide tournaments.
Political Intrigue
Alliance and players are also continuously drawing and changing territorial lines and having secret meetings that decide the fate of entire sections of the world. However with a very large world and realistic travel times for trade, diplomats and military it becomes hard for even large alliances to exert direct force at large distances from their core power blocks."Search the map for alliances and you witness how many lines are indeed being drawn. Despite the very friendly community, I never once stop thinking about the battles and wars going on at that very moment."
Tournaments
Illyriad also features server-wide tournamentTournament
A tournament is a competition involving a relatively large number of competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:...
s in which players compete and players are rewarded individually and at the Alliance level. These tournaments have been also used to introduce new gameplay dynamics like creature drops.
The tournaments have been month long events and have been as follows:
- Jan 2011: The first tournament was an Alliance versus AllianceRealm versus RealmRealm versus Realm is a type of Player versus Player gameplay in Massively multiplayer online role-playing games where the player base is divided over multiple preset realms that fight each other over game assets...
"Hold the Fort" event. Eight equidistant locations in the world acted as "forts", which had to be held by player's armies. At the end of the month the Alliance who had held a location for the longest was the winner of that "fort". Also a prize was given to the Alliance which had held the most locations for the longest time overall. - Apr 2011: The second tournament was a Player versus EnvironmentPlayer versus environmentPlayer versus environment, or PvE , is a term used in online games, particularly MMORPGs, CORPGs, MUDs, and other online role-playing video games, to refer to fighting computer-controlled enemies—in contrast to PvP .Usually a PvE mode can be played either alone, with human...
event which required players to combat NPCNon-player characterA non-player character , sometimes known as a non-person character or non-playable character, in a game is any fictional character not controlled by a player. In electronic games, this usually means a character controlled by the computer through artificial intelligence...
animal spawns and retrieve "anatomical specimens". Players were individually rewarded for being the greatest hunter of each creature type; having the largest collection and having the largest number of unique parts. Alliances received rewards for having the largest collection and having the largest number of unique parts between all the Alliances. - Jun 2011: The third tournament was a Player versus All "Hold the Fort" event. The eight locations from the first tournament acted as spawn points for elementalElementalAn elemental is a mythological being first appearing in the alchemical works of Paracelsus in the 16th century. Traditionally, there are four types:*gnomes, earth elementals*undines , water elementals*sylphs, air elementals...
s, which would bind to the player holding the square and become a unit in their town. On these squares all Alliance affiliations were suspended so all players were hostile to each other on these squares. In addition to the elementals, at the end of the tournament players were also rewarded for each of the elementals they had bound and the top players from each square received a Tournament Winner's Statue placed at the winners' choice on any unoccupied map square within 10 squares of their Capital City. This Monument bears their name and is a permanent marker on the World Map.
Compatibility
Illyriad can be played in any web browser which supports the HTMLHTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
standards; including mobile devices (e.g. iPad
IPad
The iPad is a line of tablet computers designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc., primarily as a platform for audio-visual media including books, periodicals, movies, music, games, and web content. The iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010 by Apple's then-CEO Steve Jobs. Its size and...
, iPhone
IPhone
The iPhone is a line of Internet and multimedia-enabled smartphones marketed by Apple Inc. The first iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs, then CEO of Apple, on January 9, 2007, and released on June 29, 2007...
, Android, BlackBerry
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
). Unlike many other browser-based online games, it doesn't depend on the proprietary Flash
Adobe Flash
Adobe Flash is a multimedia platform used to add animation, video, and interactivity to web pages. Flash is frequently used for advertisements, games and flash animations for broadcast...
plug-in. Illyriad is supported by Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Safari and Internet Explorer 8+. Further, the game has a special Facebook-mode, using Facebook-specific features such as Facebook connect, game announcements and other community features. Illyriad is also featured in the Facebook application directory.
"Illyriad shines in its ability to be played across any device, anywhere, over any connection."
Business model
The game does not use ads, and is fully funded by the optional purchase of "prestige" offering a slight advantage using microtransactions. This virtual currencyVirtual currency
Virtual currency is used to purchase virtual goods within a variety of online communities; which include social networking websites, virtual worlds and online gaming sites....
can be purchased via PayPal
PayPal
PayPal is an American-based global e-commerce business allowing payments and money transfers to be made through the Internet. Online money transfers serve as electronic alternatives to paying with traditional paper methods, such as checks and money orders....
, mobile payment
Mobile Payment
Mobile financial services, also referred to as mobile money, mobile payment, mobile banking, mobile money transfer and mobile wallet generally refer to payment services operated under financial regulation and performed from or via a mobile device....
using Fortumo
Fortumo
Fortumo is an international mobile payment portal, offering Premium SMS payment services. It is a daughter company of the mobile services provider, Mobi Solutions Ltd....
, Google Checkout
Google Checkout
Google Checkout is an online payment processing service provided by Google aimed at simplifying the process of paying for online purchases. Users store their credit or debit card and shipping information in their Google Account, so that they can purchase at participating stores by clicking an...
and Facebook Credits
Facebook Credits
Facebook Credits is a virtual currency that enables people to purchase items in games and non-gaming applications on the Facebook Platform. One U.S. dollar is the equivalent of 10 Facebook Credits. Facebook Credits are currently available in 15 currencies including U.S. dollars, pound sterling,...
for Facebook players.
Research, troop builds and advanced resource production cannot be sped up through the use of in game currency. "Despite the fact that players can purchase "prestige" to help speed up deliveries [caravans] or building upgrades, research is unaffected by any boosts. This means that players have to wait to become smarter, as in real life."
