Mankind
1.9 Question & Answer
The following text is a
shortened version of a Q&A done on the french Mankind community on 25.01.2010.
Almost
there!
The
„new Mankind version“ will come to your PC screen
soon.
Quantex and O2OE did finally announce version 1.9 to get released on
late
january 2010.
The
Mankind community is preparing to experience a revolution in
the way, Mankind got played so far.
Short
summary: There will be two game worlds now… the
„Inner
Universe“ (current Mankind universe running version 1.8) and
the „Outer
Universe“ (newly created, running all changes coming with the
new version 1.9).
1.9
will come along with new technology, new units, new
territories and new strategical aspects to play with.
For
further information please visit the official news webpage: http://www.mankind.net/gameinfo/news/
With
all this coming, several questions arised within the
community. So we did send in a questionary – thanks Quantex
and O2OE for your
time and reply.
A: First of all we
want to thank the community for their enthusiasm and
support. We always try to keep all players happy, which is often not
that easy.
Anyway,
we will try to answer all your questions towards the release
of Mankind 1.9, which is sheduled for february the 2nd 2010.
First
let’s start with the practical side of the game to play
and register your account.
Q:
Your account will play on two worlds. We will require to
renew it only once for both or two times?
A:
While we do not want to promise anything yet we work hard towards a
"one account for all" solution. This will mean to have one account
webpage and also login/password for all universes... and also only need
to pay once to play any.
Q:
Will there be other/new payment options available?
A:
The currently available payment options are through WorldPay
(credit card) and PayPal (credit card, bank transfer, paypal) in case
you
already own an account in Mankind. Further it will be possible to just
create a
new account, which will be shareware by default (along with the new
shareware
restrictions implemented in 1.9). You can then normally renew and pay
it with
the said payment options. This said, it will be possible to register
and pay a new account through PayPal again.
Q:
The units limit will still exist?
A:
Good question. Since a very long time the units limit
(introduced by former developer Vibes SA) is a major topic for all
players.
This limit got introduced years ago to keep a better balance between a
single
account and required hardware and server load. Since then, hardware and
also
Mankind changed so I can give you a clear >no< to your
question – Mankind
1.9 will have no units limit anymore.
We
now continue on the game play.
There
will be two very important changes in 1.9 – fluctuating
resources and management of territories.
Q:
How this resource fluctuation will work? This new concept
will complicate resource scanning or building? We all know that
building up
HT-Mines and Warehouses is a tedious task.
A:
Each resource does has an individual live time, which is
basically based on a two year cycle. The first year it does grow, the
second it
does decrease again.
Further,
each spot has an individual grow/decrease rate for the
amount and radius, which might not be linear.
All
together, the total
quantity of resources within the entire universe will be stable all the
time,
so the probability on each resource will be stable aswell.
To help players on defining where to settle best, the planet 3d view
with it's resource map does indicate if a resource spot is currently
growing or decreasing.
Q:
Will it be possible to
build on the water?
A:
Unfortunately, the way
Mankind got designed it is impossible to build anything on top of
water.
Anyway, we already have some conceptions about moveable mines in mind,
which
might allow what you ask for. So stay tuned for future updates.
Q:
Will it be possible to
level the playing field?
A:
Such is not possible with
the way Mankind got designed. Maybe we find a way to do it once but
anyway
nothing is planned for such right now.
Q:
The Hydrogen (which can be
found on gas planets) will be a rare resource? It will variy on
it’s
distribution?
A:
While each gas planet will
have Hydrogen, it’s distribution and quantity will fluctuate
and variy like any
other resource.
As
we do not have that much
gas planets at all (about 15.000 on the entire new galaxy), we should
count
Hydrogen as rare resource, yes…. but not as ultra rare like
Gold or Silver for
example.
Q:
Gold and Silver will be as
rare as in current universe?
A:
In fact we did not change
the overal probability so Gold and Silver will remain ultra rare
resources yes.
Further, the new universe is a bit smaller – about 20% less
than the current
one.
However, if you take the two galaxies not reachable for now into
account you
can expect to have about 40% less ultra rare resources for the
beginning at the
main galaxy only.
Q:
Will there be any kind of
link between region, quantity, density and distribution of resources?
Will they
be equaly distributed all over the universe?
A:
Basically no. The
generation is fully random. Anyway the quantity of all resources at the
entire
universe will be stable… so basically there will never be
more or less rares at
any time.
Q:
If fertility can run out,
doesn’t this make the construction of cities even more
difficult? (Remember
that we are in a futuristic universe and that food should not be a
problem).
