The news team
Main editor: Hopla Spell checkers: Mirarik IronMan7 Reporters: Gabriella IM_Mike Joffer Mirarik Corsini IronMan7 Graphic designer: Hopla
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News
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elcome to another issue of the Ikariam Scrolls. Since the last edition, a lot has happened, so now, it is time to catch up on current events happening in your favorite Ikariam Community.
Secondly, the mobile apps for Ikariam have finally been released to the public. You can get Ikariam Mobile from your Google Play Store, or your iOS App Store. With the release of the mobile applications, the ''mobileversion'' 0.4.5 has been removed.
Firstly, a war server, Ares, was launched on July 3rd. The war server is not like a regular server. It is faster (3x the speed of the other servers) and heavily based on warfare, as the name might suggest. You can read more about the war server on page 6
Next, we welcome the new GOs in our team B2du, Celluar and chak475. We wish you luck and hope you'll do well. On a sadder note, we say goodbye to Mr Hacker and Kae, who are no longer a part of the board team.
Content News...................................................................................................................3 Interview with Polandpoland...............................................................................4 War server: It’s alive............................................................................................6 Dutch’s stragegy – Followup.................................................................................7 Interview with Sampisa........................................................................................9 Ikariascope.........................................................................................................12 Monthly Interview.............................................................................................13 Wordsearch........................................................................................................14 The final word....................................................................................................16 Classifieds...........................................................................................................16
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Interview with Polandpoland
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his time we had the pleasure the interview Polandpoland. A longtime fighter in many servers, including the newest ones.
- So, first of all thanks for doing this interview with us. Polandpoland: np - For start, can you please tell us something about yourself? Polandpoland: 16, high school student in the USA, plays on Alpha, Omikron, Phi, Chi, and Ares - Besides Ikariam, have you played any other GF games? Polandpoland: i have played War Game on my phone and ipad before - Stopped now? Polandpoland: I still check up from time to time - When did you first start playing Ikariam? Polandpoland: hmm, about 5-6 years ago - So pretty much from the beggining? Polandpoland: I started around ver 1.5 that's all I remember, I wasn't here during the gold pillaging time, but I was here when the old battle system was in place - What brought you to Ikariam? Polandpoland: my cousin introduced me to ikariam in Taiwan - So I know you have played activly in most of the new servers, and fought alot. What could you tell us about that? Polandpoland: Fighting is the best part of the game and it took me a long time to learn all about fighting, so it's fun to win now Polandpoland: also I only join fighting alliances so i guarantee myself more wars - So you are 100% focused on war? Polandpoland: pretty much yes, but i also build because a good economy can support a larger navy/army - Do you prefer naval- or landwar? - And why? Polandpoland: i actually like navy the best because it requires more skill with waving whereas on land, waving consists of only mortars and balloons 4|Page
- Do you prefer to fight on new accounts, or old ones? Polandpoland: Both new and old have their values, in new worlds its mostly pillaging but theres more active players, whereas in old you can use more strategy - Could you tell us a little something about your favorite strageis? Polandpoland: i like to send out 3-4 pillaging squads out in new worlds and raid different areas with quick hit and run attacks to pillage supplies, in old worlds fire ship waving for navy i guess. also watching people kill their armies on a high lvl wall and delaying them for a day by building spearmen and slingers is always fun. - Sounds fun indeed - What was/is your favourite version for warfare Polandpoland: I think the current version now is fine although I would like to see some further strategy added to the system because pretty much the larger navy/army will win most of the battles. with waving the larger navy/army might take more damage, but in the end they will still win - What could be done, so steam giants aren't useless, and every land/ship unit in the game has some meaningful use ? Polandpoland: steam giants should be more like steam rams so that when waved with hoplites, they will be more effective than just using hoplites or just using steam giants. I think also for archers, the damage should be higher. Ballista ships should be like archers where their space in a battle slot is reduced and damage raised. - What's the best fight you've ever had? Can you tell us a little something about it?:P Polandpoland: Definetely this one: [url='http://board.en.ikariam.com/board22-ikariam-theworlds/board23-ikariam-world-alpha/board251-combat-reports/board42-hall-of-fame/101161polandpoland-phnx-vs-astraxan-slaughterfest/']polandpoland (PHNX) vs astraxan: Slaughterfest[/url] Polandpoland: the big one - Nice! Polandpoland: the guy built a badly balanced army with lots of mortars and sulfur carabineers and SGs and after I wiped him out, told me to model my army after him - What is the funniest thing that has happened to you in ikariam? Polandpoland: the funniest, hmm, well my friend in Alpha messaging me with weird messages always gives me a kick - To wrap it up - do you have any advice for new players joining Ikariam? Polandpoland: build high warehouses, high hideouts, high walls, and make friends with the more experience players near them - Thank you for the int!:) Polandpoland: thank you
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War server: It’s alive!
