2017 Changelogs

Version 2.137

On May 3 2017, Grepolis was updated to version 2.137

Summary

• While you were enjoying the Easter spirit with Trial of the Slingers, we used the short development time during the holidays and worked on a community request to minimize the number of farming villages with the same trade options.
• Additionally we were looking into some smaller technical improvements and, of course, also fixed some bugs.

Changes & Improvements

• Following a wish of the community we changed the logic of how farming villages are generated on an island.
  • Previously farming villages were randomly generated so there could be 6 farming villages with identical trade options on an island.
  • Now the number of identical farming villages per island is limited to 2. This will ensure that no more than 2 farming villages on an island will offer you identical trade options.
• Bundles and Packages in the shop now appear in a more structured order. Instead of appearing in by time of appearance, they will now be sorted by more meaningful categories, e.g. price or type.

Bugfixes

• Trial of the Slingers - Notifications after achieving the first High Accuracy award have been fixed.
• Trial of the Slingers - Unnecessary HTML code at the end of the Day's Winner message was removed.
• Browser notifications - Players received wrong notifications about incoming attacks for their own sent attacks.
• Color assignment - Players with no alliance will again have brown as default color instead of blue.
• Sound notifications - With active browser notifications on beta worlds, sounds kept repeating several times. These notifications will now cease the spam and keep it more quiet.
• Alliance profile - A small pixel error in the alliance profile has been fixed.
• Player invitation - In rare cases players ended up far away from the one who invited them. Now they should again spawn near the inviting player.
• Bonus effects - Overriding a player-wide effect such as Divine Senses only removed it from the current town, keeping it stackable in all other towns. Now the effect will override on all towns

Version 2.136

On April 19 2017, Grepolis was updated to version 2.136

Summary

• After receiving your helpful feedback regarding the island quest rewards, we agreed to make some of the rewards non-stackable. Additionally we adjusted island quest texts to prepare them for interface changes we have planned.
• Furthermore, a technical change in the way messages get deleted should improve the game performance as deletion requests are now bundled.
• As a community request we implemented markers for incoming attacks and support in the city drop-down list. Of course we also fixed some bugs.

Changes & Improvements

• Certain effects become non-stackable so they cannot be active at the same time anymore.
  • When you already have an epic version of an effect active, you cannot use regular and rare versions on top of it. Instead, you will get a popup informing you about the more powerful effect already being active.
  • However, you can activate more powerful effects (e.g. epic when rare is already active). The inferior one may be overwritten.
  • This list should give you a quick overview of the effects for which this method is applied:
    • Accelerated construction < Efficient architects (rare) < Efficient architects (epic)
    • Accelerated recruitment < Reduced recruitment times (rare) < Reduced recruitment times (epic)
    • Improved attack < Improved attack (rare) < Improved attack (epic)
    • Improved defense < Improved defense (rare) < Improved defense (epic)
    • Improved favor production < Increased favor production (rare) < Increased favor production (epic)
    • Improved wood production < Increased resource production (rare) < Increased resource production (epic)
    • Heightened Senses < Divine senses
• The quest texts of island quests have been adjusted.
  • For the future we plan to integrate island quests into the regular questlog. This is part of the island quest changes.
  • To fit into the smaller questlog layout we had to shorten the quest texts a bit but kept their overall tonality and content.

• Markers for incoming attack and support movements have been added to the city drop-down list.
  • Following a community request, we decided to give all players a more convenient game experience and now display small symbols next to the town name.
  • This overview is also available in the app version (previously, these icons were only available when you had an active administrator).

• We changed the way multiple deletions of notifications get handled in the game's backend.
  • Previously: When deleting a high amount of notifications at the same time, all deletions were handled in single requests which was quite a high load for the servers.
  • Now multiple deletions will be handled in one request instead. This technical change should add up to improve the general game performance.

Bugfixes

• Color assignments - We fixed more possible cases of colors not being assigned correctly.
• Academy - When trying to demolish the academy you could get an error message because of a miscalculation of research points. Now it is again possible to tear down your academy.

Version 2.135

On 5 April 2017, Grepolis was updated to version 2.135

Summary

• As requested by our Community, the notification about the start of the era of worlds wonders now appears instantly instead of popping up with the first new game session after the start.
• Artemis will finally become available on all game worlds, enabling us to include her in events, Grepolisscore and other game areas.
• Additionally we improved the deletion of reports when sorting them by category, started preparations for our annual Easter event and fixed some issues in the browser and mobile versions of the game.

