Raw game

[The Moon of Earth]

If players are active they can respond to PM or chat instantly ... forget addons...

[Binar]

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

But we did survive back in the day. We thrived even :P
And even back then there were tools, especially the higher up in the charts you ventured.



Also, its not being lazy. The ammount of work it takes to do what you propose is staggering.
Like MAYBE if I was still in college/highscool and had all the time in the world.... but now? no ty. Especially since the tools do exist.



That being said: Play however you want. Just dont come stomping in here in the forums telling us that we got it all wrong cause your vintage 1999/00 way of doing it is more real (raw)

[The Moon of Earth]

But Binar ... i just did!

[Binar]

Cant argue with that lol
+1

[StratOcastle]

My thing is, I figure my kingdom mates should know what they're doing. If they don't then we can talk, but I'm hardly a font of numerical miracles. I've not failed at any level or class of kingdom I've served. Thus, figuring I'm not even crunching numbers and can compete, I'm under the impression the vast majority of enthusiasts should surpass my capabilities...

It's that I'm surprised they don't. I understand why monarchs want intel but it's generally because some aren't cutting the mustered. I've been criticized for my puke inducing builds, but they don't fail me under duress. To this point I've contemplated divisions as illustrated in The Virtual Kingdom. If it was my kingdom I'd delegate to the division leaders each with 4 players to keep up to speed. Those division leaders would be council.

In my vast experience across kingdoms throughout the game I've noticed common patterns. These patterns are that most see the game in a form of physical laws that are actually misguided traditions. They don't recognize their leverage; how to use and preserve position. They force themselves into wars of attrition that then boil down to micro and activity. It's sad if you see players who can't change, can't accept progressive strategies, can't see the alternatives. None of these things require add-ons, they just make them think it results in meaningful progress.

[Bart of Sparta]

You don't need to have an intel bot nor do you all have to be in the same chat to play this game. Hell, we're currently #5 in the game and I have various people who are not part of our chat. The major problem with monarchs in this game is that they destroy the fun of their players by constantly being bossy on how people play (I've made the same mistakes in the past too). It would be great to see if Monarchs could start to educate themselves more professionally on how to manage a Kingdom. For instance, my orders before our last war were:

2. My assignment for everyone is to look at their set-up, province sizes and compare it to ours. Come up with ideas on how to approach this conflict, discuss them. Criticize each other's ideas and especially mine. I'm fully confident if we start on-time and do not rush it, that by the time war starts we'll all have a general idea on how to win this conflict. Please note that even bad ideas are good if it stimulates discussion.
3. Think carefully about your own province and its role in the upcoming conflict. How do you think it should be best utilized, will you need to put extra focus on certain aspects of your province for the next week to make sure it's in optimal shape for this task?

I don't require all of you to participate in this, although I do think it's a good learning experience for all, learn from each other and teach me a thing or two! We have time on our side so don't feel any pressure!

To all my fellow uto monarchs: Challenge your people to challenge you. Make strategy and kingdom course something of the entire Kingdom, not just a small council. Involve people. Sometimes that means you gotta intentionally post dumb strategies (although my KD will no doubt claim I never did so intentionally!) like forgetting farms in builds or other stuff.

STOP MICROING, TRUST YOUR PLAYERS --> EDUCATE THEM SLOWLY AND HAVE PATIENCE!

[The Moon of Earth]

Aye Stratocastle the server is full of mainstream uncreative thinking ... habitual actions that are followed without questioning.

Addons as an optional accessary are ok but to try to make them mainstream because they are easier is akin to the bots of Runescape - the people are not playing the raw game and are using every advantage possible - to the point of acting outside the game and making bots/addons ... which is a shame as the raw game should be honoured.

