Raw game

[The Moon of Earth]

Hello Utopians ... this thread is to discuss the opinions of add ons within the game.

The game includes ways to chat and share information and we as players need to only click and push buttons to do so - albeit with some seconds of waiting occasionally as we traverse the screens.

I am continually asked/ordered to get myself addons in order to play in Kingdoms - to the point of seemingly obligatory mindsets regarding them being used. My new Monarch speaks of Slack chat as if it is a game winning and "nevergowithout" item ... from what i can tell it is naught but a chat room ...

Isnt there a point of ridiculousness here ... hasnt a line of absurdity been crossed? More time is wasted discussing the addons than the items could possibly ever save...

Information sharing and communication can be done easily within the raw game ... i swear to ufking god the way that people continue on about upoopu, munk, slack and all the rest - id basically give head to a nice and normal Monarch that just played the Raw Game - the website and game itself possesses everything required to play and trying to game with addon obsessed weirdos is truly annoying...

"You must get Upoopu!"
"Why?"
"So i can see your intel."
"Why dont i just tell you?"
"Just get Upoopu."
THIS NEEDS TO BE STUDIED - The point here is the Monarch doesnt want to have a Word Document with the information stored on his PC (copy and paste across to Kingdom Forum) - he wants everyone to continually update to upoopu because the website does this for him. It is not important nor required to have upoopu ... but people are narrow minded and unimaginative in their approach to playing utopia and you sheeples think it necessary - to the point of excluding those of us who do not use it.

"Get Slack."
"Why?"
"So we can chat."
"We are chatting now."
"Just get Slack!"
THIS EXAMPLE IS JUST ABSURD.

... the amount of time wasted talking about their lazy crpappy addons is more damage than clicking your Private Mail and replying the "old fashioned" way ever did to your day/night ... it is literally a few seconds more and in every dang Kingdom i enter i seem to spend several minutes talking about these crpappy devices that i dont even want to use!

Ah jeez ... i hope people find these things unfashionable soon and just play the raw game more ... addons are fine but they hardly even (maybe not at all) help ... Irc chat is always there ... no offense to anybody but fk addons.

[chadde]

Don't do it then. I use Slack every day at work and with a bunch of other groups. It's not just a chat, it's a great team tool. If the kd you're in doesn't suit you I'm sure there's an other one out there for you.

And automatic intel storage has been an important part of this game since forever, so I'm not even sure what to say to that. Why would you have that stuff in a Word doc? I don't even have Word, who does these days? Specialized tools are a good thing.

[Coffee]

Well.. leading a KD/wars is a ton of work and monarchs are real people with lives of their own. Not sure I understand the resistance to their using tools to make that less cumbersome? Chasing up 24 people to provide intel and update it in a word document (???) every time decisions etc need to be made sounds like a living hell.

Sure, Slack is just a chatroom. Your monarch probably doesn't want to have to pay attention to multiple chat venues just because one guy doesn't want to play. So I guess you have options and they are to use it, join a KD that doesn't use it, or not use it and deal with the consequences of not communicating with your KD.

[The Moon of Earth]

Maybe im an old man and didnt realise ... im happier without them...

[StratOcastle]

Preaching to the choir, but I find my way quietly in the deeper dark of Utopia.

By my figuring, I can't say how long I'll continue playing. I'm finding my place in a micro-kingdom this age and might continue this practice as the most peaceful way. I'm not sure I've got the energy to lead, but add-ons wouldn't be necessary in my kingdom. Theme and courage would be required.

I'm fine with everyone else doing it their way.

[The Moon of Earth]

Game gives all info ... people can mail their intel across - back in the day thats how it was - the Kingdom Page fixing the Forum ... i think this is all lazy these days with addons... it also takes away a lot of the fun! Jeez people hardly hunt anymore with the dang target finder thing!

[Binar]

The fact is that leading a kingdom takes a lot of time. And if you dont know wtf the 24 other players are doing, and have to run around on different chat platforms (or ingame msgs) to get the intel needed to setup waves/plan/whatever then thats just wasting your monarchs time on BS.
Iam sure there are kds thattll take you even if you refuse to get upoopu/munk/stinger & slack/IRC/WA/etc but its not going to be a good kd

[Selephant]

Maybe im an old man and didnt realise ... im happier without them...

