Forge of Empires

Forge of Empires
Developer(s)	InnoGames
Publisher(s)	InnoGames
Platform(s)	browser, iOS, Android
Release	April 17, 2012
Genre(s)	Browser Game, strategy, citybuilding

Forge of Empires is a browser-based strategy game developed by InnoGames. The game was initially released on April 17, 2012 (open beta phase).^[1] By 2013, the game had 10 million players.^[2] It was later released for the iPhone and iPad in 2014,^[3] as well as Android in 2015.^[4] The game is similar to both SimCity and Clash of Clans, but includes turn-based strategy elements.^[5]

Gameplay

The main goal of the game is to build and enlarge a city beginning in the Stone Age and ending (currently) in Oceanic Future. For this purpose there are limited building grounds which can be expanded gradually. To buy new buildings and decoration the player needs coins and tools which can be collected from residential and production buildings (or by buying diamonds and technological advances for cash from InnoGames). There is a timeline on which the player has to unlock the eras in order to proceed in the game; a battle ground; and a continent map that shows the provinces the player has to conquer.^[6]

City management

The main part of the game takes place on a city map, similar to SimCity. As players progress through various ages (shown by their town hall) by researching new technologies, they can unlock new buildings (either residential, goods, military, production or cultural), decorations, and an expanded building area. Other buildings include special buildings (acquired during events) or Great Buildings.

To buy a building, players must spend coins and supplies, and then place it where they would like it within their city. They can move the buildings later, during renovations of their city, or when progressing past the Colonial age, at which time the size of some buildings (such as residential) becomes bigger. (In the case of residential buildings, before the Industrial age, they are 2x2, but after, they are 2x3 or larger.)

On 16 January 2017, InnoGames announced that they will radically alter the stats of a building released three months ago for "balancing purposes". Many players believe the change unfairly punishes players for an obvious oversight on the part of the game's developers.^[7]

Research

To progress through ages, players must research technologies through their research tree. Each technology requires a certain number of 'Forge Points', one of which is gained every hour. When a technology has been fully researched, a payment (in the form of goods (List of goods needed by era), coins, supplies or a mix of the three) is required to unlock the technology, at which point, the building(s) associated with it are unlocked for purchase in the building menu.

Army management

Players can choose to expand their empire on the continent map by trading with the rulers of other lands, or by fighting them in combat. When fighting, the player must choose his army (up to 8 troops) and then will play against an AI with predetermined troops in a turn-by-turn strategy game. Each troop has its own weaknesses, strengths, health and attack, and so proper strategy must be used to ensure a victory. If the player is victorious, they get that sector, and are closer to getting the province, which is gained when the player controls all of its sectors.

They can also choose to fight other players in PvP style, using the same system above (the defender is played by the AI, making it PvE). A player may only attack the same player once every 24 hours. If the attacker wins, they can plunder one of their opponent's buildings, collecting the coin, goods or supplies the building would have produced. The defendant's army does not die; after the battle, they are re-set. However, the attacker's army is not, and all losses must be re-trained in their city.

There are five different type of units:

- Light units: These units are strong and versatile overall. They have balanced attack and defense, high mobility and they receive a huge defense bonus when placed in woods and a minor defense bonus when placed in bushes. They are devastating against Fast units, but they are very weak against Heavy units.

- Ranged units: These units are very different to the Light units due to, as the name implies, they have a strong ranged attack. However, they have a very weak defense and any unit that manages to get close to them can take them out very easily, the units that they are the best doing this job are the Fast units. Artillery units are also a strong counter against ranged units. On the other side, Ranged units perform very well against Heavy units due to their inferior mobility. They receive offensive bonus when standing on rocks.

- Fast units: These units stand out for having the highest mobility over all type of units and that makes them the very first units to act on the battlefield. They are a huge threat to ranged and artillery units thanks to their mobility, but they are very vulnerable to melee units.

- Heavy units: These units have a very tough defense, they are very hard to defeat and they are the best melee units. However, their poor mobility makes them very vulnerable to ranged units such as Ranged and Artillery units. Due to this, their major effectiveness is when they face units that they are forced to melee combat in order to make damage, such as Fast and Light; and are good for defense and blocking. They receive defensive bonus in plains.

- Artillery units: These units specialize in attacking from a distance and have the highest range of all units. This is their best characteristic because in the rest of parameters they are worse than the rest of the units. They are effective against Ranged units due that they out range them and Heavy units because their poor mobility gives them a hard time to reach the far side of the battlefield. Artillery units do poorly against Light and Fast units that can reach the far side of the battlefield quickly. Artillery units receive an offensive bonus when attacking from hills and a bonus vs. Heavy units.

