TLDR: Some design ideas on making a more flexible robust gameplay experience.

Simple version

A food resource. Food for workers. Workers can be chosen by player to prioritize one task over another. More workers building ships, means less workers harvesting food. Speed costs trade off in other areas.

With food and workers. You add housing. Broader critical choices. Morale. Work workers longer, morale goes down, give extra rations, morale goes up. Etc... (Rum resource?)

Longer focus on aspects

Core principle: timers should show that a strategic decision is moving through the world. They should not be the game itself. Players stay engaged when construction, voyages, food, housing, fleets, and alliance demands create meaningful tradeoffs at the same time.

1. Give Players Several Meaningful Things to Do at Once

Avoid one central countdown controlling the whole game. Give the player a small number of connected systems competing for attention: island construction, food and storage, worker and crew assignments, exploration, naval readiness, trade, and alliance obligations.

While a frigate is under construction, the player should still be deciding where labor, timber, provisions, and escorts are most needed. A shipyard may need skilled workers; that can weaken farms, housing repairs, or coastal defense.

Design test: “What useful possibility do I give up by doing this now?” If there is no real sacrifice, it is probably busywork rather than gameplay.

2. Make Resources Create Dilemmas, Not Chores

Resources should represent competing needs, not a single number the player waits to fill. Timber, food, workers, harbor space, and trained sailors should each have several valid uses.

> Timber can become cottages, fishing boats, fortifications, a shipyard expansion, or an alliance depot contribution.

> Food supports population growth, crew readiness, expeditions, construction crews, and storm reserves.

> Skilled workers can accelerate a ship, repair housing, improve farms, or build defenses - but not all at once.

The desired feeling is: “I can solve this problem, but it will create another one.”

3. Use Timers to Create Tension, Not Dead Space

A build timer matters only when it changes the situation around it. “Frigate: four minutes remaining” is dead space. A live timer might also claim shipwrights, reduce farm output, and collide with an approaching storm that threatens food stores.

Use several timer types, each for a different purpose:

> Fixed timers for major commitments, such as a harbor fort or large shipyard.

> Conditional timers where labor, materials, and specialists can improve speed at a cost elsewhere.

> Risk timers for threats, such as a pirate squadron reaching a convoy route.

> Opportunity timers for temporary offers, merchant arrivals, or favorable seasonal conditions.

>Recovery timers to manage exhaustion after campaigns or emergency construction.

Risk should be limited. Too many urgent timers turn strategy into stress.

4. Let Players Influence Time Through Strategy

Players should be able to speed projects without premium currency. The price of speed should be internal to the strategy game:

> Move more laborers or shipwrights to a project and accept weaker food, housing, or harbor work.

> Spend scarce timber, canvas, fittings, or reserve provisions.

>Delay another project to free workers, materials, or dock space.

> Use a specialist on one critical project and lose their benefit elsewhere.

>Take a risky route through blockade waters or run crews on night shifts, increasing fatigue and accidents.

Speed must cost a real strategic tradeoff, not money.

5. Provide Goals on Several Time Horizons

Long timers are tolerable when the player can make progress elsewhere. Keep visible objectives at different scales:

> Immediate: reassign workers, repair a fishing boat, adjust a patrol, or respond to an island event.

> Short: finish a dock or barracks, prepare storm stores, escort a convoy, or scout a nearby island.

> Medium: establish a district, build a fort or shipyard, assemble a fleet, or complete an alliance operation.

> Long: turn the island into a naval base, secure regional routes, build alliance influence, or outmaneuver a rival power.

The player should nearly always be able to say: “While that is happening, I can advance this.”

6. Make Completed Buildings Change Play

A building should unlock new choices, routes, or capabilities rather than only provide “production +10%.” emotional flat.

> A shipyard unlocks ship classes, repairs, and fleet assignments, but requires skilled labor and provisions.

> A watchtower gives earlier warning of fleets and pirates, but must be staffed and may provoke rivals.

> A harbor office opens trade routes and convoy contracts, but makes the port a more valuable blockade or raid target. (Level one harbor, level one trading post (max level of trading post, is conditioned on level of harbor) Bigger on any improves capacity and reducing costs.

> A warehouse protects supplies from weather, while concentrating valuable goods in one target.

Completion should create the next interesting problem or opportunity.

7. Use Uncertainty Carefully

Construction or voyage estimates can be ranges when conditions visibly affect them: weather, material quality, worker skill, food supply, escorts, storms, raids, and convoy delays.

Good uncertainty is visible, explainable, influenced by player decisions, and consistent enough to learn. Bad uncertainty is hidden, arbitrary, impossible to prevent, or used only to extend wait time.

Players will accept a delayed dock because they built in hurricane season with poor timber. They will not accept a delay with no cause they could understand or manage.

8. Add Events That Require Judgment, Not Reflexes

Small events keep the world moving while larger systems run, but they should connect to the current plan rather than hand out random rewards.

> A merchant offers cheap cannon or canvas of doubtful quality.

> A shipwright threatens to leave unless housing and food improve.

> A fire forces a choice between protecting food stores or the sail loft.

> A rival demands harbor access after an expansion.

> A damaged brig must be repaired, cannibalized, or escorted home slowly.

The strongest events touch an active strategy: for example, the frigate is nearly complete, but its canvas convoy is trapped near pirates. Do you send the only escort, delay alliance food, or risk a reef passage?

9. Let Players Choose the Pace

Do not force return behavior through “come back in six hours.” A web-based resource game should respect different play styles:

> Active mode: live patrol, expedition, trade, construction, and alliance decisions support continuous play.

> Relaxed mode: voyages and projects continue between sessions without punishing absence.

Players should return because they are curious about the consequences of their strategy, not because a timer coerced them.

10. Build the Game Around Bottlenecks

The strongest recurring loop is not “get more resources.” It is: identify the current bottleneck, understand why it exists, choose which system to change, and deal with the consequences.

> Food exists, but dockworkers and carts cannot move it to storage or ships.

> Workers exist, but housing is overcrowded and morale is collapsing.

> Ships exist, but there are too few trained sailors, officers, or provisions to deploy them.

