Empires & Allies receives first round of bug fixes and gameplay updates

Just as with their launch of CityVille, Zynga is taking to Empires & Allies with a fine-toothed comb, working out some initial bugs and glitches, and changing a few gameplay elements to make them easier on players. They've announced their first major changes on the game's forums, and compiled the ones that might affect you here:

    There is now a profile picture on the right side of the screen allowing you to see which of your friends played recently and only send that group of friends free gifts. In this way, you avoid "spamming" your non-playing friends with gifts they'd likely never accept anyway.
    You can now earn 20 energy per 24 hour period from visiting friends. Even if you visit more neighbors in a day, you will not receive any free energy after the first 20 points. The original limit was five energy, so this is a step in the right direction.
    The exploit allowing players to invade their neighbors more than once in a row has been fixed.
    Each neighbor on your neighbor bar now has an image displaying which type of Ore they can mine, meaning you can help out at their mines and potentially earn this Ore for yourself.
    When building Military units, the buildings now show the most powerful units (of those currently unlocked to you) first.
    The minimum level requirements for some Government Buildings have been reduced.
    Missing quest icons should now appear as normal.
    Less pop-ups!


I personally haven't noticed a lessening of the pop-ups appearing in my game, but perhaps I'm just not participating in the specific areas of gameplay from which they were removed. Either way, it's nice to see Zynga taking a firm stance on bugs this early in the game's life (and asking for fan feedback every step of the way), and we can only assume that more changes and bug patches will be released in the future. If they change the way we play the game, you can be sure we'll let you know about them, so keep checking back.

What do you think of this set of changes and updates? Have you noticed less pop-ups in your game? Would you prefer bonus energy from friends to be unlimited, or can you see where Zynga is coming from with the limit? What other items should they work on next?

Empires & Allies launches second campaign, Molten Terror

If you're level 25 or above in Empires & Allies, and have already completed most everything given to you from the start of the game, you'll be happy to know that an entire second campaign has been launched in the game! This second campaign is called Molten Terror, and it comes complete with plenty of new features. But first, the story!

In Molten Terror, the Molten Reef Islands have been almost entirely ruined by the eruption of a massive mega-volcano, and you're out to save the survivors. You'll face new enemies along the way, in terms of both units that you'll face in battle, and the "bosses" that are controlling them. For instance, you'll face a man named Lt. Basil Fletcher, who originally trained with Sergeant Cross. He's a weapons salesman, so you know he'll likely pack a punch! Of course, you'll also have new quests to complete to go along with these new enemies, and to introduce you to the second campaign overall.

In addition to this, these new islands will be themed appropriately, with islands that are on fire or covered in lava, and new, sometimes tropical themed troops to defeat. If you've yet to complete the game's first campaign, Wrath of the Raven, you can easily switch between the two campaigns using an icon in the bottom right corner of the game screen. Again, you must be level 25 to access this second campaign, regardless of your progress in the first. Now, if you are level 25 and you still haven't received it, you'll need to be a bit more patient, as this will roll out to users everywhere in due time.
[Source and image credit: Zynga]

Are you excited to try out the quests and battles in Molten Terror, or are you still working your way through Wrath of the Raven?