Colorful Deposits Ore deposits color now change based on the amount of Ore they contain. Deposits with 500 or less ore are yellow, 1,000 or less ore are red, 1,500 or less ore are green and deposits containing 1,500 or more ore are now purple (a planet may need to completely orbit before these colors are correctly displayed). This change also modifies the Mining Surveyor Acti, this Mod now increases the amount of ore a deposit contains by 10%, if the deposit has less than 1,500 ore in it. These colors only appear if you are not using the Icon zoom-level. Also: - Porcupine Assault Vehicle now has Volley Acti, all weapons do +50% damage this turn and no damage next turn (6 Charges) - Ares Meka built-in Energy weapon now does double damage to Armor - Jabberwock Meka now has 10 Controlled Speed when it Teleports - Experience for Bandit kills on Aldus and Zedus has been increased - Not allowing Integrated Units on an Arena planet now allows them to be deployed, but the Integrated Mods will not function - Factions with less than 50,000fp can deploy 30 extra buildings and receive a 75% Command discount for bases on Dominus, Hellion, Infernus - Factions with less than 100,000fp can deploy 15 extra buildings and receive a 50% Command discount for bases on Dominus, Hellion, Infernus Current Recruitment Standings: Harbingers of Chaos - 1st Place Searing Shadows - 2nd Place Dragon Eclipse - 3rd - 4th Place (tie) PGF_auXiliary - 3rd - 4th Place (tie) Mercenary - 5th - 6th Place (tie) CONTRA Elite - 5th - 6th Place (tie) Deliverance - 7th Place Phoenix Rising - 8th - 9th Place (tie) Elite Resitance - 8th - 9th Place (tie) Drop Shock Wants You ... Round 2! To encourage new-player recruitment the following competition will be held between factions until midnight, September 30th: On October 1st, the top five factions whose members have recruited the most new players to the game (since August 11th) will each receive 30 minutes to chat with Frizz (to be scheduled by Frizz and the faction leader) and the following prizes: 1st - Ten Elite Power-ups + 3 named crews (chosen by faction) which can use numbers or symbols 2nd - Eight Elite Power-ups + 2 named crews (chosen by faction) which can use numbers or symbols 3rd - Six Elite Power-ups + 1 named crews (chosen by faction) which can use numbers or symbols 4th - Four Elite Power-ups 5th - Two Elite Power-ups The 30 minutes can be used however the faction chooses - talking about new features, suggestions, bugs, game-balance, etc. Only the five factions whose members have recruited the most players will recieve these chats and only members of the winning factions can take part in these chats. Each chat will be separate; no chat will run longer than 30 minutes. New Player recruitment will be tracked by referal links, you can obtain a referral link from the Account Settings panel. Players who join Drop Shock from a referral link will be listed in your Account Settings panel. Also, you will now receive an automated email when a player joins the game from your referral link. Automated Facebook posts (created from Account Settings) also contain your referral link, sign-ups from these posts also count towards this competition. Referral banners and information on how to use your referral link can be found here. If your faction wishes to recruit on a site that does not allow referral links, please contact me beforehand and I will ensure that your faction is given credit for any sign-ups which originate from that location. Any cheating by one member of a faction will result in the entire faction be disqualified. Do not sign-up for someone else or have someone sign-up using your computer: this may trigger a multi-account check and suspension of all involved accounts. Periodic totals will be posted as the competition progresses. You are free to use any recruitment method you choose to advertise, promote or otherwise distribute your referal link, provided it does not interfere with any currently running Drop Shock advertising (you will be contacted if this is the case). For example: Adding a Drop Shock referral banner to your image signature on non-Drop Shock forums is a great way to help your faction with recruitment. Note: You are not allowed to pay (or offer to pay) people to create accounts. But you can purchase advertising which contains your referral link (provided it is not on a platform already advertising Drop Shock). Good Luck! Also: - CE Limits for planets now include bases (minus any discounts) - War Hero merit now gives +10% Crew Survivability (prevents crew death on unit destruction) and +10% Auto-Salvage (automatically retrieves unit if it is destroyed) - Preserver Escape Pod now provides +45% Auto-Salvage (was +50%) Current Recruitment Standings: CONTRA Elite - 1st Place PGF_auXiliary - 2nd Place Dragon Eclipse - 3rd Place (tie) Harbingers of Chaos - 3rd Place (tie) And the Winner is ... First-off, congratulations to all the trivia winners and thank you to everyone who participated! The answers and winners list is posted below (the first correct answer to a question was the winner), winner should check their mailboxes & storage for their prizes. - Name 5 of the 10 most recently created factions (before 8/10/2010) The Darkside Tak Herd Harbingers of Chaos Acorns Anonymous Elite RSA Bandit Forces Dark Melody Dark Angels Burning Legion Indomitus Winner: haloguy48 - Total user logins since 1/1/2010 207,922 Winner: xTSCx - Power-ups are comprised of four different shapes, how many corners (in total) are in these four basic shapes 3D answer: Sphere/Cylinder:0 + Square:8 + Pyramid:5 + Octogon:16 = 29 corners 2D answer: Circle:0 + Square:4 + Triangle:3 + Octogon:8 = 15 corners Winner: Dogg1000 - The date when Drop Shock gained its 100,000th user April 20th, 2010 Winner: anamiac - When was the domain name of Drop Shock's artist (for the Shadow Wars expansion) registered 12/21/2003 Winner: trumpetguy - How many Mod combinations are possible on a 4-slot Gattlinger; assume no integration and exclude Tears of the Sha'Kahr and Bandit Eyes as possible combinations This one is simple if you think your way through it. There are 144 - 2 (BE and Tear) = 142 Mods which can be added to the first Mod-slot. A Mod can only be added once, so this leaves 142 - 1 = 141 Mods which can be added to the second Mod-slot, 142 - 2 = 140 Mods can be added to the third Mod-slot and 142 - 3 = 139 Mods can be added to the forth Mod-slot. 142 * 141 * 140 * 139 = 389,628,120 Also acceptable: 4-mods combo: 142 * 141 * 140 * 139 = 389,628,120 3-mods combo: 142 * 141 * 140 = 2,803,080 2-mods combo: 142 * 141 = 20,022 1-mod combos 142 Total = 392,451,364 Also acceptable: (142*141*140*139)/(4*3*2) = 16,234,505 (location of Mods on unit don't matter) Winner: Militant & krisjaniz - The number of units in the expansion (hint: There are the fewest of these) 8 Winner: CBX - The number of buildings in the expansion 10 Winner: 1ron - The number of mods in the expansion (hint: There are the most of these) 12 Winner: jayye_123 - The name of the expansion (hint: It uses the game's name as a theme) Combat Drop Winner: Vanoi (Combat Shock) Happy Birthday! Another year is behind us folks and I have to say it's been an exciting one. In early 2010 I committed to making Drop Shock the best massively multiplayer turn-based strategy game on the planet and that's a promise I'd like each of you to be able to hold me to. On the current state of the game I'm happy to report that a new advertising campaign has been launched which is providing excellent results. We also have an expansion right around the corner which will add new units, mods, buildings and play-mechanics to the game (but nothing as radical as stealth ... I swear!). So, to celebrate our 5th birthday, I offer the following trivia competition. Please email me (in-game) your answers by noon tomorrow. Closest answer to each question wins, title your email "Trivial Answers", one email per-person, you can only win once. Winners will be announced after all answers have been received. Each winner will receive one random Elite Power-up and a commemorative crew. Good luck! - Name 5 of the 10 most recently created factions (before 8/10/2010) - Total user logins since 1/1/2010 - Power-ups are comprised of four different shapes, how many corners (in total) are in these four basic shapes - The date when Drop Shock gained its 100,000th user - When was the domain name of Drop Shock's artist (for the Shadow Wars expansion) registered - How many Mod combinations are possible on a 4-slot Gattlinger; assume no integration and exclude Tears of the Sha'Kahr and Bandit Eyes as possible combinations - The number of units in the expansion (hint: There are the fewest of these) - The number of buildings in the expansion - The number of mods in the expansion (hint: There are the most of these) - The name of the expansion (hint: It uses the game's name as a theme) Chat Images & Free Arenas! Several changes have been made to how Arenas function: First, all Arena durations have been increased by 10 turns. Second, the lowest duration Arena (30 turns) can now be requisitioned for free (as-in Free!), however only two free Arenas can be active at one time. Lastly, free Arenas cannot have a password. You can now add your own Chat Images (emoticons) to the game. To do this, click on Chat Images from the main page once you login. From there you will be able to choose your image and add a name which will identify it. Once uploaded a Chat Image can be used by any player in the game. There is a 1 TerraBuck fee to add a Chat Image. Offensive or inappropriate images will be removed. Chat Images must be in GIF format, no bigger than 15x15 pixels and no larger than 1k in size. Chat Images can be animated. Also: - Only factions with less than 200,000 Faction Points can deploy to Hellion - Faction Level restrictions no-longer apply to Arenas - The oldest Buy Order at the highest price no-longer has precedence for purchases, sales are now distributed randomly to all Buy Orders at that price - TerraBuck Buy Orders must now be for at least 10,000 credits - You can now exchange 10 TerraBucks for 100,000 credits and 100 TerraBucks for 1,000,000 credits - Cloaking no-longer functions on Esika Small Faction Changes: After much consideration some tweaks are being made to small faction advantages. The original (and unchanged) intent of these bonuses is to level the playing field between smaller factions and larger ones by providing a small bonus which allows smaller factions to counter the larger number of units a larger faction can deploy. These advantages were not designed to be a boost to larger factions seeking to min-max their advantages by lowering the number of players in their