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he idea of a war server, a speed server with special options, was initially conceived because of a survey by GameForge around October 2011 in all communities around the globe, asking players which special rules or features they would prefer. Available options were among others: gold pillaging, removal of theft security and the battle round limit being set to twelve. The most popular choice back then was "gold pillaging and deactivated morale". After the voting process, the long wait for the upcoming server began. On June 6th this year the first war server was launched, starting as an experiment in Poland. By the 3rd of July, the war server had been expended to Germany, Great Britain, Greece, France, Spain, Italy and Brazil. What's the War Server all about? General information The British war server Ares, aka s201, started on July 3, 2013 and will be open for seven months until the January 12, 2014. Each player whose account is still active on the end of the war server will receive a badge for an account of his or her choice. All players who are in the top 10 of total points, offensive points, defensive points, gold supply, resources or master builders will receive a special badge in addition to the one available to all players who participate in the War Server. Registration for the War Server is closed on the November 30, 2013. Ambrosia can only be purchased within the first five months. It is not yet known whether a new War Server will be opened after the closure of the current one. Speed server The war server can easily be described as a speed server, without morale and the possibility for gold raids. The server goes three times as fast as a regular play server. This however, does not apply for every aspect for the game, but for the core of the game: producing materials and research points, making/upgrading new buildings, training new units and ships, moving military units and merchant chips, performing military actions and last but not least – battle rounds. Aspects such as pirate pillages, piracy rounds, upgrading units, inactivity phases, loading speed in port, and pillages and population growth have not been modified. Gold pillaging Interesting to note on the war server is that the long requested gold pillaging option has returned to this server, making gold flow more over the world. The gold pillaging mechanics have been slightly changed to give players more protection. To begin with: every player has a safe gold limit, depending on the level of the town hall of his or her capital city, but this is quite limited: 950 per town level. A decent account with a town hall of, say, level 32 would have 30,400 gold that is safe. The most important change however is found in the way gold pillaging is handled: this is now dependent on the units that remain on the end of the fight. Each land unit has a certain fixed amount of gold that it can steal in a pillage mission, ranging from 2 gold per individual sulfur carabineer to 244 gold per mortar. In ratio gold pillage-upkeep, spearmen give the best results (21/1), followed by slingers (22/2), battering rams (150/10) and cooks (150/10). This doesn't mean we should only be pillaging 6|Page
with those units, but it should be noted that the regular units give slightly less advantage when it comes to gold pillaging. In theory we can solve this matter by sending thousands of spears in battle, alongside with a regular army and pillage a handsome load of gold. While cooks cannot be slaughtered, it is interesting to note that they aren't completely invulnerable as gold pillaging option. Read for more details in the part "deactivated morale". Gold doesn't require trade ships as the fight units themselves are carrying it, but requires ten minutes load time after a successful gold pillage. Luckily, gold doesn't need to be transported to your empire capital, but is added to your account when it returns to the city where you initiated the attack. Should the town or port have a new owner (occupation), the gold is given to the new occupying force there. If you occupy a city to pillage gold, the town owner gets 10% of the gold loot. Deactivated morale A battle cannot be stopped by lack of morale any more. Moreover: cooks and tenders don't count towards military score on the war server. Does this mean that cooks and tenders are useless? That depends. Cooks can carry 150 gold per pillage, whereas tenders have the possibility to cure ships in a naval fight. It's up to you whether you build them or not. Keep in mind that while cooks cannot be slaughtered, they aren't 100% 'immortal' when it comes to fighting. When a battle is lost because of lack of troops (close-distance battle line / flanks / longrange battle line), 10% of the scattered troops will be lost, which would also affect your cooks.