Guild vs Guild

A recent addition to the game, Guild vs Guild (often shortened to GvG) takes place on a Guild continent map. Guilds fight for control of sectors in different ages. Each sector provides power and prestige to the controlling guild. Sectors under a guild's control determine the guild's rank. Members can participate by donating goods to a guild's treasury or fight. To win a sector one must place siege and fight until all defending armies are defeated. Each siege requires goods (the amount of goods increases with each new sector won). A sector may contain a maximum of 80 defending armies. Once conquered, players must defend the sector by placing defending armies.

Guild Expedition

In 2016, Guild Expedition was introduced to Forge of Empires. This weekly event has a jungle theme and up to eight different guilds compete against each other. Points that go towards the guild can be obtained by either fighting with armies or negotiating with coins, supplies, and goods. The percentage of guild participation affects final placement in the expedition, and the guilds that place first, second, and third receive an extra boost. There are four levels of progressive difficulty.

In addition to gaining guild power, guild expedition provides rewards at the end of each successful battle or negotiation. Players can also build a Great Building, Temple of Relics, from blueprints gained during the expedition. Once built, the Temple of Relics gives players a chance of winning extra and more substantial prizes while participating in Guild Expedition.

Currencies

Forge of Empires has multiple currencies and other items used to level up, research, complete quests and buy items. These are:

Coins: One of the two main currencies of the game, coins are produced in residential buildings and are used to research technologies, level up, build buildings, train troops and produce goods.

Supplies: The other main currency, supplies are produced in production (or supply) buildings and are used to research technologies, level up, build buildings, train troops, and produce goods.

Goods: Goods are produced in a goods building through a payment of coins, supplies and time, and are used to trade for land and level up. A variety of goods are available (5 per time period/level). Examples of goods available include wine, gold, jewelry, basalt, granite, and coke. Boosts can be found in some territories that allow for an increased rate of production of a particular good in its production building, and are claimed when the territory is controlled. These boosts last infinitely.

Medals: Medals are earned by ranking in the PvP boards for different ages, through certain Great Buildings (such as the Colosseum) or through Victory Towers. Medals are used to increase land space.

Forge Points: Forge Points are earned freely, at the rate of 1 an hour (more can be bought for either coins or diamonds, and packages of 2, 5 or 10 are given occasionally as rewards for finishing quests or in special events). They are used to level up Great Buildings, trade goods in the marketplace or research technologies.

Diamonds: The game's premium currency, diamonds can only be earned through quests or by purchasing them through the game with real currency. Diamonds can be used to buy premium buildings, speed up building, training or scouting time, as a method to increase land space (other than medals or technological unlocks), as well as to motivate buildings to produce more goods.

Types of buildings

There are multiple types of buildings featured in the game, including residential, goods, production, military and cultural, as well as decorations. All buildings (with the exceptions of decorations) require a connection to a road connected to the Town Hall.

Residential: These buildings provide a set number of workers (which are needed for goods, production, and military buildings). They also produce a certain number of coins every 1, 2, 8 or 24 hours. Coins and supplies are usually needed to build them; however, there is at least one example of a premium residential building which requires diamonds to buy.

Goods: Goods buildings produce goods (such as wine, gold, jewelry, textiles, or coke). The player must select how many of these he wants to produce (by selecting the production time of 4 hours, 8 hours, 1 day or 2 days). The amount these production times yield depends on whether or not the boost has been found on the continental map and has been claimed by owning the territory associated with it. A cost of supplies and coins is then taken, the amount depending on the production period and age to produce the goods, though they are refunded if the goods production is cancelled. Goods are used to trade for new lands and unlock technologies. These buildings cost supplies, coins and workers. List of Goods by era

Production: Production buildings (occasionally called supply buildings) are used to produce supplies, which are used to buy buildings and produce goods. When selecting a production building, the player can choose to have a production time of 5 minutes, 15 minutes, 1 hour, 4 hours, 8 hours or 1 day. Most production buildings are bought with coins and supplies; however, there are at least two examples of premium production buildings. These buildings cost supplies, coins and workers.

Military: Military buildings are used to train military units (used in battle modes and to protect your city). The training time varies depending on the age and unit, with time ranging from 20 seconds (spearfighter in the first age) to a day (special units, such as Military Drummer, Rogue, or Champion). Military buildings cost supplies, coins and workers.

