What Utopia needs 1 - Mechanism of warring
Utopia is a way past ancient from the time it is developed, till now, if it is going to be continued, drawing in new blood, you must know what it lacks of, what it needs, not to compete, but to stand a place in the gaming world that it could still make it succeed in the future.
Look at this way. A game was developed. It will not be perfect upon its first launch. Flaws and mistakes will be found and thus be improved, until it reach a stage that not necessary near to perfection, but less errors and more satisfaction in playing. Upon reaching this stage so, the game will expand more features, again, experiment it on the launch, revised, improved, and the circle keeps going on.
Therefore if the game is developing and improving, you will see one thing on it - expansion. But Utopia didn't do much on that. Several features were added yes, but in comparison to those years that it exist, it becomes insignificant.
From the first day Utopia was launched, there are 3 ways of playing it. Attacker, Mage, or Thief. Hybrid is something that players add on later on. How to play? By hitting provinces in different kingdoms, kingdoms wars, tm ops, and so on.
The attack time is not controllable. If a hit was made and it is meant to return 10 hours later, one has to set the alarm to wake up in the midnight, just to play the game - Utopia.
Trust me, this way is a part of a reason that kills the players because the way of playing wars in Utopia - is very tiring. You make the people who plays the game tired, logical sense you will lose more than you could keep them.
I have told and advised the Utopia team to come up with a solution on this, but till this day they still stick to the old way of playing. Modifying values and formulas will not do the job. You have to change the entire warring mechanism.
A few suggestions I proposed to the team. The method maybe wrong, unsuitable, flawed and mistaken, but the point is, to make the people who play the game, relax and not to tire themselves out. Any suggestion or solutions will be fine as long as they are moving in this direction.
Proposed Solution no 1:
Give the ability the player to set an attack like you set an alarm. Well I know attacks in Utopia made heavily depends on intel and the current state of your prov, but it is better than none. So they do not need to wake up in the midnight just to make one hit. They can oversent their offense, or make fail hits, doesn't matter, as long as they keep their elites out and contribute more activity a kingdom needs when they are in warring, without affecting the players in real life a lot.
Many games could somehow, a little or a lot, affect the quality of a gamer in their real life. Utopia should not be, because, how to put this. It is in naturally speaking, it should not be. It should be the kind of game that should not tire people out. The kind of what Utopia game should be, it should be the exception of that, an example, a choice, that gamer could pick to play a game which has very less affection to their real life.
The more flexibility you could provide to the game without much harming the game play itself, the better.
Proposed Solution no 2:
Eliminate the feature of "Attack Time".
It is not actually that you eliminate attack time totally, it is still there, but the point is, the players can recall their armies back, ANYTIME they want.
How do I get my idea on this? The +1/+2 hour attack time, result with more gain. So I am thinking, if you can decide how many acres one could get based on attack time, why don't you just make it totally flexible for your players?
Example: Let's say an Avian attack time is fast. For 7 hours, it could get a 100% acres in gaining. If you +2 hours more make it 9 hours, it returned with more acres.
An Orc, 10 hours for 100% acres gain, and so on.
So let's say I sent out an army to hit a target. I can recall my army back anytime I want. How long my armies been out for the attack I made before I called them back, how much acres I could gain by then.
So let's say I made an attack at 7pm. For the old way, the attack takes 9h so that means I have to wake up 4am in the morning just to attack again. If flexibility is given to me, I can recall my army back at 12am before I go to sleep, make an attack again and in the next morning when I am available for a quick login, I will recall it again, and make a hit again.
The damage done on troops casualty, acres gained, is all depends on how long the army is out. If it is 5 hours, then I get 5 hours acre gained. The point is, I can login anytime to make a hit anytime I want, without needing to look at the clock, set an alarm everyday just to play a game.
The people around me will think that I am a maniac who treat playing game so serious you know.