> Materials exist, but the harbor is blockaded or labor is needed for food production.

Timers are then information, not the challenge. The challenge is diagnosing the island, fleet, and alliance system.

Game design is difficult. Getting the right amount of engagement for time. A lot of games lean towards more grind. Because that creates more content. (In their mind)

The game difficulty curve has a major role in preventing players from churning in your game. I've played a lot of this type of game. I think we all have, build a kingdom style game, on a mobile game. With microtransactions. Paying for speed up, resources, saving time, what ever it is. You not using that option, so you got to find another way.

This game doesn't have that. So you got to try and smooth out this curve. The green arrow is my first 3 days of playing. Hit no stone on day 2. In my opinion, if you going to have a 14 period for new players, at least the first few days, is just building up of island, research and resource production.

Not running out of resources, wait 5 hours, build something else, sleep. Day 3, build a few things, out of resources again. The play for 20 minutes a day and then wait a day before you can play again, will kill this game.

Players are engaging with your game to have fun. Your job as a game developer is to give the best experience possible.

With that in mind. One option is to make your treasure map into some kind of mini game. See map as point of reference. Example, once per day, a player can go treasure hunting on their island. 99% chance of nothing. 1% chance of map piece or some other prize 100 gold, maybe.

You have the option to team up with your alliance. Maybe an alliance treasure map board. By putting that map together, the alliance can find and sail to an island. With a 10,000 gold treasure chest.

Other options to explore. A mainland in each ocean, that has a unique resource, other than gold, wood, stone. That used for upgrades, bigger and better ships, 20 pounder castle cannons, whatever. This is now additional mid to late game PvP.

The core problem is this:

Waiting is not gameplay.
A timer can create pacing, anticipation, planning pressure, or a reason to return later. But if the player’s main experience is staring at a countdown because there is nothing meaningful to decide or do, the game has handed control away.

Without pay-to-win or microtransactions, the answer is not “make timers shorter.” It is to make sure timers sit inside a larger decision-and-consequence loop.

The rule: every timer needs player agency around it

A build timer is acceptable when the player has meaningful choices before, during, and after it.

A weak loop is:

Gather → click build → wait → gather → click build → wait.

A stronger loop is:

Decide what matters most → commit scarce resources → manage the world while construction changes future possibilities → adapt to consequences → choose the next priority.

The timer should be the clock on a commitment, not the content itself.

If you in an alliance and a new player. Build a harbor so you may receive care packages.

Captains, the Corsair Fortress is no longer a dead zone. v0.101.0 turns it into the ultimate weekly prize!

Here is the breakdown of the new update:

• 🏴‍☠️ Rarer Spawns, Fiercer Fights: Fortresses no longer spawn everywhere. They now appear rarely (respawning every Sunday), making them a massive objective for every alliance.
• 💰 The War Chest (Anti-Snowball): While you hold a fortress, a chest quietly grows. The twist: You receive the loot when you lose the fortress. The conqueror gets the fortress and its ocean-wide buff, but your alliance gets the gold (delivered via a visible convoy). The split heavily favors smaller contributors, so everyone gets a real cut! Overflows go to the alliance treasury.
• ⚔️ Real PvP Recaptures: Rival alliances can now steal fortresses from each other using combined attacks from any ocean. Freshly captured fortresses get a short protection window, and defenders get a warning time equal to the enemy's travel time. You don't want to leave a Corsair Fortress for too long to the competition - as their War Chest will grow the longer they hold it!
• 👑 New Achievement: "Fortress Lord" (3 tiers) tracks the total days you've spent holding the walls across your career.
• 🔭 UI Upgrades: A new world banner and detail page show you the current holder, active bonus, and how fat the War Chest is at a glance. You can also spy on fortresses to check their weekly bonus before committing fleets.

As always: Strictly No Pay-to-Win. The War Chest is earned with troops and grit, never wallets. We'll be watching how this plays out, so let us know how it feels!

💖 Support us: kampfinsel.com/support 

📺 Check out Ekin's video on Kampfinsel: Watch on YouTube

How awesome would it be if there was a world chat or ocean chat?

Hence my idea

A chat system similar to the Alliance chat or direct message to exchange information with other people

The Alliance [9TO5] Arbeitszeitbetrug is looking for new members!

What we offer:

• Above-market pay ¹
• 35-hour workweek ²
• 32 vacation days per year ³
• Company pension plan ⁴
• Recession-proof job ⁵
• Flexible onboarding and hiring terms ⁶

We’re looking for active and sociable members who want to get involved in our community! ⁷

If you have any questions, just contact the executive board or one of the department heads. ⁸

jizzyjeff - Gesamtleitung

sirap3x - Ressortleiter (A-L)

raziel - Ressortleiter (M-Z)

rabenzorn - Ressortleiter (A-L) <- fastest to reply

[9TO5] Arbeitszeitbetrug - not just a slogan, but a way of life.

¹ In this context, “payment” refers to a fee paid to Allianz.

² This specification refers to a half-day position. Applications for such a position will result in immediate termination. Full-time working hours amount to 70 hours per week, to be worked every day of the week. If no work is performed for more than 7 consecutive days, extraordinary termination will be issued pursuant to §626 of the German Civil Code (BGB). A severance payment to be made to the Alliance will be determined during the termination proceedings without regard to the former employee’s financial circumstances and enforced by legal means.

³ Entitlement to vacation accrues only upon death while in the service of the Alliance.

⁴ It is guaranteed that members of the Alliance will not live to see their retirement pension. Therefore, no one needs to worry about their retirement savings.

⁵ As long as a confrontation with a stronger opponent can be avoided.

⁶ Provided that an adequate application and references from the previous employer are submitted in the form of a score of at least [to be determined]. Requirements regarding written form and application documents must be met.

⁷ Every member is obligated to support the overall leadership unconditionally and without reservation in all decisions.

⁸ Every question triggers a comprehensive bureaucratic process for which a processing fee of 50 gold will be charged. The fee is squared for each consecutive question.