The war server has been received very positively. The only disadvantage I have heard some people complaining about, and with whom I agree, is that the population growth has not been changed, which might hinder true fighters with their continuous rebuild. Are you a true warrior? Show your true strength now on the war server Ares. Good luck everyone and may the best win! -
Written by IM_Mike
Dutch’s stragegy – Followup
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e asked Dutch to tell us about his donation-growth-strategy. Here is what he said to us.
„Like I said, the way to be a good builder is to know how to fight so that you can anticipate the aggressors move and protect yourself. My strategy doesn't work if you don't take the next steps into consideration.
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I wanted to have an account where I didn't have to login too much. So I decided to create a builders account where I didn't have to wage war and fight battles like i said. This made me to decide to live on the edge of the map where I would not be bothered by others…so I thought… I decided to build my account up where I always and only made the calculation what would bring me more resources per res spent: investing in the mines or investing in my booster-buildings. If it was cheaper to build an extra level of my forester (per res spent) I went for that instead. This method automatically decides how much you need to donate, and it makes the donation discussion obsolete. What I didn't know is that the game-system is set up that if you have 5 towns on an island, new players are automatically placed there, so I had to alter my buildings a bit where I also had to build barracks to protect myself. Those spots were expensive, cause it also meant that I had to hand in buildings for extra production. Its because the location was not very interesting for the newcomers, that most of them grew inactive fast. However one player remained, and he saw the importance of donating as well. Its because I wanted to have a low profile and to be safe from attacks that I joined the alliance he was in… It was PRO… This player and i became friends, and the no. 1 and 2 of our alliance score-wise. It was Great AhouraA. At one point, I had 2 wine colonies, 5 marble cities, a sulphur and a crystal colony. The way I used my method of donating also meant that Great AhouraA and I had the biggest mines of this server. It took a long way, but finally my mines started to pay of. I came in the top 100, and I saw my score to rise exponentially, but the strain to get my mines on my sulphur and crystal mine leveled up was getting too big with only one town on those islands. Then the feature came to move your towns, so I started to use ambrosia for the first time to move my crystal and sulphur colony to my stone island. It was a hard decision cause it also meant that all the res I spent in those mines would be lost. But I knew that if I wanted to keep up, I had to do it like this. I had myself 9 towns, and thought that was enough. I did not need crystal and sulphur anymore, and I did not want to spend more ambrosia on this game than I used for moving the towns. I only needed marble, wood and wine. I was rising in score more than the rest, however when I came into the top 30 there were few that were rising as fast as I did, and I could not surpass it. This is when I decided less to use the 20% ambrosia feature to enhance production. This is also when I realised that I made a mistake in placing my towns on a stone island rather than to place them all on a wine island. It would have been much cheaper –ambrosia-wise- to have my towns on a wine island with only 3 ambrosia per 20% instead of the 8 ambrosia for stone. Also, there are more wine reducing buildings than stonereducing buildings which would have been an advantage. With what I could have saved, I would be able to use the trader to change wine to stone and be cheaper off… I bet GF didn’t think of this Also, I would not have needed the effort to move my res to the different towns which consumed most of my gametime. Anyway, at one point and unlike I thought before, 9 towns weren't enough for me anymore, and I wanted to expand. I knew that it would not bring me more res per hour and that I better invest my res in other things, but I did know that in the long run (and I am speaking of 2 years and further away) it would finally pay off. I was in for the long run, so what the hell… This is when I started to use the trader, but only to get my crystal and sulphur needed to get my next level of my palace and GR’s. Time elapsed, and the strategy to invest in only that what got my production up continued. I became nr. 1 in donation score because of this strategy, and my booster buildings were reaching their max 8|Page
