Utopia > Evolved or overly repaired?

[Sir Nasty]

Did anyone really think I thought adding a retro server would get us back to 100k players?

Maybe you got that impression elsewhere but not from me.
I think it would stop the massive exodus though. The game is just not enjoyable in its current form.
Why do people even war? War is just destructive and usually ends up with tons of razing so while one kingdom comes out slightly ahead they don't come out enough ahead to make the war beneficial.
Waving is all the rage now. Wave and if the other kingdom offers CF then wave some more and take the CF and move on.
Active kingdoms rape ghettos (guess where the new players are playing?)
People in ghettos (ie.. new players) get discouraged. Some figure out how to get into
better kingdoms but most are likely to say.. 'screw this stupid game' and move on.

Suggesting a retro server was merely an idea to present the same game but played differently and hoping people will like it and stay.
If it works then its a win win situation for new players as well as current players.

And Mikey, for future reference, disregard 100% of what Palem says. Of all his posts it seems at least 75% are antagonistic and not worth a response so I disregard all his posts now.

[Mourhelm]

I agree with the ones who said marketing is the key. When the game was first launched it was a lot easier to attract players. OMAC needs to find out what will make the game more existing now (not only rely on what made it exiting in the past) and with marketing bring more players. They also need to focus about how to retain the new players.

As the game will grow it will become more and more fun. With more targets around it will be easier for kingdoms to find their own match to fight and lower tier kingdoms would suffer less abuse from the top.

You cannot have a Sim City growth type game without people growing. People are getting to a certain acreage and staying that way for months at a time. that is not fun for anyone. Growth is fun.

Are you aware that this is a war game? It has growth too, but it's not the main thing.

You also miss the point of changing the game to be more offence oriented. Hitting down and being unbreakable all the time frustrates the people at the bottom. Hitting back and forth brings a lot more action into the game. The down side is in higher activity requirement.

NWBG make people fight their match to gain the optimal percentage of land. This is in place to discourage hitting the ones at the bottom and frustrating them.

[Headache]

Are you aware that this is a war game? It has growth too, but it's not the main thing.

I'd say growth is the main thing though. Can anyone honestly tell me that they'd be happy playing this game at 500 acres and just war constantly? What makes a good kingdom? Which kingdoms do people claim are the best? Which ones do people look up to? Everything has to do with size and growth. Hell, war wins aren't even a measurement of any meaning. Sure it looks all nice and shiny up on your KD page, but other than that no one cares. Some kingdom could be sitting at 700 acres a province right now and be leading the whole server in war wins, but won't get recognized nor respected. And as much as people won't care to admit it, they all seek the admiration of everyone else on here and to be recognized as one of the BIGGEST and best. Who around here doesn't go and check the rankings to see where they stand? Where their KD ranks? So ya it is a war game, but when this whole "world" revolves around being big and strong, growth is much more important.

For example, lets take the top 3 Kingdoms for NW. They have a COMBINED 5 total war wins. Rage, Sanctuary and SEASONS. SEASONS alone is always mentioned in threads around here for being one of, if not the best. They've lost 2 wars compared to 1 win. Perhaps those weren't even real wars, but the bottom line is even though this is a "war" game, people don't play it to war and no one in this entire game respects a KD that just wins wars.

[Palem]

Did anyone really think I thought adding a retro server would get us back to 100k players?

Maybe you got that impression elsewhere but not from me.
I think it would stop the massive exodus though. The game is just not enjoyable in its current form.

The massive player base was the only reason the game was so much more enjoyable back then. Unless you got a Tens of thousands of players back, it would be just as stagnant as WoL.

Why do people even war? War is just destructive and usually ends up with tons of razing so while one kingdom comes out slightly ahead they don't come out enough ahead to make the war beneficial.
Waving is all the rage now. Wave and if the other kingdom offers CF then wave some more and take the CF and move on.
Active kingdoms rape ghettos (guess where the new players are playing?)
People in ghettos (ie.. new players) get discouraged. Some figure out how to get into
better kingdoms but most are likely to say.. 'screw this stupid game' and move on.

Why would you have any idea that this would change on a retro server? This is how hostilities work. Do you think people will suddenly forget everything they've learned over the years and resort to their old ways just because the setup is old?

Suggesting a retro server was merely an idea to present the same game but played differently and hoping people will like it and stay.
If it works then its a win win situation for new players as well as current players.

And if it doesn't work like I've suggested it won't, it costs OMAC that much more to run another server and adds another good reason to long list of "Reasons to shut down Utopia".