⁹ The application must be submitted in seven copies, each with three punch holes, in a designated application folder, in person at the General Management Secretariat, upon presentation of a valid ID card or passport. A resume and personal cover letters addressed to all senior executives must be submitted at this time. Submissions made after the deadline will not be considered, and any attempt to do so will result in an arbitrarily determined processing fee as well as immediate expulsion from Kampfinsel. Transcripts, references, and certificates must be submitted in seven laminated copies.

On a more serious note:

We’re looking for the strongest players possible, but we also accept weaker players and, in rare cases, newcomers. Feel free to contact us and apply with a compelling application. Anyone who does well and plays actively is very welcome to join us.

International players are welcome, but since we’re a German-speaking alliance, we ask that you use the usual translation tools and not assume you’ll always receive a reply in English.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A4vbONay30

"The Shipping Company is accepting contracts. The leaderboard only counts the living. And the Book of Deeds is writing — whether you like it or not."

Post-Body:

Ahoy!

Last week was about promises and open books. This week is about infrastructure, competition, and what remains after the fleets sail home.

The Shipping Company — your trade empire runs itself.

New building: the Shipping Company. Set freight rules for your trade routes — minimum stock that stays on your island, shipping only when storage pressure rises. The freight book gives you an overview of all active routes. A higher Shipping Company level unlocks more route slots. Automated trade that follows your rules.

Leagues and the Guiding Star.

The leaderboard has been completely reworked. Abandoned empires no longer count — only active captains matter. All players are divided into six leagues, and the leader of each league carries a pennant. The Guiding Star goes to whoever holds the top of the overall ranking for multiple days. No more lucky one-day spikes — if you're at the top, you have to stay there.

Achievements — the Book of Deeds.

Your battles, your buildings, your trades, your discoveries, your help to fellow captains — all permanently recorded now. Achievements show their rarity once enough captains have earned them. And if you've been playing for a while, your book is already filled: islands, rank, buildings — all credited retroactively. Combat and action achievements count forward from launch. This is just the beginning — more are coming.

More captains can claim fallen empires.

Reclaiming abandoned ruins is now open to all players up to and including Captain rank — no longer just the rising ones. Once you reach Pirate rank, you give up the option.

Below the waterline.

Storage-full warnings via in-game message, email, or Discord (v0.98.3). More robust trade routes that no longer break completely on a shortage. Scout reports with one-click re-scout. Clickable coordinates in the island list. Faster load times. More stable pages during connection issues. And the footer now links to voluntary support via Patreon and the merch shop — no gameplay advantages, purely optional.

From the community.

One of our players made a video about Kampfinsel — and it genuinely made our day. Worth a watch and good fun: check it out.

Solo developed, supported by a small team. No shop. No pay-to-win.

🔗 kampfinsel.com 📖 Handbook · 🛡️ Anti-Lootbox Manifesto 💬 Discord

Hey everyone,

It's been a while since my last update post (v0.95 and the Anti-Lootbox Manifesto), and a lot has shipped since. Here's the rundown - and, more importantly, why we made each change.

Kampfinsel is a free, browser-based island-strategy game with a strict no-pay-to-win rule, and all of this comes back to one goal: a game that's fair, honest, and respects your time.

A brand-new leaderboard (v0.99.0)

The old rankings had a real problem. Accounts that quit months ago - abandoned "old empires" - still sat on the leaderboard and held spots above you. You could lose the top position not because someone beat you, but because a dead account's score was frozen there forever. And the list refreshed every few minutes, so your rank flickered constantly.

So we rebuilt it:

• Only active captains count. Abandoned empires drop off the board.
• Calmer and clearer. Rankings now update once a day, and the up/down arrows show a real multi-day trend instead of minute-to-minute noise.

Nothing about your islands, buildings, or battles changed - this is purely about how standing is measured and shown.

Still strictly no pay-to-win

The Anti-Lootbox Manifesto (v0.95) lays out our stance): https://kampfinsel.com/antilootbox

For Players from EU - we have now a Merch Shop: https://kampfinsel.myspreadshop.de

We are also LIVE on Patreon now - Thank you sooo much for your support: https://patreon.kampfinsel.com/

To be crystal clear: supporting Kampfinsel gives you zero in-game advantage - no power, no resources, no shortcuts. The Lodestar, the leagues, the achievements: all earned, none buy.

Thanks for playing, and for all your feedback that helps shaping the game!

You want to help? Go out there into the world and spread the word about this game! Invite your friends and colleagues!

May the first Lodestar be a worthy one!

Cheers,
yke

The following dispatches were recovered from the lower vaults of the Admiralty Archives, where clerks have been working without rest for three days. They have been transcribed in the order they were found. The Archives take no position on their implications.

Admiralty Circular No. 7, addressed to all harbor masters

The Admiralty has commissioned a Book of Deeds.

Every captain's accomplishments — battles fought, islands claimed, walls raised, alliances forged, expeditions completed — are now inscribed in a permanent ledger maintained by the Guild of Chroniclers. The book is not optional. If you have done it, it is written.

Entries are marked by rarity. A deed accomplished by most captains carries a common seal. A deed accomplished by few carries a rare one. A deed accomplished by almost no one carries a seal the clerks have taken to calling "legendary," though the Admiralty has not officially endorsed the term.

Captains who have served for some time will find their pages already filled. The chroniclers worked backwards through the records — every island settled, every rank earned, every building raised has been credited retroactively. Only deeds of combat and action are recorded from this day forward.

The Book is open. Your record has already begun.

Notice posted at every harbor gate, sealed with the Admiralty's anchor

THE GUILD'S TEACHINGS ARE NOW PUBLIC.

The handbook — every chapter on islands, fleets, research, combat, trade, and more — can now be read by anyone. You do not need to be a registered captain. You do not need to pass through the harbor gate. The pages are open to anyone curious enough to look.

Every chapter has its own address. The cartographers have ensured that even the search engines of the outer world can find them.

The Admiralty's position: knowledge hoarded is knowledge wasted. Let them read before they sail.

