What ruins this game for me:

[genoism]

To begin with, I've played utopia since almost the beginning. I've quit a lot and come back a lot.
But the #1 thing that usually makes me quit is the fact that if I can't get into a kd that plays with my style its almost impossible to accomplish what I want to.

I usually play to try and be an explorer. I know people say it's a pvp game and I get that. That's what makes being an explorer fun, there's a risk and its a challenge. But lately it's just been flat out frustrating. Just now my kd was hit by someone about 1.5k acres larger than me and he nabbed 150 acres. To top it off, it would be suicide to break him. He's an avian - I'm human. He can double tap me for each one time I hit him. It's pointless to hit him because at this rate he will just keep breaking me over and over.

You know - I can understand that a larger kd should always break a smaller kd. But in this scenario its a much larger kd STEALING a freaking ton of acres with no worries about being retaliated.

That is what makes me quit each round. I keep coming back every couple of years or so hoping that maybe it's been fixed - made more fair but it seems like it hardly changed.

People will say go join a kd that will retal for me or something another but the truth of the matter is that I have a job, I cannot log in everyday. No serious kd will want me. Plus theoretically this game is supposed to support multiple playstyles right - after all what would be the point of being a shepard then? But the truth is its not much different than all those other clone browser mmo's. All those games allow giant players to hit smaller ones with small fear of retaliation - especially when they are not part of a strong alliance.

Anyways, I don't know why I keep coming back hoping for change. All my friends quit this already over the same reason and I'm just being stubborn. Maybe it is time for me to say goodbye to utopia once and for all.

[Bishop]

Exploring solo without the backing of your kingdom is never easy - thats a choice you make when you play a team game for yourself. There isn't really anything to fix here - the game is designed purposefully like this.

[DHaran]

I don't see a suggestion here.

If you are getting hit and can't retaliate properly there is an issue with your own province. I suggest you build GS to protect acres and get more offense to properly retal hits on you. Alliances have nothing to do with it, if you don't have the offense to hit back you will ALWAYS get hit because your strategy allows it to happen. Exploring solo is almost never a good strategy by the way.

You need to stop expecting the game to completely change to fit your personal play style, and instead learn to adapt your play style to be successful in the game. The game does allow multiple playings styles, but it's still based on teamwork for the most part, and unless you really know what you are doing you won't make it alone if you try to get substantial acreage.

[genoism]

You guys misunderstood me. I *CAN* retal. But its pointless to because he can hit me back faster than I will ever be able to hit him back.

My suggestion is to lower how much gains a kd much larger than you gets from hitting you. This bottom feeding is rampant. We have 4 others in my kd trying to explore and work together but we cannot find enough players who are similarly interested. We are constantly being bottom fed. We try to help each other when we can but we are not a warring kd and we don't have the activity OR players to do that.

[Bishop]

Ok, have you got any idea of the numbers you'd like to see, and do you have any reasoning as to why your suggestion should be supported? There is already a reduction for large kds hitting smaller kds you see.

[genoism]

I know there is a reduction but I just feel like it doesn't help much. It takes me at least 1.5 days to explore 150 acres. It takes only ~15 hours to hit a kd smaller than you for 150 acres. It's far easier to just keep bottom feeding than exploring.

I would if I could offer an elegant solution for preventing people bottom feeding other than just, "make it so they barely get any acres". But I'm just telling you what kills the game for me I really can't tell you what would solve the problem. I understand that whenever a change is made it can affect many things that may have been unforeseen.

[DHaran]

I said properly retal, not simply retal. I know how you feel, we've all been there. If you have 4 explorers and no decent attackers on your side you will always have this problem. Even if gains are reduced you will remain a target if you have no support and a strategy that invites bottomfeeding. Retaliation is pretty much the only defense against bottomfeeding since you will outgain the larger kingdom due to kingdom networth related gains (KNRG), all else being equal. The problem you run into when suggesting reducing gains is that topfeeding would become just as much of a problem, where kingdoms purposely stay below a target so when they engage there is a large gains advantage at the outset of conflict. I know this wouldn't bother most people since they think topfeeding is ok and bottomfeeding is evil, but fair is fair and one shouldn't be overly punished. Even if you scale it both directions, pretty soon you get to a point where your options for targets are way too slim, especially considering the number of players and kingdoms being so low right now.