level. Also my 11th town was built cause I knew that I had to do that if I ever wanted to be the nr. 1 of this server score-wise. I became nr. 3 but still, the number 1 and 2 rised quicker in score. This is where I realised that I could never be nr. 1! They had a different strategy, and it concerned science. I do not have any academies, and my scientist score is very low while they invested in science a lot. Investing in science also means not to be able to have helping hands assigned, and that made my production go down, so I didn't go for that. Also I needed the spot for res. boosters. This was a mistake of me, and i thought it was too late. No, I would never be able to surpass them… With mines at level 40/32 I also knew that investing more in them would mean a stepback in total score-rank, plus the profit I could make of it investing more would be payed of in 5 years or further away which was too long for me. My buildings were reaching the max, so I didn't know what to do anymore… Then, some “luck” came my way. Great AhouraA became inactive for reasons unknown to me. I knew he had a lot of workers, big warehouses, so for me to be able to pillage him came as a welcome addition and finally a chance to become no. 1 IF he had used ambrosia. Players and towns who used ambrosia don’t get deleted. I didn't know if he used it, so I hoped that his cities remained so I could pillage him on a weekly basis…. It was because of him growing inactive that I decided to go for my 12th town and my first time to use the ambrosia feature to double warehouse capicity. I made 15 runs a day to collect his res, and only those who don’t sleep can make more, heh. And still, it is less than my mines produce per day During this time, the no. 1 and 2 on the server got banned for multiaccounting. It was not because of the science that they grew faster, It was because of they cheated. And that finally explained why i couldn't surpass them. I became the new no. 1 of Ny, and am still the no. 1 ever since. For a long time already, Great AhouraA is active again, but it was just enough to go for my level 11 GR's. Now, my mines are 43/36 and i am planning to level them up again cause i almost have no more building levels to build anymore. I am reaching the max with everything so its time for GF to think of something new again, hehe. Occasionally, i get attacked still, and i am glad that i know the skills of fighting. They get their ports blocked until they give up. Distance is of no issue anymore, cause i can keep a reasonable big fleet going without loosing gold; one benefit of large buildings. Perhaps when time is due, i'll start my science...and perhaps, i can be the no. 1 not only in total score, master builder, building levels and donations, but in the remaining scores as well. That'll be the day“ -
Written by Dutch01
Interview with Sampisa
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his time we had the pleasure to interview our beloved Game Administrator, Sampisa.
- For start, can you please tell us something about yourself? Sampisa: I'm 46, Italian, alive, eating ice cream and at work :) I have a red-haired daughter (who loves ice creams too) and a black-haired wife (who fills fridge with ice cream). - Sound lovely! - When did you first start playing Ikariam? 9|Page
Sampisa: lol I asked the Game Administrator of ikariam.it when I registered my account, but they have strict rules about that... so, at the beginning of 2009 - more or less. - How did you find Ikariam in the first place? Friend recommended, an ad, etc.? Sampisa: I was a long-time player of OGame, but I abandoned it after a couple of years; then an ad moved me here, and I stopped playing other games at all. - So, do you still play? Sampisa: yes, I still play on ika.it in my first alliance. I also sometimes play intensively on test server to check features and functionalities, but in this case... just for test and not for fun :) Sampisa: or better, for a different kind of fun Sampisa: what I like is to find bugs and troubles in functionalities - When did you join the team? Sampisa: I became a Trial Game Operator on April 1, 2009 ;) - Why did you decide to join the team? Sampisa: I love to help others, teach and support. So I tried in the beginning to become a staff member on my ika.it community, I had an interview and I gave a couple of wrong answers about account sitting :) So my application was denied... Sampisa: I studied more and I retried on ikariam.org where Revolution got me :) - Well, nobody is perfect at first :P Sampisa: it was also a good opportunity to improve my English ;) - Did you ever imagine yourself becoming a Game Administrator at first? Sampisa: not at all, but I had the feeling that I was in the "right" place when I was a Game Operator for the speed server...and after some months, I become a Super Game Operator. - Why did you decide to join the game team, not the board team? Sampisa: Mainly, I prefer the "investigation" activities instead of the moderation ones. Game side gives me more opportunities to do both things: investigate, catch cheaters, and mainly... help