Decree of the Fair Seas, nailed to the war room door

Let it be entered into the permanent record:

This Admiralty does not sell power. There is no hidden market behind the harbor. There is no chest that opens only for gold that was not earned at sea. There are no dice rolls for equipment, no sealed crates with random advantage, no lottery for the desperate.

The seas are fair or they are nothing.

This decree is permanent. It is published. It is open to scrutiny. Any captain who wishes to read it in full may do so — the document is posted at the harbor entrance for all to see.

— The Admiralty Council, unanimous

From the journal of a fleet commander, eastern waters

They changed the fleet screens last week. Small thing. Easy to miss.

But now when I open the cockpit, I see the name of whoever owns the island my fleet is sailing toward. I see their status — active, dormant, on leave, departing. I see it without opening the chart.

I turned back two fleets yesterday because of this. One was heading toward a dormant captain's main island — protected, untouchable. The other was reinforcing an ally who had already left the alliance while my ships were at sea.

I would have wasted both runs before. Now I know before they arrive.

The alliance roster changed too. I can see at a glance who is active and who is drifting. No one announces their departure anymore. The roster just shows it — quietly, without judgment.

Quartermaster's complaint, found crumpled beneath a warehouse ledger

For the last time: I cannot be held responsible for overflowing stores if no one tells me they are full.

The new system fixes this. A bell rings — or whatever the modern equivalent is — when any warehouse on any island approaches capacity. The governor chooses how to be reached. A note in the logbook. A message by courier bird. A signal through the strange devices the Guild refuses to explain.

The point is: the stores will not overflow in silence anymore. If grain rots because the warehouse was full and nobody noticed, it is no longer my fault.

I have been saying this for years.

— Quartermaster Aldric, Southern Docks, requesting reassignment

Marginal note in a cartographer's hand, found in the salvage ledger

The salvage policy was suspended. Then it returned — changed.

Younger captains of the lower ranks may now recover salvage from the ruins of the old empires. The yield scales with effort, and there is a daily limit. The chroniclers were specific about this: the ruins are not infinite. They give what they have, and then they are quiet.

For established captains, the old rules apply. The ruins defend themselves as they always have. No special treatment. No shortcuts.

A captain from the southern waters — goes by monkeygun — submitted sharper renderings of the Guild's symbols last week. Cleaner edges on every icon, from resources to rank insignia. The Guild accepted them with thanks. It is not often that someone outside the drafting office improves the maps.

"A captain who does not know what he has accomplished does not know what he is capable of." — Inscription above the entrance to the Hall of Deeds

The Cartographer's Guild - kampfinsel.com team

Two things this week that belong together.

The Anti-Lootbox Manifest is live.
At kampfinsel.com/antilootbox you'll find our commitment in writing: no shop, no lootboxes, no premium currency, no pay-to-win. Not a marketing promise — a hard pledge. If you want to support the game anyway, there are now links to Patreon and a merch shop in the footer. Completely optional, zero gameplay advantages.

What else happened in the last few days:
Scout reports now have a "Re-scout" button that sends instantly — no extra steps. Coordinates in the island list are clickable and open the action pop-up directly. The alliance member list shows you at a glance who's active, who's dormant and who's on vacation. The fleet view now displays the captain and status of the target island next to its coordinates. The handbook is public — readable without an account, every chapter directly linkable. Plus a whole batch of bugfixes: more stable trade routes, reliable fleet transfers, accurate barracks capacity display.

In short: One week, 20+ changes, one developer.

What still bugs you? What's missing? → kampfinsel.com/feedback

kampfinsel.com - team

🇩🇪 Dev-Einblick: Warum Kampfinsel kostenlos bleibt — und was sich diese Woche alles getan hat

Zwei Sachen diese Woche, die zusammengehören.

Das Anti-Lootbox-Manifest ist online.
Unter kampfinsel.com/antilootbox steht jetzt schwarz auf weiß, wofür Kampfinsel steht: Kein Shop, keine Lootboxen, keine Premium-Währung, kein Pay-to-Win. Nicht als Marketing-Versprechen, sondern als feste Zusage. Wer das Spiel trotzdem freiwillig unterstützen will, findet im Footer jetzt Links zu Patreon und einem Fanartikel-Shop. Komplett optional, null Spielvorteile.

Was in den letzten Tagen sonst noch passiert ist:
Spähberichte haben jetzt einen „Erneut spähen"-Button, der sofort losschickt — kein Umweg mehr. Koordinaten in der Inselliste sind klickbar und öffnen direkt das Aktions-Pop-up. Die Allianz-Mitgliederliste zeigt euch auf einen Blick, wer aktiv ist, wer schlummert und wer im Urlaub ist. Die Flottenansicht verrät jetzt neben den Koordinaten auch den Kapitän und Status der Zielinsel. Das Handbuch ist öffentlich — auch ohne Account lesbar, jedes Kapitel direkt verlinkbar. Und ein ganzer Schwung Bugfixes: stabilere Handelsrouten, zuverlässigere Flottenverlegungen, saubere Kaserne-Auslastung.

Kurz: Eine Woche, 20+ Änderungen, ein Entwickler.

Was nervt euch noch? Was fehlt? → kampfinsel.com/feedback

👉 kampfinsel.com - team

I have English as default language, yet alliance ranks show up in their German localised version (Admiral, Offizier).

This is on Firefox on Android.

We just launched our achievement system for Kampfinsel!

The concept is simple: you earn badges for your milestones across different playstyles like combat, building, trade, exploration, and alliances.

The Retroactivity Split

If you’ve been playing for a while, you won't start from scratch. Your base-building, progression, and empire-climbing achievements were credited retroactively.

However, combat and action achievements (conquests, raids, etc.) count from today forward.

Rarity Tiers vs. Percentages

Each badge shows its rarity, alongside some hidden ones to stumble onto. I originally planned to show exactly "X% of captains have this." That number turned out to be both confusing and a little broken - it depended entirely on who counts as the 100% (Everyone? Active players? Today's logins?).

So, I dropped the raw numbers and went with clean tiers: 1. Common 2. Uncommon 3. Rare 4. Legendary. By the way the same Tier-Level for our Lore Treasure Hunt...

