Update:Blog - A salute to the 8Realms scientists!

This official news post is copyrighted by Jagex. It is a direct quote from the 8Realms website.
This update was authored by Gabriel and was released on 1 August 2011.

A salute to the 8Realms scientists!

To our 8Realms Closed Beta testers,

We at 8Realms Towers would like to raise a beaker of dangerously colourful and ominously bubbling liquid to toast your research efforts this weekend. When we set a target of 4 technologies for the weekend, we were expecting one or two of you to exceed our expectations - but this weekend's results are phenomenal! Here they are, separated by server:

Alexander

Alexander is our newest server, and there are already signs that it's full of budding scientists. Not only did a whopping 1195 of you manage to research at least 4 technologies, but 14 of you exceeded 12 techs - three times as many as our target!

A special shoutout goes to Clannad, who researched 17 techs. Careful was close behind with 16 techs, but just missed out on that top spot. Here are the top stats in full:

Empire name	Technologies researched
Clannad	17
Careful	16
Solus Tsad Droten	15
Ja Royalty	15
Cool Game250	14
Light Corp	14
Starlight	13
Tragurion Empire	13
This Should Work	13
Texas Badlands	13
Vackernia	13
frisbieland	13
Killer's	13
Ein Sur	13

And as a bonus, here are some stats on the most-researched topics for Alexander this weekend:

Tech name	Number of researchers	Average research time	Total research time
Town Hall	298	03:53:35	47 days
Armoury	272	02:01:14	19 days
Blacksmith	267	00:51:07	8 days
Springboards	265	01:05:38	9 days
Expert Masonry	253	06:20:44	84 days
Sawmill	253	00:46:15	5 days
Ballista	250	04:34:38	51 days
Hardened Swords	249	01:56:46	21 days
Currency	245	00:47:35	13 days
Tilling	241	05:36:01	71 days

Augustus

And now for Augustus, with slightly different figures as Augustus is a more established server. A very respectable 694 of you managed to research at least 4 technologies, and 13 Augustus players exceeded 15 techs!

The real standout was BigBioEmpire with - wait for it - 26 techs. Twenty six! It's not only more than six times what we were looking for, but we have to admit it was a genuinely surprising result: if anything, we expected the newer server, Alexander, to boast the higher research figures.

Empires blizzard and Evil weren't far behind BigBioEmpire, with 23 and 20 techs respectively. See the full stats for yourself:

Empire name	Technologies researched
BigBioEmpire	26
blizzard	23
Evil	20
reglate	19
Amazing Grace	18
Terra	18
Priit	18
Wendyland	17
The Land of Narnia	17
hradani	16
starbuck	16
psychic iguanas	16
krayon	16

And these were the most-researched topics on Augustus this weekend:

Tech name	Number of researchers	Average research time	Total research time
Fine Art	114	02:36:10	14 days
Education	111	02:14:14	13 days
Recruitment Office	105	03:40:51	16 days
Architecture	103	01:54:56	12 days
Social Reform	103	02:53:08	13 days
Market	102	05:59:57	23 days
Crossbowman	98	2:33:51	5 days
Governance III	98	3:57:57	25 days
Warehouse	97	4:39:35	21 days
Reformation	95	0:14:52	37 days

Lastly, we promised you all a little treat - and we won't disappoint. Here it is, not just for those of you who appear above, but for everyone who took part: an official 8Realms Flying Machine desktop wallpaper, in three sizes to suit your desktop:

Download: 1024x768 | 1280x1024 | 1920x1080

(We tried to have Mod_ThatJim model as the chap in the Flying Machine but, sadly, it turned out he's not as aerodynamic as he looks. Jim, on behalf of the 8Realms team, we'd like to wish you a speedy recovery.)

Huge thanks to everyone who took part in the weekend event, and to everyone continuing to test8Realms! Enjoy the wallpaper, keep your eyes peeled for more community events in the near future - and see you on the forums!

Gabriel
8Realms Wordsmith