people. - What aspect of your job do you like the most? Sampisa: Being helpful :) Main point of being a Game Administrator in iotsak’s opinion was to be helpful: we are here mainly to help people, not to scare them or ban them. We taught all our Game Operators in this way, so probably this is one of most collaborative communities. We introduced some amendments to some game rules (specifically the language-specific alliances), and we often contact players in game to send them friendly reminders about the game rules on the little game rule violations. Sampisa: People are here to have fun, and we try to let honest players play happily :) - Who do you think has the hardest position to fill in the game team? Sampisa: Super Game Operators, probably, since they have to teach new Game Operators using methods developed by other people. This means that the Super Game Operators must be really 10 | P a g e
aligned with each other, and have a good feeling, and share viewpoints with the Game Administrators. If the staff members at the Super-level are not united and well coordinated, the whole staff might scatter. Our main task is to be sure that each Game Operator works in the same way, so moving them from one server to another does not change the server administration. Sampisa: I think that we have reached a good level about this matter – we don't receive any more tickets where players tell us that "on server X a Game Operator banned me for an activity I did in server Y that wasn't banned" :)
- How many hours a day do you spend around the board and game? Sampisa: A couple of hours, sometimes more, sometimes less. But IRC and communication with Super Game Operators / Game Operators and Community Manager is what occupies the most of the time. I also check Super Game Operator work, randomly check a Game Operator’s work, and verify their satisfaction level. Finally, the ‘worst’ tickets come to me, so I have to manage them :) Sampisa: I think that knowing the ‘temperature’ of the team is the most important thing: if something goes wrong and nobody finds a way out, things can easily and quickly degenerate. In particular, because it's often difficult to clarify each other, we are a virtual community made of people who - in most of cases - never met in RL :) with the exception of a few teamlers who have met in Karlsruhe at the GF events ;) - Do you have a favorite teamler? Sampisa: I like this Team in general, obviously I have more relationships with someone and less with others, but I don't think I could name a specific person. Instead, if I can give a global preference, I would like to say ex-teamlers who taught me a lot, not only on Ikariam side – Revolution and iotsak. - What is the funniest thing that has happened to you in Ikariam? Sampisa: lol an Ikariam Gala. We had iotsak dressed with a black tailleur and a pearl necklace, dancing with ManOfWar; ManOfWar’s wife - our sexy-mom - Schatz with a red perizoma who was dancing on the table, and kingworld who come driving a chopper :D At the same time Chorkie was trying to sell a huge collection of porn to alanjo99 who preferred to eat cookies and put people under his desk :D Sampisa: It was one of the funniest IRC chats we’ve ever had :) - Lol, sounds fun - Do you have any advice for new users? Sampisa: Enjoy :) - Thanks for the interview! :)
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Ikariascope
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he Month of August will be dominated by two signs of the Zodiac: Leo and Virgin, since the Sun moves through the sign Leo until August 23. It will transfer to the sign Virgin from August 23.
The sign Leo is characterised as generous, ambitious, stable, optimistic and confident. Leo can be a great leader. Leo is proud, which makes it hard for Leo to confess his mistakes. And Leo can be quite irritable by giving advice even when it’s not appreciated. The ruler of Leo is the Sun. That makes that the characteristics of the sign can be easily noticed. The sign Virgin is characterised by a big love for detail and a big fear for risks. It is the harvesting person, who separates the wheat from the chaff. Virgin is able to distinguish the good from the bad, but doesn't like to take important decisions. Virgin is more likely to be the person behind the scenes. When Virgin rules time is favourable for inspection of the alliance: which members are doing well in the alliance, who needs to be kicked?
Trade From August 9 till 23 trade will be very important in Ikariam. That period the planet Mercurius will progress through the sign Leo, which characteristics are above.
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Building The planet Venus will take position in the sign Virgin till August 17. It’s a great time to inspect the cities. Which buildings need to be demolished to build new ones? After August 17 Venus will transfer to the sign Libra. That is the time to weigh the pros and cons: did I do well this month?