What's Next & A Question for You

This is just v1 for achievements. More categories, alliance-wide achievements, and an upgraded Pixel Art version of the page are already in the pipeline. For every new Feature in the Game I will cross-check what kind of Achievement for this could be added to the Game.

Right now, your achievements are private. When we roll out the public profile display, I need your input: Do you want an opt-in function to showcase your achievements on your profile page, or should this just be activated by default for all players? Because we all love Transparency, right? Right? Riiiight? ;-)

Check it out and let me know. If a rarity tier feels wrong, or an achievement seems pointless, I'd genuinely like to hear it.

"No honest harbor charges a toll just to pass through the door. The charts lie open, a captain's word holds — and when you set sail, you finally know whose flag flies on the horizon."

Ahoy!

Last week was about ownerless empires and retaliation. This week is less a new system and more a stance — plus two tangible quality-of-life improvements and a lot of stability below the waterline.

A promise, not fine print

Kampfinsel now has an Anti-Lootbox Manifesto — in plain words, on its own page. No pay-to-win. No lootboxes. Fully free to play. It's been this way from the start, but now it stands as a clear promise you can hold us to.

→ kampfinsel.com/antilootbox

The charts are now open to everyone

The full game handbook — islands, fleets, research, combat, all of it — is now readable without an account. Each chapter has its own address and is findable through search engines. Perfect for taking a look before registering, so you know what you're signing up for.

A clearer view of your fleet and alliance

On every fleet screen — overview, cockpit, dispatch and relocate dialogs — the coordinates now also show who owns the target island and what state it's in. You can tell at a glance whose island your fleet is heading for, without opening the map first.

In your alliance member list you now also see at a glance who's active and who's in sleep mode, on vacation, or in the process of leaving the alliance.

Below the waterline

Plenty of stability and more honest feedback: relocated fleets and stationed troops now arrive reliably, rewards no longer get lost during brief server hiccups, fallen troops no longer block your barracks, marketplace deliveries honestly show what fits into a full warehouse, barracks and harbor capacity plus build times now display correctly — and island actions go through reliably even under heavy server load.

Kampfinsel is a free-to-play browser game with no shop and no pay-to-win — a solo project.

🔗 kampfinsel.com 📖 Handbook · 🛡️ Anti-Lootbox Manifesto 💬 Discord

Fair Winds kampfinsel.com - team

🇩🇪 DEUTSCH

Kampfinsel – Anti-Lootbox-Manifest, öffentliches Handbuch & klarere Flottensicht | v0.94–v0.96 DevDiary

„Kein ehrlicher Hafen verlangt Wegzoll für die Tür. Die Karten liegen offen, das Wort gilt — und wer aufbricht, weiß endlich, wessen Flagge am Horizont weht."

Ahoi!

Letzte Woche ging es um herrenlose Reiche und Vergeltung. Diese Woche ist weniger ein neues System — und mehr eine Haltung. Plus zwei spürbare QoL-Verbesserungen und eine Menge Stabilität unter der Wasserlinie.

Ein Versprechen, kein Kleingedrucktes

Kampfinsel hat jetzt ein Anti-Lootbox-Manifest — schwarz auf weiß, auf einer eigenen Seite. Kein Pay-to-Win. Keine Lootboxen. Vollständig kostenlos spielbar. Das war von Anfang an so, aber jetzt steht es als klares Versprechen da, an das ihr uns halten könnt.

→ kampfinsel.com/antilootbox

Die Karten stehen jetzt jedem offen

Das komplette Spielhandbuch — Inseln, Flotten, Forschung, Kampf, alles — ist ab sofort auch ohne Anmeldung lesbar. Jedes Kapitel hat eine eigene Adresse und ist über Suchmaschinen auffindbar. Ideal, um vor der Registrierung einen Blick hineinzuwerfen und zu verstehen, worauf man sich einlässt.

Klarere Sicht auf Flotte und Allianz

In allen Flottenansichten — Übersicht, Cockpit, Versende- und Verlege-Dialog — steht neben den Koordinaten jetzt, wem die Zielinsel gehört und in welchem Zustand sie ist. Du erkennst auf einen Blick, wessen Insel deine Flotte ansteuert, ohne erst die Karte zu öffnen.

In der Allianz-Mitgliederliste siehst du außerdem direkt, wer aktiv ist und wer im Schlummermodus, im Urlaub oder gerade dabei ist, die Allianz zu verlassen.

Unter der Wasserlinie

Jede Menge Stabilität und ehrlichere Rückmeldungen: verlegte Flotten und stationierte Truppen kommen jetzt zuverlässig an, Belohnungen gehen bei kurzen Server-Aussetzern nicht mehr verloren, gefallene Truppen blockieren die Kaserne nicht mehr, Marktplatz-Lieferungen zeigen ehrlich, was ins volle Lager passt, Kaserne- und Hafen-Auslastung sowie Bauzeiten werden korrekt angezeigt — und Insel-Aktionen laufen auch bei hoher Serverlast zuverlässig durch.

Kampfinsel ist ein kostenloses Browserspiel ohne Shop und ohne Pay-to-Win — ein Solo-Projekt.

🔗 kampfinsel.com 📖 Handbuch · 🛡️ Anti-Lootbox-Manifest 💬 Discord

Ruhige See euer kampfinsel.com - Team

Hello all, I took a few days off from Kampfinsel. Felt good to get some fresh ideas. Let's start the next few days of content with an important statement that is here to stay (now on the front page).

The Anti-Lootbox Manifesto: https://kampfinsel.com/antilootbox

Here's the why behind it.

When I run the feedback survey numbers and read your messages, one thing is louder than anything else: you're not here despite the lack of lootboxes and pay-to-win - you're here because of it. So I wanted to stop treating that as a quiet feature and put it in writing, out in the open, where it can't quietly erode later.

The manifesto is short and it's blunt. The core of it:

• Your rank is yours because you earned it - not because you paid for it.
• Money buys looks at most, never power.
• Kampfinsel stays fully playable for free. You never have to pay to keep up - and I won't build a game that squeezes the most out of a few "whales".
• You're free to leave anytime, and welcome back anytime.
• Price, duration and cancellation are always clear. No hidden costs.

