Hello all,
I would like to post some thoughts on the conflict with crazies. There is a summary at the bottom.
I want to start by saying that I admit jerks behaved somewhat poorly and did some wrong things throughout this period. It was bad initial diplo of me to jump straight to "we will farm out to godly" from the 5k request. Jerks could definitely have handled it better. We made some hostile comments that are not helpful to successful diplomacy. Further, I agree that farming out is in nearly all cases not the right choice and isn't good for a competitive game. I want to offer an explanation for what we did.
Jerks players have a general dislike for giving land for cfs and would rather fight over it. As far as I can tell, jerks has always been this way, long before I started playing here. This was one of the main motivations throughout the conflict.
Pretty early in the age, we exchanged a couple hits with Expendables and they gave us an eoacf for basically net zero land. This may have been their strategic play but my feeling is that giving us an EOACF so early in the age was pretty kind. This was another of the main motivations underlying the situation.
CJ requested 5k acres for cf. I agree/admit that CJ's offer for 5k for eoacf was a reasonable request and not a bad deal. However, the fact that their main competition gave a free eoacf very early, combined with a preference to fight over land, made us feel like agreeing to the deal was the wrong decision. We made other offers but diplo failed.
Current game mechanics do not favour a vastly smaller KD. The 150-point meter maxes quick and once meter capped the smaller KD is very limited in their options. These issues get increasingly problematic as the age goes on and as the size difference increases. An earlier hostile will diminish gold stacks, cause problems via ops, stall growth seriously, or reduce prep for other fights. Those items are less relevant towards EOA and in the present case these weren't concerns for CJ. The WW bonus increases as the age goes on too, so maxing meter is increasingly impactful. Basically, late age, a smaller kingdom who wants to retal will end up creating a large land swing one way or another - whether by being severely outhit once meter is capped, or by maxing meter and giving the bigger kd a farm war and large land bonus.
As the meter grew, jerks felt trapped in a corner. Admittedly it was a situation we helped create. But it seemed basically our only options would chart-shape one way or another; either by giving a lot of land to Crazies, or to go through with what we said we would do and give a lot of land to Expendables. Though CJ's offer wasn't unreasonable, it was a demand for land that their main competition hadn't made. This, plus the state of the game mechanics, led us to feel like the only fair option was to give land to Expendibles as well. We broke CF and hit them, which enabled them to take a lot of land, which is a questionable decision.
I say the above not to justify what we did, or say that makes it all okay. It is also not an attempt to blame others for what happened; just an explanation. None of this is any one person or kingdom's fault. I agree that what we did was not the greatest play. We felt it was the only available option given all the considerations.
When people are put under pressure they do not always treat others the way they would want to be treated, or behave as well as they should. Sometimes it is tough to remember that there are people on the other end, and that most (lol) of the people who play this game are not bad people in real life. It is after all just a game.
I do not have anything against CJ personally. I understand that Crazies' actions are motivated by a wish to succeed, and not by a desire to make the game worse for us or anything like that. I apologize for the personal attacks made.
TL;DR: I admit that some of the things Jerks did during this conflict with crazies were not cool or good for the game. We felt forced and trapped, and because of game mechanics and other things, felt that it was necessary to do what we did in order to be fair. But this does not entirely excuse our behavior.
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Originally Posted by tetley
