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Dark Throne is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) designed by Lazarus Software. The game is currently in development and Beta testing phases (Omega testing is also being completed by players who reach certain criteria in Beta), with prizes promised for top players when the full version is released. There is no cost to play the game; it is supported by advertising, with an optional pay subscription system put in place to support the game. Image File history File links Lazarus. ...
A video game developer is a software developer (a business or an individual) that creates computer or video games. ...
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An image from World of Warcraft, the largest commercial MMORPG as of 2007, based on active subscriptions. ...
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An image from World of Warcraft, the largest commercial MMORPG as of 2007, based on active subscriptions. ...
Wikibooks has more about this subject: Marketing Billboards and street advertising in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan, (2005) Advertising is paid communication through a non-personal medium in which the sponsor is identified and the message is controlled. ...
The Omega test is a test of the final (Gold) version of the game. Players who participated in the Alpha test, or who are at or above level 20 in Beta will be able to participate in this test, where they will be able to test new features for Gold while they are being developed.
Lazarus Software held a charity drive during the 2004 holiday season and raised over $10,000 (USD) for the Children's Hospital in New York. Another charity drive started right before New Years 2006, and Lazarus Software raised another $10,000 (USD), the charity drive recently ended. [citation needed] NY redirects here. ...
Though initially developed in PHP, Dark Throne has since been converted to Ruby on Rails. PHP (PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a reflective programming language originally designed for producing dynamic Web pages. ...
Ruby on Rails is a popular new web application framework, released in 2004, that aims to increase the speed and ease of web development. ...
Gameplay
Dark Throne is a text and turn based game, of a type with its roots in play by mail games, in that it has no images other than logos, item symbols and unit type symbols. Even these are small, icon or smaller images. The gameplay is based upon recruiting (as mentioned below) and training soldiers for defense and offense, and arming those soldiers with weapons. Once players have armed these soldiers, you can attack other players and defend against attacks from other players. Also, there is an element of reconnaissance. You can train spies and counter spies (sentries) to spy, assassinate, and destroy the forticiations of other players. Sentries can be used to defend against a spy's action. Miners are one source of income, as they provide money, but are not immune to attacks or assassination. Every half hour players get 2 attack turns which they can use to attack. Upgrades increase the effectiveness of a player's army. Play by mail games are games, of any type, played through postal mail or e-mail. ...
One of the major features of Dark Throne is the recruiter mechanic. The primary way to gain citizens in the game (which are used to train soldiers and the like) is by having people click on a unique recruiter link, which each player is provided. An anti-spam policy is enforced to ensure that these links are not sent out as spam. Every time the link is clicked, the player who provided the link receives an untrained citizen and 250 gold. Should the visitor who clicked the link register an account, the player who provided the link is awarded 10 citizens and 1000 gold. An in-game recruiter has been implemented where a player can click other player's links up to 350 times a day (400 in the Omega test) which are recorded and allow the player to receive up to 250 citizens a day (300 in the Omega test) and a small amount of gold. Many Alliances also have their own out of game recruiter. Another way is to build houses which produce citizens every 24 hours. Activating the in-game recruiters of other players, the player encouraging others to activate their own recruiter and building houses are the only ways of gaining citizens. Players with more citizens have an advantage over other players - they can produce more gold and field more combat units. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ...
Units Units can be trained into four types (with their stronger upgrade in brackets):
Miners - for bringing in a specific amount of gold per miner depending on bonuses and mining upgrade, the more miners the more gold per turn (TBG), which is every 30 minutes.
Soldiers (Knight) [and (Berserker) for the Undead] - these allow the player to attack other players for gold and experience, each soldier can carry one of each type of weapon, and Knights or greater can ride a steed when the citadel upgrade has been purchased.
Guards (Archer) [and (Elite Archer) for the Elves] - these allow the player to defend from attacks, even when offline, experience can be gained from a successful defend however, gold cannot. Like the soldier, the guard can carry one of each type of weapon. Archers or elites can garrison a guard tower to increase defense, as guard towers are larger, there are 5 occupants to one tower.
Spies (Veteran Spies) - these units allow the player to snoop out and view another players statistics, (Offence, Defence, Spy Offence, Spy Defence, Fort health, Trained units and Untrained units). if caught, spies may be executed and no information is passed on about the defending player, who then becomes aware of the spying players actions. Spies can also carry out assassinations against any unit and infiltrate the fort, giving damage to the current structure. Veteran Spies do not go on spy missions; instead, they 'contribute' experience to regular spies.