That's likely because you aren't the leader that has to deal with you. What you fail to realize is the game is just fine and dandy when looking at a single province, multiply that by 25... that's when it becomes a daunting task that few have the masochism to take on without the aid of tools.

[The Moon of Earth]

I understand this but sooooo many people put up their hand for Monarchy ... surely dedicated people can manage this ... particularly with Stewards assistance.


If you cant handle a few score letters and clicking and pasting per day then surely your followers in your Kingdom find themself behind Cacofonix rather than Vitalstatix... good leaders put in the time and enjoy it ... it is the same as going over your base with a critical eye in a RTS game - the leader watches over it ...

Rather than spamming new players to download addons to do their job for them ...

Ah well ... i will see how the future goes and keep my own style going...

[The Moon of Earth]

Line of absurdity crossed - people using slack can not view their provinces in game mail ...

[chadde]

What are you talking about? You can definitely read your in game mail while using slack.

And you're right a monarch could keep track of everything manually, but why would they when there are great tools to help? Don't you use any such tools at work? Management runs around with pencils, rubbers and notepads to keep track of your hours?

[Palem]

Mostly what Bin and Selephant said. It's about having important information readily available for monarchs whenever they might need it.


The chat in game is fine if it's just 1 or 2 people talking to each other, but it has 3 big downfalls
1. The history isn't very long and the way it auto scrolls back to the bottom makes it incredibly annoying to use if you missed more than the last 2 or 3 messages
2. Kingdoms are not composed of 2 or 3 people. Once 5+ people start talking the entire chat becomes unusable.
3. You have to be logged in and actively looking at the chat in order for me to talk to you.


I'm very much like you that I don't generally like a bunch of extra stuff to play utopia, but outside communication and a place to store Intel are absolutely vital to any kingdoms that want to be successful

[Binar]

I suggest you take over monarchy for an age and then come back to me.
You seem delusional in how much EXTRA time and work people are willing to put into it just cause you dont want to use a tool that auto-updates your intel.

[s0830887]

I understand this but sooooo many people put up their hand for Monarchy ... surely dedicated people can manage this ... particularly with Stewards assistance.


If you cant handle a few score letters and clicking and pasting per day then surely your followers in your Kingdom find themself behind Cacofonix rather than Vitalstatix... good leaders put in the time and enjoy it ... it is the same as going over your base with a critical eye in a RTS game - the leader watches over it ...

Rather than spamming new players to download addons to do their job for them ...

Ah well ... i will see how the future goes and keep my own style going...

I've been the monarch of my KD for more than 10 ages, and it is an incredibly frustrating task. Trying to orchestrate so many people with real lives, while you also have your real life, is really hard. Intel tools allow me to see who has armies returning and how much off they have so I can set targets. It allows me to see who is getting opped heavily and direct aid towards the neediest. I can see what ops are up and what ops need to go up; I can see (and reference) much more information than I could possibly see otherwise, and these tools make it far easier to organise that.

As others have said, there are plenty of KDs that don't use these tools. If you don't want to use the tools, try find a KD that is cool with that. The reason these tools go along with higher level KDs is that they are very useful and make the lives of their players significantly easier and more informed.

[The Moon of Earth]

True, true, true (Binar i have Monarched before although addmitedly i was highly crap)...

The tools must help ... but surely simply with Private Mail all communications can be done - requests of Aid and information about attacks ... Irc is a fine chat ... as for Slack stopping people seeing their mail ive heard is said ...

Micromanaging twenty five Provinces is difficult indeed but the way these addons are occuring it eating into the raw game ... the Kingdom Forum is prime to display current updated intel (thread with twenty five posts - people updating their military, buildings pages etc) ... Kingdom Espionage covers the enemy information and realistically unless the program is part of the game it is simply lazy ... the target finder is lazy too IMO ... ah well the game is changing to be easier for people but it seems to destroy the original game - this is why Kingdom Forums are quite often quiet ...

Surely/hopefully the wise, grand, enchanted, sexy and brilliant Lords of Utopia shall incorporate all of this new stuff/crap into the actual website and game itself ... so people can just have one window open and be done with this addon silliness...

You guys can be cohesive without tools ... jeez you wouldnt survive back in the day...