[genoism]

There's no such thing as "properly retaliating" on a KD that is 1.5k acres larger than you....it's always going to end up being suicidal simply because he didn't need to send out too many troops to break you.

[E_Boko]

also you are playing human shepard. if you really wanna do the whole exploring thing why not choose faery or elf which are more defensively geared races and can support that? dorf is also a great race to use with exploration.

its like playing as halfer mystic and wondering why you are not the most leet attacker according to your style. choose a better race/pers combo for your type of play.

[DHaran]

There's no such thing as "properly retaliating" on a KD that is 1.5k acres larger than you....it's always going to end up being suicidal simply because he didn't need to send out too many troops to break you.

A KD 1.5k acres larger or a province 1.5k acres larger? You aren't providing a very clear picture on the situation where you lost 150 acres. There is proper retaliating on larger provinces in larger kingdoms, if you are getting hit and can't retal properly you have a military problem, which is probably due to you exploring rather than training troops. Gains are NW based, so for him to get any gains at all you have to be within a closer range of NW, the same range which should allow you to properly retal. I imagine your problem is you are in a total explo build with no attacker support, which will always make you a target, regardless of gains.

[genoism]

I've tried with faery and elves in the past but the issue is that I cannot grow as quickly as I could as a human. Sure I have more defence but others will grow faster and we come back to the same issue of being bottom fed by kds far larger than you.

TBH, the best solution I can think of is that you make it so that the gains are relative to the likelyhood that you can realistically retaliate. So if you have no chance to retal then the gains should be worthless. If you are able to retal then it doesn't encourage "top feeding". Also in war, you could revert these changes to be like they are now. Of course - it doesn't mean that someone with no offence should never worry about getting hit because he can't retal. I mean that assuming he has a decent offence if he cannot break someone larger than that larger person should not be able to gain so many acres from him.

[Bishop]

Well, that is currently the case really - i've been "fed" on my provs 30% larger than me, i had no issues outgaining them.

edit: meant to say, im not against exploring per se - but i am against making achieving no1 prov easy without support, so boosts to explorers need to be carefully considered.

[genoism]

A KD 1.5k acres larger or a province 1.5k acres larger? You aren't providing a very clear picture on the situation where you lost 150 acres. There is proper retaliating on larger provinces in larger kingdoms, if you are getting hit and can't retal properly you have a military problem, which is probably due to you exploring rather than training troops. Gains are NW based, so for him to get any gains at all you have to be within a closer range of NW, the same range which should allow you to properly retal. I imagine your problem is you are in a total explo build with no attacker support, which will always make you a target, regardless of gains.

I'm at almost 3k acres and have about 130k offence. I have about 290k defense. Can someone really break that defense and still have 130 defense???

[genoism]

Well, that is currently the case really - i've been "fed" on my provs 30% larger than me, i had no issues outgaining them.

edit: meant to say, im not against exploring per se - but i am against making achieving no1 prov easy without support, so boosts to explorers need to be carefully considered.

May I ask what your strategy is because there is this KD called snuggles or something like that - they don't war, they ALL bottom feed. Check their news out.....I can perhaps outgain one person but an entire kd? The moment I'm within 1k acres of them they all pile on me like hungry wolves. At first I was retaliating but for each retal i did to them they had 2-3 on me from diff provinces within their kd.

[Bishop]

Well, first you need to explain what you call bottomfeeding - i suspect it is not what i call bottomfeeding. Secondly it is clear you cannot retal all provs yourself, but if your kingdom is not in a place to retal with you then the issue is with your kingdom.