Evony... an unexpected package

Game Review
The company that designed Evony has succeeded where many, many others have failed. They have made an engaging, open ended multiplayer online game that is free and browser based.

To play Evony you simply sign up at www.evony.com. You will be allocated a server, and you will find yourself the lord of a small village. Your challenge is to build up the village into a large city, gather resources, research new technologies, take on the NPC cities around you and of course defend against other real players who also inhabit the lands.

Don't come to the game expecting lurid animations or sword swinging heros. The game is essentially played out in simple graphical interface where you can see your town buildings (or farms) laid out on a grid. Zoom out and you can see your city on a larger "world" grid of NPCS cities, towns belonging to other players, and "valleys" representing unnocupied land, sometimes with special resource bonuses. While the graphics are helpful to keep track of things, your most important tools are the many menus of information and options that open out of different types of city buildings or from the menu block on the screen.

I think in the long run the game would stale and get boring if it were simply "man against the machine". Yes, it is many times more sophisticated than the run of the mill free online games, but ultimately it comes down to upgrading buildings, gathering resources, building up your forces and learning technologies. What turns this all into great fun is that it is a true multiplayer online game. Hundreds of other people will be building cities in your area, and inevitably there will be competition for scarce resources. There is built in provison for joining an alliance, and for building groups of allied alliances. There are ways to escape attackers (such as a "truce" you can put in place for a limited time) and teleporting a city. Certainly the most heartstopping moments I have experienced in game involve unexpected attacts from neighbours, desperate appeals to your alliance for aid, and the grim satisfaction of raiding the offenders city yourself once your powerful allies have broken his defences.

As a multiplayer game you expect to see some form of chat, and this is certainly part of the interface. The "world" chat is somewhat random, but your alliance chat area is a great place to get ideas and, of course, yell for help. You can also whisper individuals, and use in-game email as well.

The game opens with a seven day "beginners" period when your are immune to player attacks. After this the game is openly "PvP" (player versus player) so use the time to get in an alliance and teleport near to them. Armies take real time to transverse the map so rescue will not be instant if its needed.

How can the many servers and considerable development and maintenance time be offered free? While the game is very playable without any cost to the player at all, the company provides many useful in-game items that can be purchased with in-game cents. These cents can occasionally be earned or won, but more general have to be purchased for real money. Items range from extra resources to troops, medals, items that hasten build processes or add power to an army, items that increase production rates, or allow you to teleport your city. If you don't want to pay any real money, you still have a chance at one of these items per day, as each player gets a token each day that allows them to play a "wheel of fortune" with a range of rewards on it.

The games promotional material boasts multiple quests. This is true, in a way. A quest is actually a goal. When you reach the goal, a reward becomes available. For instance, a goal might be "build a level 9 Townhall". The interface will let you know both what goals are available for you to work towards and will flag any that have been attained. These quests are a clever way to guide the beginning player. Simply aim to complete each goal and you will quickly get the hang of what is going on.

Battles are not fought with any evidence of violence, so there is very little point swinging over to Evony if your ideal game is a first person shooter. Results of battles are calculated and sent to you as a battle report detailing what troops you lost, how many of the enemy were killed, and what loot was taken. In a clever twist a url is provided at the bottom of each report. Sharing this by in-game email or indead ordinary email then pasting it back into a browser will let anyone look at the report. Here is the result of an attack by some of my soldiers on a resource valley:
battle26.evony.com/default.html?logfile/20090905/37/38/37386e5b6d36cdb6aad9b495488fcd94.xml.

This game has many hours of play built in as you progress from being a poor village to being an obscenely wealthy tyrant of your region. However, it is not realistic to imagine sitting and playing glued to the screen for hours. There are increasingly massive amounts of time required to build higher level buildings (times in excess of 24 hours are typical for high level buildings) and troop movements may also take hours for long range targets. You can only build one building and research one technology per city at one time, though you can make troops and wall defences as well. A typical session for me would be to set some new building upgrades, ensure all cities are researching a technology, check in-game email and look for reports of attacks, then deploy some troops to gather resources or (more rarely) attack a foe. After that, log out and come back later.

It is consequently an unusual game that will certainly not suit every player and every termperament. However it is nicely conceived, has real depth (there are hundreds of pages of blogs and articles up allready about strategies) and provides a pleasant diversion even for players of more immersive mmorgs. Best of all, it need cost you absolutely nothing, so you have nothing to loose by trying it out and seeing if you are destined to be a Lord of Evony.

Book: Diaries 1969-1979 (The Python Years) by Michael Palin

This is not great literature, and was never intended to be. The fascinating Michael Palin has kept a diary "more or less continuously since 1969". His diaries are written largely in full sentances, so reading is not hard, but compared to (say) autobiographical writing have an excess of detail and a lack of flow that make reading cover to cover something of a chore.

Tear up the idea of treating this as a major work, and instead use it as a primary source reference book for the conception, growth and troubled life of the Monty Python Show and the Python Movies. I enjoyed reading about the problems of shooting the films, and about the difficulties (and final triumph) of launching the show in America.

Rather more poignant are the records of the struggles within the team to find direction, finish scripts, and manage the various ups and downs of different members.

The book has plenty of photos covering the era. Would I re-read it cover to cover? Probably not, but I'll be tempted to look up some of the better stories again.

Published by Phoenix in 2007.

Andrew Lack

Software: Google Sketchup 7 and Interractive Components

This is not a review of Sketchup, or even its latest version. I just want to draw attention to the significant fun that Google has added to downloadable components in this new release. A small set of these come with the basic install of the free version of Sketchup 7, and more can be downloaded from Google's 3D Warehouse.

