First, you can't get this game. Utopia is a web based interactive text-HTML adventure game that you play online. You will need an Internet connection and a web browser to play. To sign-up for a FREE account to play utopia, go to:
Second, I recommend reading threw the entire "guide to Utopia" before beginning your game. You will find a link to this guide near the top of the log-in page. The link is labeled, guide to utopia or gr/guide. It is a well written introduction/HowTo to the world of utopia.
You may even find it necessary to refer back to this excellent guide from time to time after you've created your account. There will always be a link to it titled, "the guide", at the bottom of the main menu screen while you are logged in.
More information is also available in About The Games.
You'll find tons of help, strategies, and (must have) tools at the following sites:
<The following was taken directly from the Swirve web site.>
An Introduction
Welcome to Utopia, a world where reality and dreams come together, a world where the lowliest of peasants can become the world's greatest heroes. A world unlike any other that you may have experienced now stands before you.
Any peasant can become Lord of their own province, but only the greatest can survive. Being a leader in the world of Utopia will challenge your every skill and demand your careful attention. Without diplomacy and tact, you will never rise to the respect the people demand of you. You must decide when to be ruthless and when to be compassionate. Will you run an empire of might or magic? Alas, it is almost impossible to do both. Every decision, every challenge will be yours and yours alone. Are you ready to be a Lord or Lady here in Utopia? ...
Utopia is an interactive web based game played in "real time". There are thousands of players online at any given time, playing and interacting together. The actions of one player can have a possitive or an adverse effect on other players.
One day in utopia is equal to 1 hour in real time, a utopian
month has 24 days, hence, a utopian year has, you got it, only 7 months,
1
week in real time. It is played in what is called, "ages or eras".
One age of
utopia is equal to
roughly 12 weeks or so in real time.
The 37th age: "The Age of Darkness!" officially began on October 3, 2007, and will run into December.
To keep things running smoothly in your province, and so you do not lag behind in growth, it is recommended that you log into your account at least once a day. If you are going to be unable to log-in for a number of days, you'll need to select the vacation mode located under preferences. The link to preferences can be found at the bottom of the main menu screen. The vacation mode will keep your province from being pillaged and attacked while you're away.
utopia is a web based, interactive fantacy game of strategy. It is set in a
medieval ambiance.
Your role is that of a lord or lady of a province, inside a kingdom, on an island of other kingdoms, within a world of islands.
A single kingdom can have up to 25 provinces.
A province is a portion of land or (acres) granted to you by the utopian Lords when you create your free account.
These lands grow your peasants (population) which can then be trained into wizards, thieves, soldiers, or special military. To house, feed, and employ your peasants, You will need to build homes, farms, mills, banks, and other such structures.
Your soldiers are drafted directly from your total population, according to what percentage you have your draft rate set. You can obtain new lands either through exploration, attacks, or casting spells.
You must train your soldiers into specialized troops for battle, defending your acreage, and/or building up a den of thieves.
You must erect armories, barracks, forts, training grounds, and other structures for these military. If you choose to be a magic user, you'll need to build guilds to rear wizards, and towers to produce runes for magical use.
Keeping a small force of wizards is recommended for casting maintenance spells such as (minor protection, fertile lands, love and peace, etc.).
Maintaining a suitable balance between the myriad fasets in governing your lands will have a direct affect on the growth, felicity, and prosperity of your province. Too little military will leave you vulnerable to attack, however, too large amilitary will cause your peasants to become disgruntled or unhappy and they may revolt and abandon you. Not enough farm land will leave your population open to starvation, a low thief ratio will leave them wide open to thievery, making it easy for other provinces to steal resources such as gold, food, runes, and even peasants.
An integral part of this growth is how well you interact with the other provinces in your kingdom. You must vote for a Monarch, regularly read and post to your kingdom's forum, and participate in kingdom projects such as aid programs, battle plans, hostilities, and war.
Utopia is set up in text-HTML format. You navigate through the various screens with your web browser, just like you do web pages,
by clicking on menu selections in the form of links, setting criteria in forms, with pull down menus, combo boxes, edit fields, etc. Each page will have a number of frames.
It is recommended that you set your web browser to check for newer versions of stored pages: (every visit to the page).