Changes & Improvements

• The notification about the start of the era of world wonders now appears instantly.
  • Following recent community requests, we changed the notification about the start of the era of worlds wonders.
  • Previously these notifications were shown with your first login after the era has already started.
  • Now this notification will be pushed to all online players soon after the start.
• The goddess Artemis is available on all game worlds.
  • From now on it will be possible to offer potential event rewards that are related to Artemis
  • The following awards become available in the Grepolisscore for all game worlds:
    • Slaughterer of Calydonian Boars
    • Slaughterer of Griffins
    • Calydonian Boars, at your service!
    • Griffins, at your service!
    • Resisting the Griffins
    • Deathtrap for Griffins
• The functionality of 'mark all' and 'delete all' reports has been improved to properly take filters into account.
  • When applying filters to reports and then marking and deleting them all, every single report was removed previously, even the ones that did not fall into the same filter category.
  • Now the feature is working as expected. When selecting e.g. support reports and subsequently marking and removing them all, only support reports will get removed.

Bugfixes

• Grepolisscore - The handling of the current event category of Grepolisscore has been reworked to ensure that correct texts and icons are always shown.
• Invite Friends - Fixed an internal error that could occur when changing the city the player should be invited close to before finalizing the invite.

Version 2.134

On March 22 2017, Grepolis was updated to version 2.134

Summary

• While Island Quest changes and performance improvements have been enabled for testing on beta, we focused on a few more new additions to the game.
• The commands overview has seen an overhaul. We intend to test these changes on beta starting next week. If the desired performance improvements kick in, changes will also become available on live worlds soon after.
• Furthermore we revived a function to enable alternate graphics in the game for special occasions and prepared everything for the activation of Artemis on all game worlds.

Changes & Improvements

• We reactivated a function that will allow us to display select themed game elements for certain festivities and occasions (e.g. Christmas).
• Artemis, our 6th Goddess will be activated on all game worlds in about 2 weeks time, with game version 2.135.
  • This change allows for potential future event rewards including her mythical units.
  • In preparation for this change, we recently also made Artemis' mythical units available in the training windows of Grepolympia.

Bugfixes

• Reports - Conquest reports could cause endless loading circles for forum/notes in certain edge cases (player not having enough culture points at the moment of colony ship landing, colony ship returning to town that has since been taken by another player).
• Awards - Fixed an issue that caused global awards (e.g. "Last man standing") to not be synchronized properly across all game worlds.
• Demeter event - Fixed errors in automatic messages sent to players in top 10 of the event (hospitality points shown instead of player name, award graphic missing).
• Alliance - A change of color of your alliance's crest is now properly reflected on the world map, in alliance members' profiles and in the color selection overview.
• Spells - Error when trying to cast spells to player towns.

Version 2.133

On March 8 2017, Grepolis updated to version 2.133

Summary

• For this version, our developers focused a lot on research and implementation of technical adjustments to improve performance of the game client. We will keep following up on this topic with more changes in the upcoming versions.
• Additionally we tested some of the previously announced island quest changes internally and reviewed them in terms of Game Design standards and technical implementation.

Beta testing of these changes is scheduled for the first week of March. Make sure to follow our beta forums if you are interested in the topic!

• Finally there is good news for those of you waiting to get your hands on Aristotle, Agamemnon and Christopholus. These 3 heroes become available outside their previous events and hero awards are sorted differently for a better overview.
• The scaling of unit reinforcement effects has been adjusted in some game areas.
  • The base values of select unit reinforcement effects granted from in-game events (e.g. in the Grepolympia shop, through the daily login bonus) have been adjusted slightly.
  • The amount of units gained through Hoplite, Swordsman, Slinger and Archer reinforcements have been increased slightly when obtained through the aforementioned features.
  • Unit reinforcement effects gained through Island Quests will be changed to have the same calculations at a later point in time as we would like to keep them in line with the difficulty of these quests.

