Following on from our recent official release of kingdom chat we have a new chat-based feature ready for you. Communication between recruits and monarchs is very limited in the current recruitment system. However monarchs want to carefully screen new recruits to make sure that they'll carry out their duties in the kingdom and recruits want to find kingdoms where they'll fit in well.

Recruitment chat addresses both these needs. When looking at recruiting kingdoms a recruit can see if each monarch is available, and can start a chat session with them (a monarch can only be in one recruitment conversation at a time).

From the monarch's perspective they can start recruitment chats with players who have replied to their recruitment campaign.

Recruitment chat conversations will appear in the bottom right hand corner of your screen, and they will stay there as you navigate around the game. You can end the conversation by clicking on the button above the chat (the chat box will disappear if the other person ends the conversation).

We're happy to announce that a new version of kingdom chat is now available to all players. This is a very visible feature and most of you will already have seen the new chat box on game pages.

Your feedback in our first Utopian census identified that improving in-game chat was your highest priority. Communicating with and learning from your kingdom mates are very important elements of Utopia, and this is particularly true for new players where in-game chat is the first place they meet you. The new chat feature has two immediate advantages over the old chat window: it's visible all the time so you can see chat messages while you're playing and navigating around Utopia, and it also indicates when your teammates are online.

We have been rolling this feature out slowly so that we could track its performance. This has been a tough feature to get right, but after some early problems we've had a lot of positive feedback from those testing it: thank you for your patience and suggestions. Some of these changes have been implemented and more are on the way.

You may have noticed a link at the bottom of the chat box to reverbim.com. The new chat system has been designed so that we can easily offer it to other websites as a service. If you have a website or know someone who could benefit from an easily installed javascript chat box, please visit the site and try it out!

This release is not the end of chat development in Utopia; rather it is a new beginning. We will continue to develop and improve how the chat box works and we're already developing a recruitment-chat feature that will help you choose the right recruit for your kingdom.

Please report any issues you experience in this forum thread, and include your user agent so that we can investigate it further.

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Some time ago we released a premium version of the hostility meter. This meter makes it easier to track hostility levels towards enemy kingdoms and keep control of the war button. (Original post)

As mentioned in our last post we've been working on a new recruitment feature for Utopia. This is now ready for release, so here's some information on how to use it.

1. Start a recruitment campaign

Recruitment is controlled by your kingdom's monarch. When they first visit the recruitment page they will be invited to start a recruitment campaign.

The information that they input here helps other players identify a kingdom they might like to join. Of particular interest is the 'Minimum Experience' drop down- only recruits with at least the selected level of experience will be able to reply to your campaign.

When your campaign is created you just relax and wait for recruits to apply.

2. Apply for recruitment

Many of you will never see the recruitment campaign screen. Your first experience of recruitment will come when you visit the province chooser page after logging in.

There's some extra information on this page now: the number of kingdoms recruiting and, of those, the number you're experienced enough to apply for. Clicking this link will take you to a recruitment page.

Here you can apply for recruitment to new kingdoms. Each kingdom is ranked out of ten (by net worth), so you can compare it to your current kingdom. Just fill in a message that will inspire the monarch of the recruiting kingdom and click 'Send application' (You can withdraw your application if you change your mind later). You now have to wait for the monarch to judge whether your application is successful or not, and you will receive an invitation if they want you in their kingdom!

3. Accepting recruits

As monarch you will see an indicator when recruits have replied to your campaign.

On the recruitment page you will find the list of current applicants, and can choose to Invite or Reject them. Recruitment campaigns automatically end after 3 days, but you can also end them early if your current campaign isn't attracting any applicants. If you don't invite applicants by the deadline they will disappear and you will have to start again with a new campaign.

Now let recruiting commence. Somewhere out there a kingdom needs YOU!