For IE.x, (tools) (Internet options) (settings) check the box for (every visit to the page).
For other browsers, see your browser's help files.
The first frame is the links frame, It contains the basic game commands in the form of menu selections.
The links are
"image map links".
In the links frame is also an option to turn graphics
on and off, I would recommend turning them off until you become more familiar with the
workings of the game.
You will find other menu selections in this frame such as,
menu, council, explore, thievery, attack, forum, and so forth.
If you use a screen reader, such as JAWS for Windows, you can utilize these menu selections in this frame, by bringing up a links list in your browser, (INSERT+F7) and then pressing various letters for each link/command:
M for menu,
C for councel,
E for explore,
B for build,
S for science,
and so on.
To navigate through the frames with JFW, (INSERT+F9 to bring up a frames list, and use the up and down arrow keys to select a frame, or alternatively, just use the shortcut key (M) and SHIFT(M) to jump from frame to frame.
The second frame is the music frame. It contains links to turn background music on and off. You can choose from 6 different pieces of music. The music links are labeled: 1 2 3 4 5 6.
NOTE:
Once I get the volume down, I find the music to be quite pleasant, as it seems to add ambiance to the game.
The third frame contains links for bonuses, service levels, etc.
The fourth frame is an "adlink" frame. The content may change from time to time, as various adds pop up.
The last frame is the utopia main frame, (utomain) frame. This is where all the action takes place, so to speak. For instance, if you click on the (menu) link from the "links frame", your province statistics such as: money, peasants, food, runes, NetWorth, soldiers, thieves, wizards,etc. will be displayed in this utomain frame
The utomain frame is also where you set the criteria for some of the commands such as, magic, thievery, military, aid, science, exploration, etc. This will be a form with tables, edit fields, combo boxes, and buttons.
Because most of this information is in the form of tables and columns, you may find it necessary to use the JAWS cursor or an alternative cursor to read horizontally across the columns.
The PC cursor reads vertically, down one column at a time, so it's a matter of counting the rows in each column to glean the information.
in this "utomain frame" is also where you'll find your kingdom's forum, kingdom status, news, and various other reports, after clicking a corresponding link from the "links frame".
<The following was taken directly from the Swirve web site.>
To help accomodate all the Utopia players, Swirve offers a few different games of Utopia. Each has slight variations in the style of game as described below.
- = The World of Legends is our primary gaming server - all new players should join this game. It is a much larger game than the Genesis server, and will have in excess of 40,000 active players at any given time. This server is designed for both the new player and the long-term gamer. Users can maintain one account on this server.
- = The Genesis Server is our experimental development server. This server offers shorter games and offers a variation of game style from the above standard servers. Each round on this server will have customized rules unique to this game and serves as a sort of testing grounds for our Utopia development. This server is open to a limited number of users and may have restrictions on signups. Players may play one account on this server.
- The World of Legends: October 3rd into December.
- The Utopian Genesis: August 3rd into ....
To become a utopian, go to: http://games.swirve.com/utopia. Click on either: the Newacct.htm image map link or the Newacct2.htm image map link, fill out the form, and create your free world of utopia account.
NOTE:
There is a 3 digit verification number in the form of a graphic that you will need to type into an edit field during the creation of your account.
If you cannot read this number, send an email to the Swirve administrators at: support@swirve.com.
Make sure you put screenreader in the subject line. they are usually pretty good at responding quickly. You should get a response within 24 hours.
After you've successfully created your utopia account, to log-in, go to: http://games.swirve.com/utopia/login.htm, enter your user name and password, and start ruling/managing your province!
I want to wish you great success in all your endeavors, live long and prosper.
May we meet again in the world of utopia, in war, not peace.
Sincerely,
Stan BobbittIf you haven't already, I encourage you to join us in the world of utopia, and then join the blindutopians discussion group. Anytime you need help, have questions, suggestions, hints, tips, or just want to talk utopian, please feel free to post to the group. You can join the blindutopians e-mail discussion group by sending a blank message to:
To post a message to this group:
To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
To send a message to the list owner, send email to:
The main page to blindutopians can be found at:
Last updated:
October 2, 2007 9:36:19 AM EST.