The Buccaneer Roundup

The map:

All campdetails: -->here!<--

Loot options:

-->here<--

World Cup 2014: Afterburner

Multiple Improved Storehouses

Dear Settlers,

There was a bug when completing the Summer Event calendar.

The main reward (Improved Storehouse) was obtainable multiple times.
Some players acquired 4 or more Improved Storehouses from the calendar, thus exploiting the bug to enrich their accounts.

Since we want players to demonstrate Fair Play and respect the “Terms Of Use”, we ask all players who redeemed 4 or more Improved Storehouses to put them back into the Star menu. They will be deleted from the Star menu during the next maintenance on the 22nd of July.

Questions & Answers

• Will I get banned if I acquired 4 or more Improved Storehouses?
  If you return all but one Improved Storehouses that were acquired on Saturday, the 12th of July, your account will not be banned.
• I no longer have them, what can I do?
  It doesn't matter how you obtain the missing ones. You can buy them in the shop or trade for them.
  Friends can also help you out.
• I'm still not able to get the required amount of Improved Storehouses back!
  Please contact Support immediately (Cheat & Hack category, subject: "Improved Storehouse Exploit").
• I was on vacation and noticed the announcement too late, will I get banned?You received an in-game mail message. Please read it carefully, as it should explain everything.
  You will receive another message during the next maintenance.
• Why are players allowed to keep 3 or less Improved Storehouses?
  We don't want to imply that every player who acquired 2 or 3 Improved Storehouses on that occasion used the bug on purpose.
  But we can be sure that every player who obtained 4 or more Improved Storehouses exploited the bug.
• I still have questions, who can I contact about it? 
  Please contact the Support team. Choose the category "Cheat & Hack" and write "Improved Storehouse Exploit" in the subject field.
• What happens if I have multiple storehouses (obtained some other way - trade, shop), but I only acquired 1 from the calendar? 
  If you did not exploit the bug, nothing happens. Thank you for not taking advantage of the issue!
  The players who exploited the bug will receive an in-game mail message informing them of the next steps to follow.

In the spirit of Fair Play we hope and expect that every affected player will return the Improved Storehouses to the Star menu. We will provide further information to affected players via an in-game mail message until the evening of Friday, 18th of July.

Your "The Settlers Online" Team

World Cup 2014: Conclusion

It has been a messy event:

• Besides a preview there hasn't been a full Developers Diary until the 20th of june (event started the 12th)
• Right after the start of the event some bugs appeared
• Critical bugs were fixed with an ad hoc maintenance
• Less critical bugs were fixed during another extra maintenance

In other words it took over a week to get going & took a big part of the fun out of the event for many players.
Fortunately the coopeartion adventures have a chance for a lot of footballs many players jumped to those adventures - especially Tombraiders with a chance up to 80 Footballs per play & very fast to perform - and it returned much of the fun with many players making new friends.

All related posts:

• Preview
• Matches
• Quest Chain
• Predict your own needs
• Coming with a 'make your own copy'-spreadsheet
• (ok, at the start it didn't work as expected - but eventually it did (just like the event itself). I learned my lesson for future events when it's relevant).
• The Explorer details
• Stefan's Sport Box
• Extra loot from adventures
• Developers Diary
• Developers Blog
• Deactivation info
• Afterburner

World Cup 2014: Deactivation

Summer Event Deactivation FAQ

Dear Settlers!

The Summer Event will be deactivated during a maintenance.

It will be done in the early hours of the 15th of July 2014.
There will be no further maintenance that week.

Start: Around 01:00 BST
End: Approx. 09:00 BST

This brief FAQ will provide you with information about the deactivation.

• What happens during the maintenance?
  All parts of the Summer Event will be deactivated.
  Please be aware that the event shop category will also be disabled.
• What happens to Event quests that are not finished?
  The event quest chains will be cancelled and disabled.
• What happens to Explorers who were sent out before the deactivation and are still searching?
  If you are lucky, your explorers might bring back some event resources from his last search.
  All explorers sent out on treasure hunts after the deactivation will not find event resources anymore.
• Will I still receive event items when I finish an adventure?
  No. Only adventures completed before the deactivation have a chance to provide special event items.
• What if I have not opened all event calendar doors?
  The calendar will be disabled. All doors would need to be opened before deactivation.