Changes & Improvements

• 3 heroes lose their exclusive status and become available for all players.
  • The following 3 heroes now join the regular recruitment rotation:
    • Aristotle (Winter 2016)
    • Agamemnon (Sparta vs. Hades)
    • Christopholus (Nature's Wheel of Time)
• Sorting for hero awards has been adjusted. All hero awards are now sorted by hero instead of award type.
  • Previously there was no consistent sorting for hero awards, some were sorted by award type (Bounty, Power) others by the hero in question.
  • From now on, all hero awards will be sorted per hero so that you can easily find all awards for the hero in question without having to look for each award individually.

• The following preparation for Island Quest changes become activated on live worlds:
  • Mythical units can be sent to Island Quests asking to dispatch troops
    • Previously these units could not be sent to support the quest entities.
  • For island quest objectives involving the dispatching of troops, population is now taken into account to determine how many troops need to be sent
    • Previously: A fixed number of units was requested.
    • This change allows for the aforementioned possibility of sending mythical units to quest to work properly.
  • Island quest difficulty is now determined by a combination of game progression and the amount of points accumulated with each player's biggest city on the respective island.
    • Previously: Average points across all cities on the island were taken into account for calculations.
    • After this change quests will become more challenging but also more rewarding. Since one of the cities is already as far progressed, it should be possible to master this challenge easily, ultimately offering you better rewards more often.
  • The amount of Coins of War and Wisdom handed out as island quest rewards now scale with world speed.
    • Previously: A fixed amount of coins was granted to all players finishing a quest.
    • The world speed multiplier is capped at 4.
    • With this change we expect to align coin gains with player progression on faster speed worlds, allowing you to level up your heroes quicker.

Bugfixes

• Heroes - Training window showed unintended line breaks if stats exceeded 3 digit numbers (decimals).
• Player profile - After conquering a town the background color of a player's profile changed slightly. It will now remain the same.
• Performance - Some technical changes aiming to increase the performance of the game client in some specific situations involving high volumes of commands for one player have been implemented. More are to follow.

Version 2.132

On February 22 2017, Grepolis updated to version 2.132

Summary

• We are still in the process of preparing the first changes of the planned Island Quest rework. If you missed our DevBlog article on this topic, you can stay informed and voice your opinions [here]. Beta testing for the first changes will also become available shortly, so stay tuned!
• With this update, we enabled the use of town IDs in the attack planner and adjusted the layout of dropdown-menus using auto-completion.
• Additionally we adjusted some texts for more clarity and of course also fixed bugs along the way.

Changes & Improvements

• Town IDs can now be used to select towns in the Attack Planner (premium feature)
  • Previously you could only target town names in the Attack Planner - making it difficult to select the right destination if several players chose the same town name.
  • You may now use either the town name or town ID to identify the town you would like to plan attacks for.

• Resource storage texts were adjusted for more clarity
  • The game previously displayed that the warehouse would be full at a certain time in the future. However, this information was based on the current resource production while requesting the data. Running effects, for instance, could expire before stated date was reached.
  • The texts were adjusted to indicate that your storage will run out of capacity earliest at a certain date - or later if your stored amount of resources or resource production change in the meantime.
• Dropdown menus in fields with auto-completion functionality were adjusted to match the style of Grepolis better.

Bugfixes

• Attack preparation - Corrected the warning displayed when trying to send heroes by themselves to attack on other islands. It now properly reflects that ships or flying units are required in order to send them on their way.
• Alliance forum - Locked threads are now properly marked as read when choosing to set the whole forum section to read status.
• Color assignments - Players without an alliance can now set custom colors for alliances without losing the color assignments just seconds after.
• Conquest/Revolt - Some adjustments were made to ensure that processing delays have less of an impact on starting times of conquests and revolts. Consequently both actions should end as described in the respective reports.
• Favor - Reduced favor production triggered as negative effect of an Island Quest now only affects the town the quest was started from, not the global favor production for the respective god.
• Hall of Fame - Fixed an error that could cause Hall of Fame and award data to be inconsistent, consequently leading to errors in the alliance rankings within the Hall of Fame.

Version 2.131

On February 8 2017, Grepolis updated to version 2.131.

Summary

• In this version, we started laying the technical foundation for some upcoming changes to our Island Quest system. If you are interested in the upcoming changes, please head over to our DevBlog where our Game Designers present a preview.
• Consequently, this version's community feature brings an addition to Island Quests by showing travel times for attacks on Island Quest objectives.
• Furthermore we have adjusted the handling of awards for recurring events and fixed some bugs.