Cultural: Cultural buildings provide happiness, which increases the productivity and adds bonuses to coin and supply productions when the population is happy or enthusiastic. On the other hand, a lack of happiness can cause a decrease in the production of such items. Cultural buildings are similar to decorations; however, they need to be connected to a road.

Decorations: Decorations provide happiness, which increases the productivity and adds bonuses to coin and supply productions when the population is happy or enthusiastic. On the other hand, a lack of happiness can cause a decrease in the production of such items. They are similar to cultural buildings, though they tend to be smaller and do not require the use of roads to connect them to the town hall.

Special buildings: Special buildings are buildings given away during events. These buildings are usually extraordinarily useful. They fall into one of the above categories, with a few exceptions. These exceptions are the Wishing Well (produces random item), Victory Towers (medals), the Monastery (adds 20% to city defense) and the Hall of Fame (power, used in Guild vs Guild); however, certain buildings can fall under more than one category (such as the Oasis, which produces both coins and goods).

Great Buildings

Great Buildings are buildings that can be built by a player when they collect all of the blueprints (9 per building) to construct it and pay the goods cost. They tend to be larger than the average building, with sizes ranging from 2x3 to 6×6 and beyond. Great buildings cannot be plundered, but can be leveled up through the use of Forge Points. These buildings are based on real-life or historical buildings, such as the Tower of Babel, Lighthouse of Alexandria, Alcatraz and Cape Canaveral.

At each level, the Great Building produces greater and greater rewards, which vary depending on the building. They do, however, with the exception of the Statue of Zeus, have two rewards per building, one passive (which happens once per level, when the building is leveled up), and non-passive (which happens at minimum daily). Passive rewards can include a boost in population, happiness, or a bonus to production, while non-passive rewards can include extra (randomly chosen) goods, supplies, medals, or coins.

Special events

Numerous times throughout the year, Forge of Empires offers special events to its players, which allow players to get special buildings, earn more coins, medals and supplies as well as new character portraits. These are often run during special times of the year. So far, there have been 27 events, and they occur five to six times a year. Special quests are created for the event, and they either award the player with a variety of event currencies which chain depending on the event (e.g. Cookies for Christmas, Eggs for Easter) or give the player rewards for completion.

Upon the completion of the event (Halloween or Valentine's Day), a major building is rewarded to the player, and an updated version is rewarded in its stead if the player already has it. For example, a new player completing the event can get the Graveyard, while a player who has completed two Halloween events (or has won the Graveyard during other events) will get an Old Graveyard, and a player who already has the Old Graveyard will get the Ancient Graveyard.

The events that give special event currencies (summer, Christmas and Easter as well as the World Cup) for completing quests have another screen, where the player can either spin a wheel (summer), pick a shuffled shell game style prize (Christmas) or buy an item from the special store (Easter) for a certain number of their currencies. The summer wheel, for instance, costs 1 ticket, but tickets are given at the rate of 1 or 2 per quest or through spinning; while the Christmas event costs 10 cookies a pick, but cookies are given in quest rewards (or in the prizes) in multiples of 10–50. The Easter event gives egg packages, which can be hidden in decorations in other players' cities and when picked are worth 1, 5, 10, 20 or 50 eggs, which can then be used to buy items in the stores, with prices ranging from 20 to 600.

Past events:

• Halloween 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
• Christmas 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015
• Summer 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016
• Fall 2016
• Birthday 2013
• Valentine's Day 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016
• Easter 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016
• FoE Soccer Cup 2014 and 2016
• Memorial 2015
• May Day 2016
• Carnival 2017
• Spring Event 2017

Historical Questlines

Beginning in October 2015, Forge of Empires started a series of special event questlines focusing on various historic figures, the first being Christopher Columbus in October 2015. Upon completion of the questline, the player is awarded with a portrait of the featured historical figure which can then be used as the player's in-game avatar.

Past Historical Questlines:

• Columbus - October 2015
• Martin Luther King Jr. - January 2016
• Leap Year Questline (featuring Gregorius XIII) - February 2016
• Yuri Gagarin - April 2016
• Isadora Duncan - May 2016
• Mary Stuart - July 2016
• Sisi (Empress Elisabeth of Austria) - September 2016
• Montgolfier Brothers - November 2016
• Maurice-Francois Garin - January 2017
• Albert Einstein - March 2017

Languages

In the beginning Forge of Empires was only available in English and German. Currently there are 25 language versions available, including:

Awards

• 2013 - MMO Award for Best Strategy Browser MMO^[8]
• 2013 - Deutscher Computerspielpreis (German Computer Game Award) for Best Browser Game^[9]

References