Initial release
Illyriad began development in 2009, and was the first game developed by Illyriad Games Ltd. It began with 3 developers and 3 artists, however only 2 were full time - with the others working at other jobs. The core Illyriad development team's background was from web and enterprise software, not games - and the initial content was provided by volunteersVolunteering
Volunteering is generally considered an altruistic activity, intended to promote good or improve human quality of life, but people also volunteer for their own skill development, to meet others, to make contacts for possible employment, to have fun, and a variety of other reasons that could be...
.
James Niesewand, Illyriad Games founder, described the process: "From start to finish it took us about a year to get something playable ... for us that was just the point at which we had something fun that people could enjoy. At that stage we put the game live, invited people to play, and worked on improving the game in line with the players’ feedback."
Critical development software included Microsoft ASP.NET MVC and jQuery
JQuery
jQuery is a cross-browser JavaScript library designed to simplify the client-side scripting of HTML. It was released in January 2006 at BarCamp NYC by John Resig...
. Illyriad uses Microsoft SQL Server for persistent game data.
Continued development
After initial launch, the development of Illyriad continued. The world was changed from being randomly generated into one which was fractalFractal
A fractal has been defined as "a rough or fragmented geometric shape that can be split into parts, each of which is a reduced-size copy of the whole," a property called self-similarity...
ly generated including topographical features: mountain ranges, lakes, forests, hills, oceans, islands, rivers etc. This was then followed by the introduction of biome
Biome
Biomes are climatically and geographically defined as similar climatic conditions on the Earth, such as communities of plants, animals, and soil organisms, and are often referred to as ecosystems. Some parts of the earth have more or less the same kind of abiotic and biotic factors spread over a...
s including desert
Deserts and xeric shrublands
Deserts and xeric shrublands is a biome characterized by, relating to, or requiring only a small amount of moisture.-Definition and occurrence:...
, jungle
Jungle
A Jungle is an area of land in the tropics overgrown with dense vegetation.The word jungle originates from the Sanskrit word jangala which referred to uncultivated land. Although the Sanskrit word refers to "dry land", it has been suggested that an Anglo-Indian interpretation led to its...
, marshes
Wetland
A wetland is an area of land whose soil is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally. Wetlands are categorised by their characteristic vegetation, which is adapted to these unique soil conditions....
and the polar north
Arctic
The Arctic is a region located at the northern-most part of the Earth. The Arctic consists of the Arctic Ocean and parts of Canada, Russia, Greenland, the United States, Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Iceland. The Arctic region consists of a vast, ice-covered ocean, surrounded by treeless permafrost...
; as well as regions
Country
A country is a region legally identified as a distinct entity in political geography. A country may be an independent sovereign state or one that is occupied by another state, as a non-sovereign or formerly sovereign political division, or a geographic region associated with a previously...
and NPC Factions
Political faction
A political faction is a grouping of individuals, such as a political party, a trade union, or other group with a political purpose. A faction or political party may include fragmented sub-factions, “parties within a party," which may be referred to as power blocs, or voting blocs. The individuals...
.
Rather than continuing the development with a single internal team, Illyriad Games used a highly distributed model; composed of remote workers in different countries and outsourced suppliers. They bought on board Quantic Labs for the graphics which were used to relaunch the user interface. Their "artists and writers [were given] a lot of creative freedom" when producing new graphics and content.
HTML5 Canvas
On 09 Aug 2011 the World Map changed from HTML DOM to HTML5 Canvas.This brought a number of changes:
- An increase of the map zoom by ten levels, allowing 25 levels of zoom and increasing the grid to 51 x 51 tiles.
- Drag and drop, and mouse wheel zoom of the world map in the style of Google Maps.
- Movement and continual updating of moving units
- 'Fog of War' visibility for diplomats
OpenId Support
On 19 Aug 2011 OpenIDOpenID
OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities...
authentication was introduced for new and existing players to sign up or link their account using their Google, Yahoo, AOL, myOpenID, OpenId, Wordpress, LiveJournal, Blogger, Verisign, ClaimId, ClickPass or Google Profile accounts.
Avatar Graphics Update
Illyriad hired artists to improve their character portraits, which were released in August 2011.Reception
Of the three games chosen to go with MassivelyJoystiq
Joystiq is a video gaming blog founded in June 2004 that has since become one of the most successful sites within the Weblogs, Inc. family of weblogs. It is the centerpiece of WIN's own network of video gaming blogs, which also includes a blog dealing specifically with the popular MMORPG World of...
on a trip to the desert island Illyriad was one of them: "...I would have to go with Illyriad, the fantastic browser-based city-builder.... Illyriad is a delight to play." and added: "Given Illyriad's realistic trade, amazing community, and variable-speed gameplay, I would be insane to leave this one off the list."
It was also selected for the top eleven (in no particular order) of Massively's Fifty games for the mobile lifestyle: "This little surprise [Illyriad] has taken hold of me. Imagine an epic RTS but with killer lore and an awesome community."
External links
- Official website of Illyriad
- Illyriad Forums
- Illyriad Player Signup
- Illyriad Chrome App on Chrome Web StoreChrome Web StoreThe Chrome Web Store is an online store from Google. It was announced at the Google I/O conference on May 19, 2010 by Vic Gundotra and released on December 6, 2010...
- Illyriad Facebook App on FacebookFacebookFacebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
- Illyriad Developer Blog