This game was developed with the following tools and programs:
The game was tried and tested with IE8 and FF4 during alpha test. Hence the game is optimized for Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox 4. The game should work with IE6 or later versions, and FF2 or later versions. The game may work fine with other browsers. You can find a user survey here.
Javascript
Javascript has to be enabled for the game to function properly. There are some pages that use Javascript and Ajax that will not function if Javascript is disabled or if there are no Javascript packets installed on your computer. For most users the default is enabled.
Cookies
Cookies must be accepted. You will not be able to play the game without it.
Graphics Pack
Graphics packs may be available for download. Download and use of these packs may speed up the page loads for you as a user and in addition may lower the use of your own bandwidth.
Third party tools and programs may be made available for download on this site or other sites. Use these at your own caution. We can not be held responsible for those. Use of macroes and other forms of automation tools or programs are prohibited, unless otherwise specified by the administrator of this game.
Bandwidth
Bandwidth use when you play this game is not very high. If your internet account happens to have a bandwidth limit, then chances are great that you will not exceed your limit whilst playing this game. If you do happen to exceed your limit, then it is best advised to look for other causes, such as you downloading a large game or video.
Users with a particularly low or a particularly high bandwidth consumption may come under close scrutiny of the moderators and administrator for various reasons. We take a careful watch for dummy accounts and spammers.
Server Speed
Our host uses the latest and fatest servers, while the use of these servers is not cheap, it does ensure that pages are loaded as swiftly as is technically possible. Nevertheless lag may be inevitale from time to time, especially when the server is very busy processing the many requests triggered by the users. Should the lag really bother you, then you may have logged in at a particular busy time and it may therefore be wise to try again later when the server is less busy.
Server Maintenance
The server may be down for maintenance on rare occasions. Please be patient when this happens. You are notified of most downtimes in advance.
Under more rare circumstances the server may crash. Please be patient when this happens, we will try to solve the problem as soon as possible. Please inform the moderators and administrator when this happens, if they have not been already notified.
Automated Processes & Scheduled Tasks
There are many automated processes in the game. These processes are required to keep the data up to date, so that the game functions as needed. So unfortunately this does mean that there is a bit of downtime each day.
The automated processes occur at 6 o'clock in the morning local time. The server runs on Central European Time (CET) and local time is therefore Central European Time (CET).
The Netherlands and thus also the server uses Central European Summer Time between 1:00 UTC on the last Sunday of March, and 1:00 UTC on the last Sunday of October. Therefore the gametime shifts by 1 hour during summertime.
There are 3 major categories of automated processes, called: the senate automated-update process, the barbarian automated-update process and the common automated-update process.
Most processes affect seasonal changes in the game, while some other processes only affect yearly changes in the game.
To avoid concurrency errors and other unexpected errors that may accidentally corrupt data, you will be unable to play the game during these updates.
How long these automated-update processes last, varies, and often depends on how many players are currently playing the game. So the time required can be anything from a few milliseconds to a few minutes. The start of some of these automated processes is triggered by a scheduled task also known as a cronjob.
The common automated-update process is the biggest of the 3 major categories of automated processes, this process updates many vital data and variables that are required to keep the game running, among these are:
The senate automated-update process includes processes such as:
The barbarian automated-update process includes processes such as:
The pages are best viewed on higher screen resolutions, but most pages function fine at a lower screen resolution, though anything below 800x600 is not recommended.