A:
Well, we are thinking
about various ways to make the topic of settlers less
„critical“ – anyway,
there is a probability of about 60% that food will appear again on the
same
planet during the next fluctuation cycle.
Finally,
the food cycle is
double the time like any other resource. This does mean that when build
on a
solid spot, a city can last for about 3 to 3 ½ years
– which is really
long. If food does appear again on the same planet you are also done
with
organizing new farms.
Further,
we also want to
motivate traders on this area, this is why we feel the resource
fluctuation to
be a really good thing. It is not mandatory required that each player
has all
resources on his own… or own 10 cities.
Q:
Will cities still be
limited to 3 million people?
A:
Yes, this is a technical
limitation we can’t just change as this problem does lay deep
within the way
Mankind got designed. Anyway we are already investigating ways to
overcome it.
Q:
Will cities income be
changed?
A:
It is important to state
that the income of cities already got significantly increased on a
previous
update. Each city does already allow to generate 3 million Credits max.
per
real live day – which does mean a total free income of 30
million Credits per
real live day. Following this it is not planned to increase this any
further as
the focus on cities will always remain on getting settlers and not
making money
out of it.
Q:
Will Larium, Gold or
Titanium runs still be a main aspect to make money? I remember that
once some
information on possible dynamic prices appeared. Such would be possible?
A:
Such might be possible but
does depend on a lot of parameters and needs to be balanced aswell. We
have
some ideas about this in mind but there are no plans right now to
implement it
within the next few updates.
Q:
On the topic of
territorial management. The new galaxy does offer more remote areas.
Will such
territories already be defined and just be taken over? Or they get
created by
players? How to claim them?
A:
First of all, this feature
will not be released with the coming update but likely the next after.
Second,
several aspects are still on discussion and not fully clear on
implementation
right now.
Basically
any player will be
able to claim a single system… combined with more systems at
the same cube he
can claim an entire region then. There will be likely several
„states of
claim“, which will result in different restrictions towards
other players
trying to travel, build or attack within those claimed areas. Further
information will follow by time.
Q:
Will there be any bonuses
or rewards for claiming territories?
A:
Besides specific
restrictions and virtual prestige wihin Mankind probably no. While we
want to
see groups of players and/or guilds to claim their areas we do not want
to
motivate players to just kill and claim any system they find
– this should be
no competition but rather a visual display of which group does dominate
what
areas of the universe. It would be good to have unclaimed and, as such,
free
areas.
Q:
Are there any plans to
improve the management of guilds? There are a lot of discussions
ranging from
custom units, some kind of shields or the famous head quarters.
Specially
with the battle
reports coming such should go along with guilds and classification. Why
not
integrate the guilds in there?
A:
First let us say that
battle reports will be available from the beginning of 1.9 (this is a
server
side reporting tool only) – once we have solid data we will
make those
information public on mankind.net. Anyway, there is still a
lot of space for
improvements so this feature will grow over time and several updates we
think.
Second,
it is planned to have
a focus on guild and territorial management with the next update (after
this
one). Anyway, specially the guild management is a very wide area and we
don’t
think such can _just_ be implemented. We will try to
create a first
initial base for basic management and will improve and let it grow step
by step
with the following updates.
Q:
Are there any areas where
fighting will be banned? … to protect newbies or traders?
A:
Basically no. Anyway, the
lower starting areas are meant to allow new players to settle and try
out. If
we feel that other players disturb this experience on a unfair manner
we might
bring in restrictions to those areas.
Finally,
let’s do some bulk
questions.
Q:
How the new universe will
be distributed through the servers (for universal chat and decay
reasons)?
A:
It is planned to have
three servers (one for lower starting galaxy, one for the upper main
galaxy and
one for the two outer galaxies. Anyway, it might be required to split
the main
galaxy towards two servers… this is not sure yet.
Q:
Will there be a new trial
version of the game?
A:
No, as it will be no
longer required. 1.9 will include full shareware restrictions, free
registrations will be available to the live universe again.
Q:
Is it true, that one day
the Inner and Outer Universe will be connected to each other? How the
transfer
might look like then?
A:
This is topic of further
investigations and the way Mankind 1.9 and the new universe will
evolve… at least
it is an option for the future, yes.
How
this will happen exactly
is not defined yet. We have some ideas but anyway, we will see how
everything
will settle.
Q:
Will there be NPC that
stimulate the universe? Aliens?
A:
Basically we can answer
this with yes. Mankind has it’s restrictions but we already
have some concepts
in mind to introduce some kind of NPC.
Anyway,
there are several
things we want to do first so no shedule for this right now.