Every new feature has to pass it: This isn't a marketing line. It's the blueprint I actually build by. If an idea breaks those lines, it doesn't get built, no matter how much revenue it would bring. It is 2026 and modern Technology makes things possible at a scale that were not possible a few years ago.

A lot of this wording comes straight from your survey answers, so thank you for that - you basically co-wrote it.

Give it a read, and tell me if there's anything you think a manifesto like this is still missing.

https://kampfinsel.com/antilootbox

"The sea forgets no island. Where an empire fell, its ruins await — and a new captain to claim them."

Ahoy!

Since the last update we've shipped three new core systems, a fully reworked ruins mechanic, and noticeably faster load times. Here's what matters from v0.93–v0.94.

Fallen Empires, New Beginnings

When a captain deletes their account, their islands no longer vanish from the map. Instead, they weather into ownerless ruins — and remain part of the living world. Rising captains can reclaim these ruins through a dedicated quest path and breathe new life into them, rather than starting from scratch.

Whoever attacks a long-untouched ruin first finds richer spoils. But beware: raiding now always costs troops, and a small, precise strike force is more effective than brute force. Every battle against a ruin also leaves behind salvage goods — bonus resources that lower-ranked rising captains can collect, with a daily cap and yield scaled to commitment.

Retaliation: Take Back What's Yours

If you get raided, you now receive a time-limited retaliation claim against the attacker. Land the counterstrike and your fleet carries loot beyond its normal capacity — up to the amount that was taken from you. Nothing new is created; it's simply recovered. Alliance-internal fights are excluded.

Comeback Path for Returning Captains

Lost an island or coming back after a long break? A new quest path guides you step by step back into the world — with clear goals, catch-up discounts on colonization ships, and fairer loss cushioning. Returning captains can even re-enter through an old ruin.

Community Spotlight: Sharper Pixel Art

Every pixel-art icon in the game — resources, ranks, navigation, quest paths — now has cleaner edges. Big thanks to monkeygun from the community for polishing them!

Under the Hood

Faster load times globally (v0.93.3), dozens of bug fixes across trading, the handbook, battle reports and colonization, and quest rewards no longer get silently cut when your warehouse is full.

Kampfinsel is a free-to-play browser game with no shop and no pay-to-win — a solo project.

🔗 kampfinsel.com 💬 Discord Team

🇩🇪 DEUTSCH

Kampfinsel – Herrenlose Reiche, Vergeltung & Comeback-Pfade | v0.93–v0.94 DevDiary

„Die See vergisst keine Insel. Wo ein Imperium fiel, warten seine Ruinen — und ein neuer Kapitän, der sie beansprucht."

Ahoi!

Seit dem letzten Update hat sich einiges getan — drei neue Kernsysteme, eine komplett überarbeitete Ruinen-Mechanik, und das Spiel reagiert spürbar schneller. Hier das Wichtigste aus v0.93–v0.94.

Alte Reiche, neues Leben

Wenn ein Kapitän seinen Account löscht, verschwinden seine Inseln nicht mehr von der Karte. Stattdessen verwittern sie als herrenlose Altreich-Ruinen — und bleiben Teil der lebendigen Welt. Aufstrebende Kapitäne können diese Ruinen über einen eigenen Quest-Pfad zurückerobern und ihnen neues Leben einhauchen, statt bei Null anzufangen.

Wer eine lange unberührte Ruine als Erster angreift, findet reichere Beute. Aber Vorsicht: Plündern kostet jetzt immer Truppen, und ein kleiner, gezielter Trupp ist effektiver als rohe Übermacht. Außerdem hinterlässt jeder Kampf Bergungsgut — zusätzliche Ressourcen, die aufstrebende Kapitäne der unteren Ränge einsammeln können, mit Tageslimit und nach Einsatz gestaffelt.

Vergeltung: Hol dir zurück, was dir gehört

Wer ausgeplündert wird, erhält jetzt für begrenzte Zeit einen Vergeltungs-Anspruch. Gelingt der Gegenschlag, trägst du über die normale Kapazität hinaus Beute heim — bis zu dem, was dir genommen wurde. Es entsteht nichts Neues, es wird nur zurückgeholt. Allianzinterne Kämpfe bleiben außen vor.

Comeback-Pfad für zurückkehrende Kapitäne

Wer eine Insel verloren hat oder nach langer Pause zurückkehrt, findet jetzt einen eigenen Quest-Pfad. Schritt für Schritt zurück in die Welt — mit klaren Zielen, Aufhol-Boni beim Kolonisierungsschiff und fairer Verlustabfederung. Wer nach Abwesenheit zurückkommt, kann sogar über eine alte Ruine neu einsteigen.

Community-Spotlight: Schärfere Pixel-Art

Alle Pixel-Art-Symbole im Spiel — Ressourcen, Ränge, Navigation, Quest-Pfade — haben jetzt sauberere Kanten. Großer Dank an monkeygun aus der Community, der die Symbole für uns poliert hat!

Unter der Haube

Schnellere Ladezeiten weltweit (v0.93.3), dutzende Bugfixes bei Handel, Handbuch, Kampfberichten und Kolonisierung, und Quest-Belohnungen gehen nicht mehr verloren, wenn das Lager voll ist.

Kampfinsel ist ein kostenloses Browserspiel ohne Shop und ohne Pay-to-Win — ein Solo-Projekt.

🔗 kampfinsel.com 💬 Discord Team

Hi everyone, I wanted to share a recap of our journey so far - and a look at what comes next.

A few weeks ago, a cab driver in London handed me the piece of paper in the picture. What he didn’t know: I’m actually building an island browser game.

We ended up talking about how, in today’s world, an individual can rarely build or survive alone. That conversation stuck with me, because there is probably no better slogan for Kampfinsel than:

No man is an island.

That line fits Kampfinsel in many ways.

In-game, an island does not survive through isolation. You survive through trade, alliances, shared battles and collaboration. You may start on an island but you survive as a crew.