Sentries (Sentinels) protect against enemy spy sabotage attempts. Like Guards, these units actively protect the base whether the player is online or offline. Valuable units for when players boost spy strength.
In addition to trained units, Mercenaries may be hired from a mercenary camp, depending on the upgrade level. these units may be untrained if the user wishes to have them for an alternate role (such as mining). Mercenary (disambiguation). ...
Structures and Upgrades The main structure is the base, the home of the player, army and all their population. This base acts as a fort. The base starts very simple and small with few housing capabilities and low bonuses but can be expanded if the player meets certain requirements. The defensive fortification is the base and has an amount of hit points that if reach below 75% of the maximum value then sentries and miners begin to be lost in un-successful defends.
The offensive upgrade consists of siege technology, these are dependent on the current fort upgrade and add a percentage bonus to the offense.
The spying upgrade, a vital upgrade in the higher levels, adds a percentage upgrade to the spy and sentry rating. This upgrade also sets the default value of the spies and sentries themselves, and, due to the upgraded counterparts (Sentinals and Veteran Spies) which have a 3x value of the default rating, the value begins to increase exponentially. These values are unbalanced within the Beta test as, at a certain upgrade, the spy armoury becomes obsolete to the default value. In the Omega version, this is corrected.
The Mining upgrade sets the total amount of deposits allowed in one day and also the amount of gold being mined per miner. This GPM (Gold Per Miner) may seem very little, but with players having as much as 150K+ miners with many wealth bonuses, the gold accumulates very quickly. (one such player had a TBG of around 74M).
The bank, this cannot be upgraded but it allows the player to deposit 80% of the current gold on hand. There is no way for a player to lose money from the bank, henceforth it being a safe place for the gold.
Housing, housing adds a permanent gain of troops for the player. Each house gives 1 extra troop per day and costs 25K (though future values of troops and costs are believed to be higher per house). The houses can be upgraded to a certain point at each fortification level.
Mercenary camp, this is a very valuable source of troops when the player has surplus gold. Mercenaries come in the form of sentries, spies, guards and soldiers. The camp can be upgraded in respect of the fort and can be upgraded to a (current) maximum of level 10 (giving the possibility of 100 extra troops per day).
Alliances An alliance in Dark Throne, (DT for short) is a group of players with one or more leaders. Many players are part of alliances. People within an alliance can work with other members of the alliance to achieve a common goal. There are thousands of alliances, ranging from small to alliances with thousands of members. The largest of alliances have 9,000 to 20,000 members. Other alliances are far more restricive of members, alliances with restricive membership are known as 'elite', they consist of the stronger Dark Throne players. Other smaller alliances are due to the continual creation of newer clans. Smaller alliances try to make official and un-official allies with bigger and more powerful alliances for protection and safety from other threats. This often leads to confusion when an external alliance war breaks out. In these wars accounts get pillaged, soldiers die, and even some of the greatest of players fall from an unstoppable onslaught of attackers. Dark Throne is played internationally so there are also 'national alliances' made up of players from the same country. Only players who live in or come from the founding country may join.
Subscription Membership In April 2006, Lazarus introduced the Dark Throne "Legend" subscription system. Subscribers, through a monthly contribution of $7.99 (US), are not required to view the advertisements seen by ordinary players to offset the cost of hosting their account. Furthermore, unlike ordinary players who may optionally click through a recruit list to receive a potential maximum of 250 citizens per day (thus viewing 250 pages of advertisements) in addition to the citizens received from other in-game sources, Legend members are awarded these citizens automatically without any user input required. Similarly, whilst ordinary players may exchange recruit links between themselves to obtain up to a maximum of 25 extra citizens, Legend members receive these 25 citizens automatically. Finally, Legend members are able to select extra visual styles for the Darkthrone pages above the four options available to ordinary players. The total benefits of subscription are, therefore: 1) a lack of advertisements, 2) 275 citizens awarded daily without requiring the usual user input and manual effort, and 3) extra visual styles. Note that figures given here are for the Beta test, in Omega, the maximum population from the public recruiter list is 300 and 25 from link-exchange, and so therefore Legend members will receive 325 citizens.
It is worth noting that the benefits granted by the Legend membership system do not actually constitute a clear in-game advantage over an ordinary member. Such a member, if they diligently link-exchange and click through the 250-page recruiter list each and every day, will advance their account to exactly the same degree as a Legend subscriber, provided the accounts in question are equal in every other way.
To show membership, Legend members are awarded a medal in their in-game profile, which changes colour according to how long the user has been contributing (from Bronze to Silver to Gold), and a large custom "LEGEND" graphic underneath their username on the profile page.
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