Fights The planet Mars, which is important for fights and wars, will take position in the sign Cancer almost the whole month of August. Distance to the Sun is too big to give Mars much influence. As far as Mars will have effect, it is characterised by the sign of Cancer. That means that players don’t take any risks and don’t go to targets directly. The days after August 23 it’s a great time to inspect your army and fleets. Which troops and ships need to be fired? Which need to be build? This period is even more favorable for inspection and evaluation because the Moon will decrease from Full Moon to New Moon. -
Written by Joffer
In-game name? Alpha, I am known as King Petal. In Epsilon, I am known as King of Petal. On forums, I am know as king of petal. (The names I have chosen are a stab at where I live, Petal, Mississippi. U.S.A.) World you are playing in? I play on 2 Worlds. Alhpa and Epsilon. If you had choice for your new colony, on what island would you do it - sulfur or crystal? And why? I would use the crystal island with a forge.... No matter how you look at it, that is the greatest value. The forge speaks for its self. And crystal, is the better of the 4. I have seen sulfur sit (in someone elses) trading post for a months before it was sold. But crystal, its the life blood of all players, large and small.. What do you think about piracy? Is it helpfull? I have been strongly against this from the beginning. I tried to use the "piracy" as an extra tool for war. As such, it is useless...!! A lot has been said about "piracy"... How good it is, how it makes the smaller player equal with the larger player.. Thats just not so. look at all who are winning now...Thats what tells the tale. Its no good for this game in its present form. What would happen in the future with the bashing rule, which has been removed? What is your opinion? The bashing rule ....lol.. well, the rule is there to keep players from being attacked more than 6 times in a 24 hour time frame. lol.. For me, the only way I could even get close to hitting a player 6 times....the player would have had to just went inactive, and have more than 600,000 in goods... ( odds are that any player who gets hit 6 times, is asking for it.... if i were hit 4 times, i am hitting vmode..lol..). The rule really is not one that i look at...others are far easier for me to break. (...lol.. like posting in my alliances "Alliance Thread"....) Does the player depend on the alliance or alliance depends on the player? It is both.. with out a second thought. In the time that I have played this game I have seen GREAT alliances fall. Alliances that could strike fear at the very sound of there name...and the players who manned these alliances were of the best skill set at what they did. As the players fled the game, so did the skills, the kinship, the " Oh, I knew you were going to do that" type of thing. As these players/Alliances have moved into history, the fact remains, it takes both equally.... Make a wish of our audience.
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It is my wish that all who play this game see what I have seen, spoken to the players who I have spoken to, and to say..." Yes, I played with that player...Yes, I played with that Alliance!! If you want to part of similar interview - feel free to poke me ^^ -
Written by Gabriella
While every piracy cycle ends at 18:00 in-game time, the rewards are distributed between 18:02-18:04. During these extra 2-4 minutes, your capture points can be raided
Wordsearch
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e’ve introduced a new fun little mini-event in this month’s release. Find the 12 words, all of which are related to Ikariam, hidden here. When you have found the 12 words, PM your wordlist to Hopla within seven days of this Ikariam Scrolls issue. If, and only if all 12 words are right you are in the running for 10 EUR coupon which will randomly given to one of the players who answered right. When you have submited your answer you cannot change it or send a new one. In addition, the first person to send Hopla the right answer will get a 10 EUR coupon. If you are the first to send the right answer and get the coupon, you are no longer running for the second coupon. Winners will be announced in the next edition of Ikariam scrolls along with the words that were hidden. So are you ready? Best of luck in finding them!
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The final word
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e wish to thank everyone who helped along to publishing this edition. We hope you had fun reading it. If you wish to comment on any of the articles you can do it here.
If you have any ideas about what to write, who to interview or you think we should interview you, please leave a PM to Hopla with the info what should we do and why. Any hints about anything interesting are welcomed aswell. If you want to have your own add in the classifieds section leave a PM to Hopla. Remember to see what we need, to publish your ad, in here.
Looking for members: Server: Sigma Alliance name: Phoenix Risen ( tag [P-R] ) Position in the highscore: 10th Intro: We are looking for active players (builders/pirates/fighters) which will become our FRIENDS :) . We are group of exp players from other servers and communities How to contact: Contact rmpa in game, on board, in IRC or in Skype for a short interview
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