...we did it for the Newbies!

Regarding Town Capture Mechanics Changes...

Could you please explain it a bit more...?

What kind of culture/pop ratio from attackers/defenders side is needed for those probabilty conditions you mentioned (17%, 6%, 2%) to be present...  (formula? ...unless thats something you have no intention to share, of course).

Maybe explain how conversion works in general (for how many 'rounds' priests can  attack, what can they do per round, what type of building(s) need to be wiped first, etc...) 

Is it possible for the priests to succeed if there are still defending troops present? or towers? ...meaning, if enough priests sent (lets say 50-60), can they succeed in just a round or 2, before defensive units (or towers) have a chance to wipe them out, assuming the culture/pop numbers of both attacker and defender would meet the conditions for succesful conversion?

Would military units hidden in catacombs 'activate' versus conversion type attack? (i think spies in catacombs do not 'activate' when town is being spied, unless that has been changed at some point).

Good work adding extra protection for newbies!

I clicked thru the quests for Zweistein, but did not get any mission for the market. Now all he says is Under construction when I click on him. Then Bulat is telling me to train 12 braves and 8 archers of which I can't do cause I am Ren. 

plus this seems redundant, I like the bottom portion instead of the little box thing. 

 http://clip2net.com/s/3tvWyhN?gallery=%2Fmembers.html%23%26page%3D1%26sort_by%3D%26folder_id%3D%26type%3D%26search%3D%26after%3D%26before%3D

I like the interface changes you have made, thank you! There are 2 "ease of play" suggestions I have for other small changes, but I am not sure how difficult the code would be for you guys :)

1) A "Train All" option for buildings. I for one get a hand cramp training each individual messenger in 5 maxed out observation huts when I have killed them all as meat shields. I realize we each have our own design on troop and siege combinations, but I have come across many moments when I wish I could just click a button and have 10 knights lined up to train.

2) a "Call Hero" option, so no matter which town you are focusing on, with a click from that screen, you could move your hero to the town immediately. (Or as fast as his skirt allows he move :)

I'm going to start a new hero just to see the changes in the intro.... Oh, that brings me to another suggestion...

For those of us that have had the tutorial over and over, by the time the finished product is released, will there be a "skip tutorial" option? I realize at this phase you are still fine tuning it and it needs to be gone over.

Thank you Bers and all the other devs, this game is by far my favorite.

I know the news post is long, but its worth to read it through, honestly ;)

The equivalent units and buildings from classical and medieval can be used to finish new advisor quests.

since I am in Ren then it will not complete?

You should still be able to complete it in Ren. I'm Ren and I just completed it with swordsmen and crossbowmen.

ok thanks

I like all these new updates, they really enhance the playing experience at any level. I was also having the same ideas as thedevinekate with one small addition, would it be possible in the future to see which upgrades are on queque in a specific town? Not sure yet how I feel about the small window that lets you see the time remaing for the upgrade. Overall GREAT JOB GUYS!!  

Never mind...adjusted my glasses, found the queque :)

One very small detail on the new tutorial. The added elements of interaction with the market, trading and buying, have the incorrect thumbnail when you select them in the conversation responses with Zweinstein. Once I completed the 2 tasks, instead of the key symbol, or the key and chest, I see the "guy running out the door" symbol. The same thumbnail generally attached to the quit talking option. Although, when selected it still gives me my reward.

Like I said small detail :)

Alicibiades is a hero on a new account I created in the dying stages of Alpha 5 to test out a few things.  It turns out it's testing out one I hadn't planned for.

A stronger neighbour came raiding me, killed off all my scouts and made off with several hundred resources.  It looks as though he was working through the new leaderist tutorial quest.  Not a problem, and by the next time he came calling I had stronger defences and a Stash.  The result was no loot and no losses on either side.  This seems to be the raiding part of the game working as intended and a new player who thought to ask for advice could have done the same.

The next thing to happen was that another player attacked my dwelling with a large classical army including rams and catapults.  I happened to be online and moved my troops to safety, but my palisade was flattened and several buildings damaged.

This triggered the new protection feature and I had 12 hours to rebuild in safety, in which I put my main effort into building a stronger palisade - getting it to level 5.

Next day I logged in to find my attacker had returned.  The palisade-5 itself survived but it seemed to do nothing to protect the buildings inside, and by chance my lumber shed was completely destroyed.

This makes rebuilding quite difficult, with only 200 lumber available and nowhere to store any I can trade for.  I'm experienced enough to be able and willing to work around this but I think it would be quite reasonable for a newbie in this situation to despair, and they would probably be lost to the game.

I've seen other newbies be attacked by far more advanced players in a similar way.  When other players hear about it in time the newbie often gets help from players of the attacker's era.  How many times does this happen and the player just drops out silently?

The current protection is some help but I don't think it's a solution in itself.

The new defence tutorial makes no difference, this hero has some things to do before completing the initial military adviser quest so hasn't even seen it.

True, but it's the situation we have now and players who drop because of it are lost to the test, and quite likely lost as early adopters when the game goes to beta and release versions.

Another aspect is that it's harder to test things like the new tutorials when any fighting between neighbours is likely to be subject to overwhelming interference from more advanced positions.

To answer your question, the novice protection was indeed triggered again by the second attack.  There has not been a third attack, possibly because my classical attacker found himself being spied on by one of the most advanced heroes on the continent (my associated hero Nefret who is well into medieval).  I think he took the hint ...

Is there no specified limit as to when someone is no longer considered a 'newbie'?  I recently attacked someone (by agreement) who is in classical age, 28 days old and had three towns.  Immediately after the attack, the 'newbie' protection of 12 hours was placed automatically for this hero.  Just curious as to what the limits are, if any.    

Did the defense enabled for another 12 hours when attacker returned again?

The situation you are describing is relatively artifical, because of alpha version of the game. In real game there will be constant flow of new players which will make distribution of players relatively even, making those who started earlier and have significantly more developed countries further away from you and less likely a threat.

The distance would have to be a -lot- greater.  Some of the interventions I was describing above involved overland attacks from one side of the current-sized continent to the other, and seaborne attacks have a much longer range than land ones.

I recently had Nefret (in Thorheim) send ships to raid a neighbour's port in the hope that it would provoke a response that would test my own port's defences.  The actual response was a series of attacks from Renaissance heroes on the other continent which didn't test anything.  Rather gratuitously there was also an attack by a Ren hero on my test hero Icarus, still in the stone age and well to the west of Thorheim - so even the edge of settlement is subject to this sort of thing.  Icarus duly got the 12 hour's truce protection but that wasn't anything like long enough to rebuild the damage.

This problem may well disappear in the mature release game once a large player base has been built up, but its effect during these tests is to make it difficult for new players to contribute to the testing process or gain battle experience against equal opponents.  This may often make the game much less enjoyable for new recruits who come in via the new invitation system.