• What happens to event collectibles spread on my island?
  There is a limited time frame to grab collectibles until the next batch replaces the former one. Depending on the time when the event collectibles spawned on your island, it might happen that you still have some time to pick up event collectibles after the deactivation. But the next batch of collectibles will be standard ones again.

• What happens with the productions in my provision house?The productions that were started before the deactivation will continue to produce,
  but you cannot add new event productions.
  The provision house's event tab will be disabled.
• Is it possible to use the event buffs (like red card, etc.) after deactivation?
  The event adventures will be stopped and removed, so you cannot use the special event buffs anymore.
• What happens with the event adventures?
  The event adventures can only be finished before deactivation.
  During the maintenance, all event adventures will be stopped and removed.

Further information

• All Summer Event resources will be hidden from the storehouse (except footballs).
  You still own them (you don't lose any resources).
  You can see the amount in the trade office when you place an offer.
  With the next football related summer event, items will be visible in the Mayor's house again.
• All event buffs can be deleted from the star menu.
  Be aware: They may be useful again in a future event
• Trade offers with (hidden) event resources won't be displayed to other players anymore
  (i.e. you can still trade with footballs, pumpkins, eggs etc.)
• The Lucky Explorer will be available in the shop with the next game version (22nd of July).

More details about the next game version that will be deployed on the 22nd of July will be provided with the change log soon.

Please feel free to leave your feedback here.

Happy Settling!

World Cup 2014: Developers Blog

The 8th of july BB introduced a new type of developers pages: the developers blog. Basicly handling the thoughts/reasoning behind several developments.

The following Dev Blog provided by BB_Stokely deals with the current summer event:

Who am I?
I am BB_Stokely, a game designer who was in charge of this year's summer event.


In the following text I will answer some of the typical questions popping up on forums
and I will explain to you why we implemented the feature as it is now.


Why click adventures instead of military adventures?

Two years ago we had another football event that basically consisted of military adventures. The community feedback was quite mixed. Some of you mentioned finishing the adventures rather quickly which resulted in a time span without new tasks. New players were unable to participate, because the minimum required level was 26. On top of that, some of you were not that interested in playing military adventures at all. So game design pondered on what can be changed. Again, we wanted to use the adventure maps resembling a football field. Due to feedback it was decided not to implement military adventures this time. Instead, the idea was born to use bandit camp buffs that had been introduced with the epic raids. After some adjustments, the buff option was used.



The buffs come with further advantages:
Each camp skill can be defeated with several buffs. The buffs can be created in the provision house by using special event resources. As the type of available resources differ per player, the challenge is to decide on clever buff production compositions in order to increase the efficiency. Furthermore, a lot of game mechanics can be used for this event. This enriches the gameplay with a huge variety of possibilities on how to receive the resources for the event buffs: Explorers can find the resources, collectibles can be picked up from the home island, daily quests or playing military adventures are additional opportunities to get the items.

Why was there a strange balance on the test server?

The balancing proved to be very difficult to obtain, because so many different features were used; at the end of the testing phase, a complex calculation was required and a mistake was discovered. Thanks to your feedback, the team was able to find the glitch and to correct it.

Why do I produce a header out of an elastic spring and a helmet?

A good sense of humour was always part of ”The Settlers Online”. However, a classic football match would not match with the humour of ‘The Settlers Online’ and the era of the game scenario. An important aspect was to attach skills to the football camps and at the same time something was needed to defeat the skills. Because we were not able to grant (new) skills to the generals for this specific feature, it was decided to create new buffs that rely on new resources.

Why the grout and why the explorer?

Both main event items were designed to fit the needs of many players who have to deal with lack of space on their island. Both items come with possibilities to empower a home island without using any additional building space. The explorer provides buffs to improve the efficiency of buildings. The new opportunity to upgrade a first batch of buildings to level 6 is another method to improve the economy. The farms, the stone masons and the marble masons are some of the most used buildings after the residence, hence, the level 6 option was added.

I hope that these insights provide a better understanding on some of the new features designed for “The Settlers Online”.

Happy Settling!
BB_Stokely

Raiding the Raiders

General info:

The map:

Details about the camps: -->here!<--

Loot options:

-->here<--