Inselkampf

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Inselkampf

Developer(s)	Sven Schramm
Designer(s)	Sven Schramm
Engine	None (Browser based)
Release date(s)	inselkampf.co.uk - January 2005 inselkampf.com - 14 October, 2006 inselkampf.de - 2003
Genre(s)	MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Platform(s)	PHP and HTML (Web Based)
Media	Web interface
System requirements	Very low : Web Browser, Internet connection
Input	Keyboard, Mouse

Inselkampf is a browser based online game, which originated in Germany. "Inselkampf" means "Island Fight", or "Island Struggle" in German. It was created by Sven Schramm and is played in an internet browser window. Players control an island where they may use resources to create buildings, armies, and ships. Players may then trade with other players, attack foreign islands, and establish colonies.

The structure of Inselkampf demands that it be played with occasional input over days, weeks, and months. Buildings often take hours to be built and voyages between islands sometimes take days.

There are now two english speaking versions of the game. One at the original site and another at a new site. The latter opened on 14 October, 2006.

1 Game Fundamentals
2 Advanced Play
3 Community
4 Multi-Hunting
5 Security
6 Game links
7 Community Links

[edit] Game Fundamentals

After registering, which is free, a player is assigned a random island within a sea and a limited amount of resources with which to build key buildings. There can be up to 25 isles in each 'grid' and there are 100 grids within each 'ocean'; there are at least 30 inhabited oceans.

The game is 'open ended,' there is no set goal and the player may play as he or she wishes. The aim of the game is to build your island and army up and eventually colonise other islands to increase your score and power. If he or she is disposed to, the player may attack other players and forcefully take their colonies off of them. In the UK version of the game, a player's starter island cannot be colonised, only attacked and damaged. In the US version of the game, only a player's last remaining island cannot be colonised.

Players can send messages to each other, trade resources and form personal pacts. Players can also start wars with each other although there is no official way to go to war other than to announce it through the game or to attack the opponent(s). The only competition in the game is therefore from real people rather than an artificial intelligence or computer program.

A beta version of a redesigned Inselkampf was released in early 2006.

[edit] Advanced Play

The 'Map' screen, from here you can see the IK world

All players start with a main house and 250 units of each of the three resources; Gold, Stone and Lumber. The new player is very strongly advised to build up their Gold Mine, Stone Quarry and Lumber Mill before anything else. These key buildings acquire new resources and so are essential to development.

Once resource levels have risen and the player has built up their ‘Main House’ new buildings are available for construction such as the Harbour, Barracks, and Laboratory, which can be used to develop technology and build catapaults.

It usually takes a good deal of time before the player can even consider colonising an isle. All isles except the primary isles of players can be colonised. Colonisation ships are extremely expensive in game terms and are destroyed if the attempt is successful. It should also be noted that keeping control over more than just a handful of isles is quite difficult, as successfully defending them against the biggest players requires luck and diplomacy.

[edit] Community

There is a constantly shifting number of players, although there are usually around 9000 registered players at any one time. Many of these sign up and decide not to play, leaving their accounts inactive; many others go inactive after being effectively destroyed. Isles belonging to inactive accounts are regularly deleted, leaving the isle free up for colonization (this happens in events nicknamed 'Tsunamis'.) The number of active players is therefore fairly static at around 5000. Of these, usually only 600-700 players are online at any one time. The German Inselkampf servers are much more popular: finding 5000 players online, spread across the seven servers, at any given time is not uncommon.

It is usually necessary to talk to other players and so a strong community surrounds the game. This is held together by alliances (see below) and personal friendships or animosities. Many alliances have web discussion forums and some have web pages. Several FAQs have been written and in game, people generally know their neighbours and the key players in their area. A site dedicated solely to reporting the in-game news also exists but has been inactive for some months. [1]

Interestingly enough, the English-speaking Inselkampf community has recently become strong enough to give weight to in-game currencies and military units. An Ebay search will quickly reveal dozens of players selling anything from lumber to catapults to entire accounts! [2]

Some of the German community have become so passionate about the game that they have created their own Inselkampf which is currently in development, but open for anyone to join.

[edit] Multi-Hunting

The 'overview' screen, the key to island management

As the game is played by and against real people and requires a good deal of time commitment before a player can colonise or build certain units, generally speaking players think long and hard before starting wars. Not only are offensive units expensive but counter attacks can prove disastrous, especially if the victim employs the help of his alliance and allies.

‘Multis’ are people with two or more accounts in the game. This is both against the rules and considered sacrilegious by the community. Multis therefore have no recourse, no-one will defend them and the guilt of attacking someone’s carefully developed isle is removed entirely. Some players and alliances are devoted wholly to the task of seeking out and destroying multis. Importantly, it seems multis are undetectable to the game owners leaving the community to self police.

Also, recently there has been a large influx of scripted accounts. A scripted account is usually one of many, all owned by one player. The accounts are run off of a script that automatically makes changes to each individual account without the owner having to do anything. Scripted accounts are usually fed resources by the owner's actual account to help them grow, then that account "farms" the scripted accounts to gain far more resources than origianaly sent until the accounts' deletion.

[edit] Security

By far the largest security risk on Inselkampf is password theft: account security can be compromised entirely simply by another individual procuring a single, six-character combination. Many accounts have been 'hacked', preventing a rewarding experience for the original owner of this account while at the same time allowing another user to grow in power beyond their proper ability within the rules of the game.

A number of things can happen to an account with a stolen password if nothing is done. Most obviously the hacker can transfer resources from the hacked account to his master account, increasing his ability to build. More ominously, the hacker can potentially hack several accounts but, rather than transferring resources and abandoning them, keep all the accounts under his control active.

It is therefore advised that players not share their passwords with any third party they don't place the utmost trust in. Several players have previously masqueraded as Sven Schramm, the creator of Inselkampf, or as VIPs with links to this man; as far as anyone knows Sven Schramm does not actually play Inselkampf (or at least not on the English server) and these claims are therefore all false, and should not be heeded in any sense. In addition, many players also frequently utilize the "Forgot Password?" feature on the front page of the site. One of the more annoying things about Inselkampf is users don't actually have any control over their exact password; however, the "Forgot Password?" feature allows users to do the next best thing: change their password to a different six-character combination, accessible from the player's Email account.

It is also advised that players not share their session IDs and always log out when finished. Sessions last about an hour, so if a player gives out their session ID but does not log out then the recipient has only to paste the session ID (along with the full URL) into their browser's address bar before the session expires to access the victim's account. It is advised that players never under any circumstances share their session IDs no matter who claims to be asking.