Activity
The record of what happened while you were away: where it lives, and when it counts as read.
Where it lives
There is a bell at the right of the top bar. If you have unread entries a number sits on it; it stops counting past ninety-nine and says 99+.
Pressing the bell shows your latest entries in a small panel. The View all activity link at the top of it opens the full page; your whole record is there, loading further back as you scroll. The Mark all read button at the foot of the panel marks your whole record read without going to the page. As a Pro member, both this panel and the full page open with subject tabs: War, Army, Building and research, Trade, Empire, Alliance and friends and Messages. Each tab shows how many unread entries it holds; choosing one shows only that part of your record, loading further back within it as you scroll.
Every date and time on screen is written in your own clock, with the zone named beside it (GMT+3, for instance). An ally in another country sees the same instant on their clock; because both of you can read the zone, you can agree on an hour. Countdowns show the same remaining time for everybody — even if your device's clock is wrong, because the server states what is left.
What gets recorded
The game carries on while you are away: buildings finish, troops complete their training, your armies arrive or come home, battles begin and end. Each of these becomes a line in your record, saying what happened, when, and where to look.
Both ends of a transport are recorded. When goods reach one of your cities, you read how much the store took. When a load you sent to another player reaches their city, you see which city, to whom and what you sent — but not how much room their store had. When your transport ships are home, another line appears; for a recalled shipment it also says what came back aboard, how much the store took and how much was lost. When transport ships you moved to another of your cities arrive, the line says how many arrived and how much of the cargo went into the store; if the city could not take them, it says why they are sailing home.
The people's mood is recorded too: citizens emigrating from your city, settlers arriving in it, the tax falling because the people have not seen you for a long time, and the people seeing you again. These entries give only a number and the name of your own city (Emigration, Indifference).
Your form of government is recorded too: when you first choose one, when a change begins Government Chaos, and when the chaos ends and the new form comes into force. The chaos line says when it ends, which form comes next and what is shut in the meantime. The line for the end of the chaos comes hours later, so it waits at the bell even if you were away. All three open the Palace in your capital.
When it counts as read
Opening the panel marks nothing as read. The number stays exactly where it was; looking is not reading.
Pressing an entry marks that entry — only that one — as read and takes you to the screen it belongs to. An entry is read once: opening it again later does not move the moment you first read it.
Filters and reading everything
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| All | Shows the whole record, read entries included |
| Unread | Shows only what you have not opened yet |
| Mark all read | Marks everything on your record at that moment as read; when nothing is unread the button stays faded. The same button is at the foot of the bell's panel too |
Entries open somewhere
Most entries take you to their own screen: a finished building to the city, a returning spy to the intelligence screen, an arriving shipment to that city's storehouse. An entry about a battle opens that battle's report: the battle starting and ending, an army coming home from a fight, a city or a harbour taken or freed in battle, a pirate raid. If an ally freed your city, the entry opens that battle even though none of your soldiers were in it; you see who fought and how it ended, but not how strong the armies were. A meeting that never came to a battle, such as a fleet reaching an empty harbour or an attack that turned back without fighting, opens the city.
If the thing an entry opens is gone — a city can change hands — the words of the entry remain and only the link stops working. What happened happened; the record of it is not deleted.
This is not a message box
Activity is only what the game tells you: you cannot write to anybody here and nobody can write to you. The entries are not sent by email; if you are a Pro member, every one of them can also reach your phone or browser as a notification, and you choose which topics do.
Marking everything read does not delete anything. The entries stay where they are; only the number goes to zero.
The figures come from the game's own content. Balance updates can move some numbers; the rules themselves are as written here.