Changes & Improvements

• Travel times added for Island Quests (Community Request)
  • When accepting an Island Quest with the objective of attacking enemy troops, travel times are now displayed in the attack preparation screen.
  • We have seen this feature requested time and time again and found that it worked well in the mobile app, so it was about time we implemented it for browser as well.

• Adjusted titles displayed in Grepolisscore for awards obtained in recurring events
  • Some of Grepolis' events are recurring and come with their own set of awards each time they are run. Previously they showed the year of the event in order to make them separable.
  • Award names for some of these recurring events have now been reworked to display the month and year they were obtained, in addition to the exact date on which they were earned.

Bugfixes

• Login - Fixed a potential issue with player registrations and subsequent logins to new worlds.
• World wonders - Wonders level 10 display their description at the bottom again, instead of the top of the window - overlapping the graphics.
• Grepolisscore - Some awards for recurring events were displayed twice.
• Agora - A JavaScript error that could occur when closing the agora window quickly after organizing Olympic Games was fixed.
• Bandits Camp - Buttons on the attack screen appeared in wrong position.

Version 2.130

On January 25 2017, Grepolis was updated to version 2.130.

Summary

• Demeter is about to return and we're happy to introduce 5 new guests for her event after recent feedback indicated that graphical alterations for recurring events would be appreciated.
• Additionally we have worked on bringing more clarity for world wonder effects by making the information available even before the construction of a wonder is started.
• Last but not least, we have introduced full support for IPv6 and took care of several bugs.

Changes & Improvements

• In Demeter's Name! New guests will arrive in your tavern!
  • Demeter is in need of your help again! In the raging war you become host to several starving guests that need to be catered. Gather ingredients and cook up a storm.
  • Recent community feedback indicated that occasional changes in graphics for recurring events would be appreciated. Our artists were more than happy to follow this request for the upcoming event!
  • 5 new guests will be visiting your tavern and stay for up to 3 days at a time. Check back frequently to meet them all!
• Tooltip description of world wonder effects before construction
  • Up until now, bonus effects of finished world wonders were not visible in the world wonder construction menu.
  • In order to allow for better judgement of which world wonder would be the most valuable option for your alliance - without having to rely to the wiki - a new tooltip in the construction window will inform you about the respective bonus effect of any wonder your hover your mouse over.
• Grepolis is ready for the future! Our systems are now fully IPv6 compliant.

Bugfixes

• Grepolisscore - Awards granted for levelling heroes were not properly granted if required experience points for a level-up were gained through *Travelling Mentor or Luxury Residence effects.
• Premium overview - Troops outside - A JavaScript error that could occur when partially withdrawing troops outside your city has been fixed.
• In-game offers - In order to maintain consistency, any globally available campaign (gifts, surveys, offers) may now only be accepted on one game world. However, if accepting these offers enables a global effect on the shop, they will remain active on all game worlds.
• City foundation information - The headline of the city foundation screen that can be accessed through the commands overview is now properly localized for all markets.
• World wonder donation overview - When opening the donation overview from world wonder lists while having the donation overview minimized, a scroll bar appeared even if there were only a few entries in the list.
• Heroes overview - Top arrow of scroll bar has been put back in its proper space.
• Beta - Winter Event - Aristotle may not have been granted properly if Crystals were received during the first days of the event. All eligible players have been granted their missing hero in the meantime.

Version 2.129

On January 11 2017, Grepolis was updated to version 2.129.

Summary

As the development of the game has slowed down over the course of the holidays, the first update in 2017 solely focuses on fixing some bugs and issues that occured recently. But don't worry, we will return to full speed with version 2.130!

Bugfixes

• Hall of Fame - Rank 1 and 2 would sometimes appear as interchanged, wrongly reflecting standings for closed worlds.
• Captain - The reduction for resource trading times is now properly applied for the owner of the advisor only.
• Technical - Some double clicks in certain windows caused a higher than usual load. This is no longer the case.
• Spells - When casting powers on a city from the ring menu, the status now updates properly, reflecting that the desired effect is active and could be extended using premium.
• Ring menu - The ring menu now disappears properly when opening any other windows instead of remaining open.
• Simulator - Selected spells and effects are no longer reset after switching gods.