And Mikey, for future reference, disregard 100% of what Palem says. Of all his posts it seems at least 75% are antagonistic and not worth a response so I disregard all his posts now.

I try to reply to intelligent things both intelligently and politely. Mikey was posting nonsense and recieved blunt responses, one of which I'm still awaiting a response to. This was an honest post, and I'm replying inkind. Please keep this reponse in mind next time you like to say things of this nature.

I'd say growth is the main thing though. Can anyone honestly tell me that they'd be happy playing this game at 500 acres and just war constantly? What makes a good kingdom? Which kingdoms do people claim are the best? Which ones do people look up to?

Growth is not the main thing. A good kd/the best kds are made up of Good players and have GREAT leaders.

Hell, war wins aren't even a measurement of any meaning. Sure it looks all nice and shiny up on your KD page, but other than that no one cares.

Have you ever waved a kd with 7/7 War wins when you're just looking for some free acres?

Some kingdom could be sitting at 700 acres a province right now and be leading the whole server in war wins, but won't get recognized nor respected.

Most likely not since they most likely wouldn't be warring kds of a very high quality.

And as much as people won't care to admit it, they all seek the admiration of everyone else on here and to be recognized as one of the BIGGEST and best.

You might, but I don't even tell people where I play.

Who around here doesn't go and check the rankings to see where they stand? Where their KD ranks? So ya it is a war game, but when this whole "world" revolves around being big and strong, growth is much more important.

I would be lying if I said I didn't check, but I don't expect much. With the player-base plummeting it's hard to be on an island without a top 50 kd on it which means my kd doesn't really stand much of a chance.

[Sir Nasty]

Palem the very fact you took all that time to quote everyone and give responses just kind of weirds me out :P

Don't feel you need to respond to everything. Just pick a couple of things and respond. We don't want your opinion on everything that is said. And that was said in kind also ;)

[vines]

The land gain system is good the way it is. They are doing a good job of keeping things balanced. That this why they weaken dwarf, human, and gnome. A dwarf could get super high BE allowing one to keep a small military. A human could get super high sciences allow for high mods on tpa and wpa. A gnome could have an army so huge that it could break any province with full military at home. This are no longer the case. Also they brought back undead not because peopole asked for it but because it balanced the game out. There are some players that are highly skilled and were able to design an attacker that could attack without being attacked. This is the apex achievement for any attacker province. An attacker province that could attack without being attacked can win wars for a kingdom that would other wise lose. So to fix this they threw undead into the mix. Now an undead province can attack a province with out losing men. What this means is even if the kindgom faces a 'prefect attacker' they can now send their undead to attack that province over and over until the province can be broken.
However, I have found a way around this. I am very proud of this new strategy, and I will never share this stategy with any one because it took all my skills to pull it off, in fact, I was not good enough to pull it off when I first set out to play this new type of stategy--yes that's right not even I The Great Vines was capable of playing this strategy correctly. I had to become a better player. It humbled me. With this new 'pefect attacker' strategy, I am still not at the level of efficiency that I would like to be at; but I will be come next age. As with any of my startgies it does not involve race or personality.
All in all this new strategy for the prefect attacker will now allow me to attack while nullifying the undead's ability to not lose men on attacks.

[Palem]

SN - If I want to waste my time responding to every little thing, I will.

Vines - no one cares.

[vines]

Palem you may not care but others do. So many are now using high homes. Before people would laugh if someone would use high homes. Now top warring kingdoms are figuring it after getting wooped by nobody kingdoms that "hey high homes do give an edge in combat.".
The fact that you need to tell me that no one care shows me that you do care. But with you I'm like whatever.

[Palem]

No, I have to tell you that no one cares because you're trying to hijack the thread from a retro server thread to a 'vines' phase 2253' thread.

[vines]

Palem all you are trying to do is swager jack me. You want a piece of me because I'm the man so you want to make a big scene. So I engage you in a battle of wit but I'm not even going to go down that road because then the thread would become jacked by me.
Instead I'm going keeping posting comments that add to the subject of the conversation. And if you keep trying to antagonize me at the expense of this thread then people will know what an ass hole you are.

What makes the game exciting is the team work aspect and back in the day when new changes would come every age. And for me I like coming up with new strong stretgies that can share with my kingdom. However, now adays seems like everyone knows it all. It's refreshing when I get into a kingdom that is filled with new people because they allow me to play the way I want just the way I let them play the way they want. And the kingdom gets along nicely.

[_greenie]

that is the most un-vines paragraph ive ever read in my life