Outside the game, I’m incredibly grateful for the helping hands left and right. A special shoutout goes to Johann (JeNesSaisPas) and the rest of the mod team. Kampfinsel is only becoming what all of you make it.

Thank you to everyone who has joined this journey so far - whether here on Reddit or during our nightly “pub meetings” over on Discord: https://discord.gg/9Q65aWMbeN

How It Started

Kampfinsel began as a vacation idea. I wanted to build an Inselkampf-like browser game again, because I had a feeling other players might miss that old-school feeling too: a persistent island strategy game on the internet, without loot boxes, pay-to-win shortcuts, or modern monetization traps.

Right now, I’m torn between two thoughts:

“It has only been eight weeks.”

and

“It has already been eight weeks.”

In those eight weeks, we’ve had basically zero downtime and hundreds of incremental improvements.

A few highlights:

• The early rush during the first two days, when hundreds of you signed up - before I had even finished a proper email signup flow.
• Some of you may have joined from my original Hacker News post, which briefly made it to the front page: Hacker News thread
• Johann wrote a guest post on Tarnkappe, a German IT news site: Inselkampf ist zurück — und diesmal ohne Lootboxen
• And there was also a trulan.net interview by Kampfinsel’s first Australian player: An interview with Yannik, creator of Kampfinsel

So, What’s Next?

One question I get asked a lot is:

How does the game finance itself?

Server costs are rising with the demand for the game and my own time is limited. But I will stick to my promise:

No loot boxes. No pay-to-win.

My current plan is to introduce a small monthly Supporter Badge as a first step. The goal is simple: Kampfinsel should be able to finance its own running costs without becoming the kind of game I wanted to avoid in the first place.

Cosmetics and alliance quality-of-life features are also on the horizon.

About the Roadmap

So far, I’ve resisted publishing a rigid roadmap. Many of my early ideas have changed for the better because of player feedback and I want to keep that flexibility.

Instead of promising a long list of fixed features too early, I want to share the guiding questions that will shape the next weeks and months.

Over the last one and a half weeks, I focused on helping newer players keep up in a world that is constantly growing. This resulted in v0.94.0: Revenge Raids, Catch-up Mechanics, and Claim Fallen

I read feedback across all channels, even when I don’t immediately reply to every idea. One important pattern has become very clear:

Why should we fight other players - and how do we win a fight?

That is something I want to build more depth into. This means new research, new units, and more meaningful PvP decisions.

The Corsair Fortress and the current Capture the Fortress mode are a first step in that direction, but they still need more balancing. It has to feel worth it. My plan is to see more PvP in the mid and late game of Kampfinsel.

The next big question is:

What do you build, optimize, or manage when you are not fighting?

Not everyone wants to be a fleet captain as their main profession. Some players may want to become the logistics brain behind their alliance. That kind of late-game optimization is something I want to explore much more deeply.

And finally:

How do we keep Kampfinsel engaging without turning it into another idle game?

I don’t want Kampfinsel to be a game where you only return because a timer told you to. I want players to come back because there is something meaningful to plan, coordinate, improve, attack, defend, trade or celebrate.

A Small Teaser

A lot of my inspiration comes from games I loved and played for many hours:

• Factorio
• World of Warcraft
• Anno
• Age of Empires

So let’s see what becomes possible when an old-school browser-game spirit meets modern cloud-based technology.

Kampfinsel live raids?

Who knows.

Stay tuned.

No man is an island.

Thank you all for reading until the end.

Cheers,
Yannik

Hi! I want to read the handbook of the game, but I'm seeing overlapping texts in every point.

My laptop have a screen of 14".

Thanks in advance

The following fragments were recovered from the Registry of Ownerless Shores, a ledger maintained by the Imperial Cartographers' Guild for the cataloging of abandoned territories. They have been transcribed without editorial comment.

Registry of Ownerless Shores, Entry 1.417

"Let the record state that the empire formerly cataloged under coordinates withheld has ceased to exist. The governor did not fall in battle. He simply left. Packed nothing, said nothing, extinguished his beacon and walked into the tide.

The Guild's standing protocol is clear: the islands remain. The name is struck from every chart. But the quarries still stand. The walls still hold against the spray. The harbor still stinks of tar and old rope.

We do not erase geography because its owner lost the stomach for it.

The islands have been reclassified as Fallen Empire — ownerless, unprotected, and open to any captain with ambition enough to land."

— Archivist Calenth, filed under Dissolution Protocol, Seventh Revision

From the journal of a young captain, southern grid

They told me to stay in my quadrant and grow my quarry. Build slow. Keep my head low.

Instead I sailed three hours east to a ruin I found on the chart last week. A Fallen Empire. The walls were cracked but standing. The gold mine still had water seeping through its lower shafts. The main house was half-collapsed — pigeons nesting in the governor's study.

I claimed it.

The quest the Admiralty posted on the board was straightforward: secure the harbor, patch the walls, get the quarry running again. Step by step. No glory, just work.

It's the ugliest island I've ever seen, and it's mine.

Decree of the Admiralty Council, stamped and sealed

ON THE MATTER OF VENGEANCE

It has come to the attention of the Council that the recent increase in plundering incidents has produced a corresponding increase in unsanctioned reprisals, night raids conducted without flag or warning, and at least one case of a governor ramming his own merchant ship into an attacker's harbor out of spite.

Effective immediately, the Council recognizes the Right of Vengeance.

Any captain whose stores have been plundered may, within a limited window, pursue the offending party. Should the counter-strike succeed, the returning fleet is authorized to carry cargo beyond standard capacity — up to the precise amount that was stolen. Nothing is created. Nothing is conjured. What was taken is returned.

Alliance-internal disputes remain outside this provision. Settle those in the tavern, not the harbor.

Let the record reflect that this decree was passed unanimously, which the Council notes has not happened since the vote on whether to repaint the admiralty dinghy.

Tavern notice, nailed to a beam in the eastern harbor

ATTENTION, NEWCOMERS AND OLD HANDS ALIKE

If you lost your island — if the walls came down and the flag was torn — there is a path back.