factions. The current small faction advantages have also been amplified through the use of smaller but extremely active factions making strategic alliances with other similarly minded smaller factions. Many advantages for smaller factions are being left in-place and the member limit is not being changed. Additional tweaks will be made as they are needed, further discussion of these changes can be done here. - Combat Level 6: +1 Missile,Energy Range (was +1 Ballistic,Missile,Energy Range) - Combat Level 7: 30% Armor bonus (was 35%) - Research Level 9: 15% Shield bonus (was 25%) Drop Shock Launched! Welcome to the launch of Drop Shock. Drop Shock represents an evolution of the massively multiplayer turn-based strategy game, playable from almost anywhere with a web browser. The previous version, TinyWarz, has given us all an incredible ride up-to this point, but it is not longer a fitting representaton of either the vision of this game or what it offers players. Drop Shock is: - 24 / 7 PvP combat for strategy-minded players - The abiliy to out-think your enemy and take what he loses - A completely player-driven economy - Conflicts which scale from PvP duels to massive faction vs. faction wars The launch of Drop Shock has also been accompanied by a server update to a much more powerful machine ... this is combined with the upgrade which recently doubled the server's RAM. Also: - Players using the Image Pack should re-add an exception (if you are using Firefox) for command.drop-shock.com - Image Pack users can download the changed images for the new color scheme here - There is now a 50% Command discount when deploying an army to Hellion or Infernus - Activated units can no-longer be deployed to Dominus - Mobile Uplink Mod is now Unique instead of Commander only Beacon Tweak & Efficiency Reversion Rushing a Bandit base on Hellion can be tricky business. Often a large force is required to remove entrenched Bandit units and buildings. Below is a satellite image captured during the engagement: Chaaaarge! Construx Requirement Changes: Construction requirements have been reverted from needing 20 Construx for 50% efficiency (50 for Buildings) back to requiring 10 Construx for 50% efficiency. This change was previously made to increase Ore requirements for these items to better match the rate at which Ore was gathered. Instead, a different approach will be used to address this issue. Beacon Payout Changes: I've given a lot of thought to how Beacons should function on Aldus and Zedus. These planets have the potential to be great points of conflict for factions, however their previous set-ups did not encourages this because there was little to fight over. I initially thought that moving both planets to an end-payout system would provide more player vs. player interaction, however it's worth noting that this may place too much of a squeeze on smaller factions who don't have the levels or resources to defeat large, opportunistic factions. Here's how things finally shook-out: Aldus - Will function as it has in the past. 1.5fp every two turns, 5 bonus faction points every five turns if the Queen is active. Faction Points are paid as they are earned. Aldus has always been about trying to survive the Sha'Kahr, this keeps that dynamic and provides a safer environment (vs other players) for smaller factions to collect fp. Zedus - Big changes here. The Beacon now adds 2fp (increased from 1fp) per turn to a winner-take-all pool. The faction controlling the Beacon at Horizon receives all Faction Points generated by the Beacon during orbit. Factions with less than 200,000fp will receive a double payout from this pool. Note that Zedus is a fairly small planet (only 4x4 Quadrants which is 12x12 sectors or 120x120 squares) so if your faction wants to "steal the bacon" (Beacon) from another faction you'll be able to get into a fight pretty quickly. This planet is designed for more established faction who can fight over larger Faction Point totals, with an incentive for small or medium-sized factions to join in for a big pay-off. This also creates real differentiation between the planets and gives each something unique to offer. Also: - Regular Sha'Kahr now drop 1 to 3 items - Tears are now a bit more common on regular Sha'Kahr - Each Sha'Kahr is now more resistant to certain weapons - When an Aldus Beacon is dropped or goes out of bounds it becomes unowned - When an Zedus Beacon is dropped or goes out of bounds it becomes un-attached to the unit which captured it but the capturing faction retains control, but the Beacon does not continue to generate faction points, a Beacon can be re-captured by the faction which controls it when the Beacon is in this state - The Zedus Beacon no-longer reports its position and the position is not listed on the deployment panel - Esika's size decreased from 30x30 sectors to 21x21 sectors (number of Relics is unchanged) - All Sha'Kahr now move one square slower - Sha'Kahr Queen's spawn rate decreased by 60% - Sha'Kahr Queen now appears less frequently Recruitment Final Standings: Sanctuary - 1st Place Paranoia Galaxy Force - 2nd Place Elite Resistance - 3rd Place The Last Minute - 4th Place Phoenix Rising - 5th Place PGF_auXiliary - 6th Place Faction leaders - Email me in-game to arrange your discussion time and custom named crews. 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