Merges Ikariam 2024

Dear players,

based on your feedback following the merge announcement we're postponing the merge in order to look into a few things.

We'll have another look at the server settings. Note: we haven't had "normal" servers in well over 7 or 8 years, which means that every server has different settings. It's simply impossible to combine all of these different settings into one big package that'll fit everyone. It would be unrealistic to expect it was doable. So no matter what, there will always have to be compromises there. Having said that, we'll look into the settings again.

Concerning the topic of the target servers all being completely new servers: this is a direct result of the community feedback from the last soft merge a couple of years ago. Back then, one of the main complaints was that we merged into existing servers rather than giving everybody a complete fresh start on a newly setup server. Seeing how players retain their donations, we think this is a good compromise and as fair as it gets. Ultimately, 100% fairness and the exact same set of circumstances for everybody is not attainable, so once again, we'll have to settle for compromises. This one seems fair and it is, after all, what was requested last time.

There will also not be a change in the rules to allow for more than 10 additional accounts per server. Ultimately, you will have to make a decision then. The rules remain as they are: you can have up to 11 accounts per server and all of them have to have IP sharing entered in the game using the corresponding function. Anything else will remain a bannable offense and lead to sanctions.

A slight change/clarification we can already announce: "younger servers" will not be merged. Servers started on and after 09.02.2024 will therefore not be merged and remain as they are right now.

We'll let you know the new date for the merges and changes to the procedure - if there'll be any - in the course of the next couple of days.

Your Ikariam Team

Here's a list of the server names of the target servers that will remain after the merge.

Obviously servers that will not be part of the merge will also remain.

A post with the final server settings will follow shortly.

Dear players,

we've reworked the settings again and arrived at the final set of server settings based on all the feedback gathered in Discord, the forum, Social Media and various other channels players have chosen to contact us.

As expected, the feedback was anything but homogenous. Contrary to several suggestions that came along with the note "Trust me, everybody wants this!", there is no such thing as "everybody wants this" in Ikariam. If anything at all, the quintessential learning from all the feedback gathered can be summed up as follows:

"It would be best to give every player their own server with admin access so they can change the settings depending on today's mood and whims and the moon phase."

As this is - obviously - not an option, we did exactly, what we said we'd do and gather all the feedback and came up with a compromise between all the suggestions that were made and what we are willing to agree to.

We have to take into account that bonuses can and should also not be limitless, especially, since we also do bonus events more or less regularly and therefore need to make sure, not to reach situations such as instant fleet movements or simular. Therefore, initial bonuses may not be too high. Also Ikariam is not an instant gratification game, never has been. It always was and still should be a strategy game.

Keeping all this in mind, we browsed all the feedback and reworked the settings as follows.

A few words about our intention with the server settings.

Quite often we were asked to create servers catering more directly to the various different play styles that exist in Ikariam. Contrary to popular belief promoted by the fighters and raiders, "fighter" is not the only play style possible and common in Ikariam and Ikariam is not "just" a war game. Ikariam is, and always has been, a game that promotes and enables a variety of different play styles. Builders and traders, researchers and fighters or a mix of all of it: all of this is possible and exists in Ikariam. Following up on that feedback/request we aimed at providing a more diverse underlying set of different settings catering to the main play styles: builders, varied and fighters.

Server 2 favours builders, server 3 a more varied and mixed play style, while server 4 strongly favours fighters. We're aware of the fact, that some very loud fighters think, Ikariam is purely a war game and nobody will want any other server than server 4. Time will tell. We're of the strong opinion that nobody really speaks for everybody, even though everybody seems to think, they do. As with the polls and the feedback: what people say and what people do often are two very different things. Having combed through all the feedback we've decided to go with the choices below.

NOTE: these are now final. We will not have another iteration of feedback for the settings.

Communities, that will retain 2 servers will have the following choices:

Server 1

• Production of Wood and Marble will be 35% higher than normal.
• Buildings are built 25% faster than normal.
• Trade Ships are 25% faster than normal.
• Troops and ships are built 50% slower than normal.
• Troops cost twice to build as much as than normal.

Server 2

• Production of Wood and Sulfur will be 50% higher than normal.
• Production of Wine is 20% higher than normal.
• Buildings are built 10% faster than normal.
• Troops and ships are built 25% faster.
• Land units are 25% cheaper to build.
• Land units move 50% faster than normal.
• Priest conversion rate increased by 40% (7 conversions per priest instead of the normal 5).

Communities, that will retain 4 servers will have the following choices:

Server 1

Servers like they used to be back in the "good old days". No bonuses. Just plain old default values.

This is to have a compromise for those players who didn't want to lose their current situation on the so far never merged Alpha and Beta servers.

While "the old" miracle distribution will die with this merge and no longer exist on the target servers, the pace of the game doesn't change for those players as this server will have no bonuses outside of bonus events.

Server 2

• Production of Wood and Marble will be 35% higher than normal.
• Buildings are built 25% faster than normal.
• Trade Ships are 25% faster than normal.
• Troops and ships are built 50% slower than normal.
• Troops cost twice as much to build as than normal.

Server 3

• Production of Wood, Crystal and Wine will be 25% higher than normal.
• Buildings are built 25% faster than normal.
• Scientists create 25% more research points.

Server 4

• Production of Wood and Sulfur will be 50% higher than normal.
• Production of Wine is 20% higher than normal.
• Buildings are built 10% faster than normal.
• Troops and ships are built 25% faster.
• Land units are 25% cheaper to build.
• Land units move 50% faster than normal.
• Priest conversion rate increased by 40% (7 conversions per priest instead of the normal 5).

Merges always come with compromise. We'll never be able to get everyone happy, it would be unrealistic to try and achieve that. So unfortunately, yes, the merge will always mean for some players that they'll lose a few percents here and there or even get completely different bonuses to work with. This is unavoidable.

Keep in mind, these are settings after 2 rounds of iteration and feedback, based on the feedback gathered on all platforms and taking into account the polls made in Discord. Partially the feedback from one platform directly contradicted that of others and the polls show different results than the feedback that the discussions yielded. This was absolutely expected and we said clearly, that this is, what's going to happen. We did it anyway, to broaden the influx of feedback. However, at one point or another you have to make a final decision and that point is now.

Your Ikariam Team

To clarify, since the question keeps popping up:

The servers and settings are in order of sequence. So for communities with 2 servers:

1. Blabla - Setting 1

2. Blablablub - Setting 2

For communities with 4 servers:

1. Blabla - Server 1

2. Blablablub - Server 2

3. Bleblubbla - Server 3

4. Blibbelblubb - Server 4