A normal component is a model (such as a window or a car) that can be incorporated into the model you are building. The new models appear to be much the same, but when you grab the new "Interact" tool suddenly you find the bed model will transform into a king size or a single, the car will recolour from a palette you are offered and most fun of all, the car doors will open and close.

From my experiments to date it seems that the ability to create this functionality comes only with the "pay for" SketchUp 7 Pro, but the ability to tweak components you add to your models is much appreciated... this is a product that continues to amaze those who have not seen it before. The free version is fully functional and is the best way I know to quickly create 3D models of houses and DIY projects.

The free version is downloadable from http://sketchup.google.com.

Andrew Lack

Film: Lessons in Chocolate (Lezioni di Cioccolato)

This enthusiastic farce won Best Comedy and Best Actress (Violante Placido) at the Monte Carlo Comedy Film Festival in 2007. Mattia (Luca Argentero) is a heartless young building contractor who is willing to cut corners to make a quick buck. He insists his Egyptian worker Kamal (Hassani Shapi) works on a roof without scaffolding. When Kamal falls off suddently Kamal finds he has power over Mattia, and insists Mattia attends an elite chocolate makers course in his place.

There is great play with confused identities and other general good humoured antics, but I warmed to the way in which Kamal's character is unfolded. The tensions between his own culture and those of his adopted country provide some of the better moments.

The film may be hard to catch around Sydney (I saw it thanks to an Italian evening at Avoca Theatre) but see it if you can, or have a chat to your local Video store.

Andrew Lack

Book: An Anthropologist on Mars by Oliver Sacks

Ever since I found myself being transported by a discussion of soul in "The Man who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" I have eagerly sought out Oliver Sacks' writing. Even though his books have all the trappings of accademic writing (footnotes, bibliography, technical asides) they read as engaging and empathetic accounts of unusual humans.

The "anthropologist" of the title is Dr. Temple Grandin (http://www.grandin.com/), an expert on cattle behaviour who also has Aspherger's Syndrome. While some of the individuals described in the book have little ability to reflect on their own condition, Dr. Grandin has contributed significantly in her own writing to an understanding of the world of those living with Asphergers. In the chapter, Oliver Sacks starts with a review of the way this particular syndrome came to be defined, then describes a day spent with Dr. Grandin. As with other accounts in the book Sachs writes about those with whom he has had direct contact, and embeds his reflection and discussion in the story of that contact.

His aim through all of these stories and reflections is to enquire about the nature of the human mind, and thus inevitably into the nature of "human".

There is no single conclusion to come from the book, but it serves as an introduction for the general reader to the investigations of neurophysiology. I am left with a sense of wonder, and greater appreciation of the complexity of the brain and mind.

Software: Discover for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Discover is one of several competing aps designed to close an obvious gap in the basic setup of the iPhone and iPod Touch. Apple for some reason did not see the need to provide a way to transfer or view data files (such as Word documents) despite the fact that applications like these have been common on PDAs certainly since the good old Palm Pilot. On the Touch you have the added facility of being able to use a wireless network to connect, without fussing with cables.

Discover is currently free, and on my early trials at least works very well. As well as installing the ap on your Touch or iPhone, you need to download another free ap to your PC or Mac from the website (http://bbase.mobi/discover/).

Assuming you (and the computer you are targetting) are on a local wi-fi network, run the ap on your Touch and then on your computer. There are no complex sign ins. Your Touch will appear on the list of devices, and the actual syncronisation and file transfers are done inside a browser window that will load when you select your device.
The only downside I have found at this point is that Office 2007 does not seem to be supported yet: 2003 documents work well, and the ap will display pdfs and a range of other common formats. It will also allow you to find other iPhones or Touch devices and to transfer files to them.

Not too bad for a freebie, and certainly many uses will be pleased to be able to review notes and documents on their devices.

Film: Seven Pounds

Despite engaging performances from some of the co-stars, I ultimately found this film annoying. Will Smith plays the part of a man who has come to believe he owes the world something, and chooses to pay his debt by trying to help a small group of strangers.

As you would expect the cinematography, music and performances are all acceptable, so what could be wrong? In the final analysis, his choices (hard to be more specific without spoiling this for everyone) are controversial and ultimately self serving. He is satiating his feeling of guilt. An Indian philosopher once said the greatest charity is when you give in anonymity and without seeking to know the response of the recipient. This won't do for Will Smith's character, who becomes closely entangled with at least some of those he impacts.

This film raises a number of issues, but the core problem is that the film is about a man who takes to himself the right to make god-like decisions.

Book: Open House by Sheridan Voysey

Sheridan Voysey interviews guests each Sunday evening on a national radio program. Twenty five transcripts have been presented in the book and I found it a compelling and engaging read. They are all connected in some ways to a Christian theme, but not everyone interviewed has a personal faith. I found the discussions with Terry Waite (kidnapped and held for years by Islamic terrorists), Philip Yancey, John Smith, Alister McGrath and Adrian Plass full of insights into these fascinating people and their journeys.

The book is especailly relevant for Australians because mixed in with international big names like Max Lucado and John Eldredge are some of my personal Australian heros like Thomas Keneally and Tim Costello.

This material is fresh: Sheridan does not skip the hard questions, and his guests appear to work hard to give honest and reflective answers. As well as being an excellent read for personal enjoyment, high school teachers would find this especially useful in providing very quotable material for ethics and Biblical Studies lessons.

Andrew Lack

Opening Salvo

The blogs to follow will consist of short reviews of...

• software
• books
• movies
• websites
• magazines

written by the staff and friends of Pacific Hills Christian School. The site is managed by Andrew Lack, who leads up the school's Learning Resource Centre.

If you would like to know more about Pacific Hills visit our main web site at www.phcs.nsw.edu.au or contact us in Sydney, Australia on (02) 9651 2733. We warmly welcome visitors.

Andrew Lack