Evony

Evony
Evony's logo
Developer(s)	Evony, LLC
Publisher(s)	Evony, LLC
Platform(s)	Adobe Flash
Release date(s)	May 6, 2009
Genre(s)	Fantasy Medieval MMORTS
Mode(s)	Multiplayer

Evony

Web address	www.evony.com/
Alexa rank	1,366

Evony (formerly known as Civony) is an Adobe Flash-based multiplayer online game with graphic elements reminiscent of other similar real time games, however there is no cultural diversity and the buildings and units are very limited. The game is set in medieval times, where a player is to establish a city, begin developing various technologies, and build supporting structures and alliances to generate armies and resources for the purpose of attacking other players and computer generated cities.

Gameplay

Evony is set in a persistent world during the medieval time period in which the player assumes the role of a lord or lady of a city or alliance.^[1] 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 to level 4 or higher. This gives new players the opportunity to accumulate a few resources and troops and get accustomed to the game before other players can attack them.^[1]

The player sets tax rate, production and construction. The resources in the game are gold, food, lumber, stone, and iron, and the city's idle population. As with similar games, one first has to increase the city's population and hourly resource production rates as well as construction of certain buildings in the city, and then start building resource fields of their city and building an army. Your army can include siege machines, such as ballistas, catapults, and battering rams, and foot troops, such as archers, warriors and swordsmen. ^[2]

All of Evony's items must be purchased with cents which can be bought with real money, through its item shop in game or won at the wheel. some items will accelerate the player's progression through the game. Winning items in battle is the primary way for acquisition of resources and or cities.

Construction

• Buildings: The city always holds 34 positions for buildings in town, where one is permanently occupied by the town hall, and up to 40 positions outside the walls (depending on the level of the town hall). The latter are resource fields. Each building can be independently upgraded from level 0 to level 10. Each time you upgrade your town hall it opens up three more resource fields. Level 10 requires a special item - a Michelangelo Script. Initial construction may take from under a minute to several days. Until the introduction of Bernini's Hammer or Gundolf's Compass, there were not any queue options for buildings. Only one building may be queued unless special items are applied. Each upgrade requires double the cost of the previous level in resources used and doubles the time required. Building time may be reduced by researching the construction technology, and by assigning a hero with a high politic attribute as mayor. There is a speed up button, that will instantly finish buildings, or will allow the use of items that decrease building times. These items can be won through battle, spinning the wheel or purchased using cents.

Technology and military

• Technologies: The 19 Technologies thatstart with level 0 and can be researched using an academy if one was built. Prerequisites may include specific levels of other technologies and buildings. Research time is influenced by the intel attribute of the hero assigned as mayor. Research time may also be shortened by using items.

• Troops: Army units are built in the Barracks and can be queued. The level of the barrack determines how many slots can be used for training troops. Two factors influence how many units you can train: the number of your idle population and your resources. One slot allows for one unit type. Training time is determined by the attack value of the assigned hero as mayor at the time of queue. There are also items that can shorten training time.

• Fortification Units: Fortification units assist in your city's defense. They are built into the wall, where wall level determines queue slots available. The value increases with rising wall level. Unit building time is determined by the politic value of the hero assigned as mayor as well as that same hero's intel attribute.

Heroes

Heroes can be assigned as the "Mayor" of a city, lead attacks against other players or against NPC's/valleys. The hero earns experience points which increase his level, and provide attribute points which are placed in either politic, attack or intelligence. These attributes are crucial for succeeding in the game.

• A high politics attribute of the mayor will shorten construction time for buildings, walls, wall defences, and increase production of resources.
• A high intelligence attribute of the Mayor will shorten technology research time and assist in troop building in the highest troop type.
• A high attack attribute of the mayor will shorten troop training time and assist in defence when being attacked and will increase the fighting abilities of your troops as well as longevity.

Interaction

The game features player versus player game play making it possible to attack another player's cities, and almost impossible for players that have not formed or joined alliances to survive. The level of the building called rally point in the attacking city determines how many attack waves and how many troops in each wave that can be sent in the attack. Unlike other games, buildings cannot be destroyed, but a city can be lost - even if you are off-line. During an attack, your city can be reinforced by fellow alliance members or another of your cities(requires an embassy). Various army units are available, and all battles are based on a player attacking another player's city, a Non-Player City (NPC) or Valleys/Flats. NPCs arise when a city is abandoned or during server maintenance. There are certain troop setups used to attack these NPCs favorably. Even if not favorable, attacking NPC's is used for leveling up the heroes however hero loyalty will drop and must be monitored. An NPC can be taken over, and if it's a level 10, all buildings will be at level 10, saving huge amounts of resources and time. However, certain reconfigurations may be undertaken to configure city layout, like dismantling cottages in favors of barracks, and - on older servers - dismantling farms in favor of other resource fields. Taking a NPC level 10 close to an opponent is a well known strategy for staging attacks.

The game allows the player to control up to ten cities through gain of titles. To gain a title, a certain rank is necessary. Both Title and Rank require Medals gained by use of in-game coins to purchase medal boxes, by attacking valleys or winning medal boxes from spinning the wheel.

The game has two different monetary systems. The in-game monetary system revolves around gold. Gold can be obtained by completing quests, by taxing the city's population as well as attacking NPC's. It is also possible to sell resources for gold on the marketplace or to trade resources with other players within your alliance for gold. A player can also use real money to buy game cents with which to purchase items and resources from the in-game shop.^[1]

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 and other players outside your alliance. Honor is also a ranking system; however, it only changes with a successful or unsuccessful attack of or defense against another player. Honor also effects the amount of troops that may be healed. (higher honor-less troops healed). The overall ranking system that is displayed in the player's window is based solely on their prestige compared to other players in the remaining server population.

Controversy

Advertising campaign

An Evony advertisement on a music streaming service

Evony's 2009 online advertising campaign was criticized for featuring what The Guardian called "a string of increasingly racy images."^[3] The images depicted females who, as the ad campaign continued, became increasingly unclothed,^[4] none of which had any relevance to the game itself. In 2009 Gavin Mannion commented that Evony's "latest ad is seriously pushing boundaries of what is acceptable to publish on Google".^[5] Other ads used stock photographs from pornographic DVD covers.^[6]

Evony has also been accused of promoting the game via "millions of spam comments left on blogs". The company denies they are responsible for the spam.^[3] Others attribute the spam to players making use of the pyramid scheme-based iEvony affiliate program.^[7]

Censorship

On 25 August 2009, Evony's lawyers threatened to sue a critical blogger for defamation over a variety of allegations as to the game's provenance and the practices of the companies behind it.^[8] The developers of Evony have denied the allegations from internet blogger Bruce Everiss, and have sent a cease and desist letter for defamation based on Australian law.^[9] Everiss responded by linking to a documentary which reportedly shows evidence of Evony's fraudulent history.^[10] Shortly before the case was due to begin in Sydney, Evony parted with their legal team and asked for an adjournment of the case.^[11] Two days into the most recent hearing in March 2010, Evony withdrew the libel claim against Everiss.^[12]

Sequel

On February 12, 2010, Evony, LLC, the company behind Evony, announced the release of Evony: Age II.^[13] Currently the second age of Evony has now left the public beta testing stage and is now in its final release.

References

External links

• Official Evony Two website
• Evony corporate website