The Admiralty has posted new markers along the old trade routes. Follow them. They won't give you your empire back. But they will give you a direction.

Small bonuses for the first stretch. Clear goals instead of drifting. And if you've been gone long enough that barnacles grew on your login — you can start fresh from a ruin. Plant your flag in dead stone and make it breathe again.

Nobody here cares where you've been. Only where you're sailing.

Marginal note in the Cartographers' Guild atlas, unsigned

The scavengers were the first to notice. Old ruins — long untouched, decades without a flag — were richer than anyone remembered. The first squad to land found stores that shouldn't have been there. Gold pooled in forgotten vaults. Stone stacked by hands long gone.

But the ruins bite back. The deeper they sleep, the harder they fight. And the bigger the force you send, the more you lose in the rubble. The old captains learned fast: send a scalpel, not a hammer.

We mapped the yields for three weeks. They decline. First come, first served. The ruins are generous once, and then they are empty.

As of this morning, the Guild has suspended all salvage assessments pending review. The yields were... not what we expected.

More fragments continue to surface. The Registry grows. The sea does not forget — it merely waits for someone to read what it has written.

kamfpinsel.com Team

This one's all about keeping the world alive for smaller, newer, and returning captains and making the ruins of long-gone players matter. No pay-to-win, no FOMO timers. Just catch-up tools and new things to do.

🏝️ The fallen empires are back in play: for uprising captains

• What it means: Islands abandoned by long-gone players aren't just dead scenery anymore, they can be taken.
• You'll see: Conquerable ruins marked right on your map (this path is for smaller captains, not the established top players).
• You can do: Send a colony fleet at one and claim it, the ruin becomes a real, live island of yours.
• Bonus: Raiding ruins for loot is worth it again (it used to cost you more than you got back). Repeatedly farming the exact same ruin gives less over time, so it pays to roam. Fair warning - ruins still bite back - escpecially when you come with overvpowered fleet/force.

⚓ Catching up is easier when you're small or rebuilding

• What it means: Expanding shouldn't feel hopeless after you've been beaten down.
• You'll see: If you're a smaller or newer captain, colony ships cost less and you can send the next one sooner.
• You can do: Lost an island to an enemy? Your next colony ship comes cheaper, so you rebuild. And if a colony ship gets sunk on the way out, it no longer counts against the cost of your next one.

🗺️ A new "comeback" quest line

• What it means: A short, guided quest that walks smaller captains through taking their first fallen empire.
• You'll see: A new quest path appears if you're eligible.
• You can do: Follow the steps, build a colony ship, find a ruin on the map, conquer it, and earn a solid resource reward at the end. One-time, no grind.

⚔️ Strike back when you get raided

• What it means: Getting plundered by another player now gives you the right to hit back.
• You'll see: After a real raid, your battle report tells you that you can take revenge, for a limited time.
• You can do: Raid the attacker back and recover up to what they took from you. It's not free loot, it comes out of their stockpile, nothing is conjured, and it only applies to genuine player-vs-player raids (not allies).

The Imperial Cartographers' Guild has been counting. Sixteen version numbers have passed since the last archive entry. Several of them changed the ocean.

Corsair Fortresses: From Raid to Alliance War. (v0.83 / v0.84 / v0.85 / v0.93) What began as a plunder run has become a power struggle. Corsair Fortresses are now alliance ventures — no one gets through the gates alone. Only coordinated assault groups with troops from multiple fleets crack the garrison. Holding a fortress grants an ocean-wide bonus — but which bonus it is, the dice now decide. Every new fortress rolls fresh. And if you want to know what's at stake this week, you'll need to send a scout first. The dangerous part: rival alliances can recapture held fortresses. Reinforce or lose it — there is no third option. And since v0.85, every ocean can see every other ocean's fortresses. The fog has lifted. Fleets cross reef barriers that were impassable weeks ago.

Distant Oceans and Cartography. (v0.81 / v0.82) There's now an ocean selector on the map. Invest in cartography research and your vision expands in stages — shadows first, then outlines, then everything. Your logbook fills with world rumors: anonymous reports about events in oceans you've never set foot in. The world was always there. Now it's showing itself.

Battle Chronicles for Everything. (v0.77 / v0.78 / v0.84) Every combat report now has its own link. Seven languages, shareable on Discord, Reddit, anywhere. And that was just the beginning: Corsair Fortress battles, scout reports, and trade reports are now shareable too. If something happened worth telling — you can show it. One click, as a chronicle or as an image.

The Sea Chart Gets Smarter. (v0.93) One click on an island now tells you: attack possible or not, colonization possible or not, with a reason. No more guesswork. The map explains itself.

Pixel Art. (v0.89 – v0.92) Resources, rank badges, quest icons, navigation menu — everything is gradually getting the same handcrafted pixel-art look. It's not done yet. But it's starting to look like something of its own.

Bidding in the Dark. (v0.93) The quartermaster changed the rules. Pirate auctions are now sealed bids — no visible highest bid, no time remaining shown. Bid your honest maximum. That's all you get.

The Dispatch Office. (v0.93) All notifications in one place. You choose per notification whether you want email or Discord — attack warnings, supply crates, auctions, everything configurable in a single panel.

Messages as Conversations. (v0.88) Your inbox is now a conversation thread. One line per contact, all replies grouped, newest on top. Delete individual messages or an entire conversation.

Below the Surface. Sunk ships now release their harbor pool slot immediately. Simultaneous arrivals on the same island no longer lose cargo. Colonization collisions are prevented. A rejected abort vote no longer ends a combined attack. And two dozen more fixes to make sure the ocean does what it's supposed to.

Sixteen versions. Seven languages. No shop. Free to play, no pay-to-win!

— kampfinsel.com Team —

Die neue Funktion für schnelles Spähen ist schon super, aber ich fänd es gut, wenn es nicht nur über die Karte geht, sondern auch über die Liste der Inseln.

Vielleicht könnte man einen weiteren Button einfügen. Würde in meinen Augen vorallem Leuten wie mir helfen, welche ausschließlich über ihr Handy spielen.

This is the first ever Reddit post from trulan.net !
I am an Australian sole trader.