[The Moon of Earth]

Aye Band of Sparta

[Milkman]

Tools for intel and communication have become an essential part of the game. They are now far more easily aquired and intergrated then ever before. Not to mention that stuff such as Whatsapp have basically become part of most players everyday life. I can remember that there was I time when I was really against giving my cellphone number for utopia. Now I've literary enough (ex) utopia players in my address book to fill 3 kingdoms. And that is just players and ex players from over the past few years. Anyway, intellengence and communication has become much more important for mediocre kingdoms such as mine. Having up to date intel on my own kingdom makes it easier to make the right decisions (or at least make a decision based upon facts and not a general hunch). Lets put it into a scenario.
ly
My kingdom just got waved. As monarch the first decision to make is do I engage or do I ceasefire. The first thing I always look at is the raw game information from the news. How big was the wave. How much prov's sended armies out and in what time frame did they do it. This already gives a general clue about their activity and level of coordination. Next part is gathering intellegence on our enemy. What are their numbers. How much offence do they have, what is their defense, how much TPA/WPA, do they have goldstocks. This part is easy to because I can do it myself but...... such information is next to worthless if I have absolutely no clue about what my own kingdoms numbers are. It is cool to know that they have a feary on 300k def but if I have no clue about our offense I still cannot make a good decision about putting him up as target. So If i have recently updated self-intel of my entire kingdom that would give me a good indication about what our strengths are. I can determine how much unbreakable provinces our opponent has, how much we have how our offense relates to their defense. Having this information at hand means that I can make an informed decision as soon as the wave gets to my attention.

Now If I would not have an intel platform and I would solely rely on raw game data my best option is to take my own kingdom mates intel as well (wasting a lot of stealth) because that would give me the intel I need for making the decision the fasted. Now I could send out a mass message to everyone in my kingdom to send me a copy of their thronepage but then I will get the intel I need whenever I player logs on. That could be anywhere from mere minutes to over 24 hours if someone is slacking. Good chance that it will take longer to wait for people to send me their intel than my enemies army return times. So I might as well eat another wave before I got all the info I need. That is in no way an advantageous situation. So I am going to make a decision mostly on a hunch where I could either overestimate my kingdoms capabilities and get us into a war we could not win in the first place or let a good fun war go because I underestime out capabilities and ceasefire in a situation that had a good chance of getting us another war win. Good information leads to better decisions by your own leadership.

The next part is outside communication. Now I have all the information I need and have made the decision to declare. We got our armies home and it is just an hour after their wave. Without any way to reach my players outside the game my only option is to set a declare date with enough time frame for my players to login and see it so that I can get as much players online for a strong opening chain. This method requires that I set a date 8-12 hours after getting waved. This will negate the biggest advantage of getting the war button (after declare immidiate -10% attack times). If I can rally my troops through whatsapp and get everybody online 1 hour after their wave I can declare, counterwave with war bonus and thus still have my armies return prior to their hostile wave. Lets assume that my kingdom is pretty awesome and we chain 3 attackers down per wave from 2k acres to 300 acres. If I can get in two waves with war bonus prior to their armies return I would have taken down 6 attackers before my enemy can make their first chain. The difference between getting in 1 or two waves can make or break your war.

The truth is that the vast majority of kingdoms do not manage to be as efficient as described above. But that does not mean that crappy kingdoms do not benefit from getting better intel and communication. My kingdom has become better since we've become much more strickt on whatsapp. With the better intergration of UMUNK intel sharing has become more streamlined and I generally make better decisions due to that. We can organise ourselfs quicker, respond faster and better due to outside tooling. Not to mention that information get presented in a much better way then posting SoTs in the forums. It makes the ammount of time I need to invest to be of an acceptable level of a hardworking father of 1. Doing stuff the old way as we did 10 years ago when I was in college simply requires an ammount of time I can't/wan't to invest in the game anymore now I got older :)

[The Moon of Earth]

Aye but you speaking of the top tier kingdoms where number sharing is expected ... but i doubt most people want to get a phone call regarding the game whilst they sleep. If they awake they can deal with the situation. I can understand wishing every possible advantage to win when you are a truly competative Kingdom but that is a different game - a seemingly pointless chase ... an elusive miracle - ranking repeatedly and personally and as a team ... this is done by a select few and they use these addons ... but boy those guys are nuts ... and yeah probably the same guys that made those bots for Runescape ... but theyd still be on top if the addons were not around as they are the keenest players ... but they are psychos ... for the other three thousand and a couple of hundred of us - being noobchatted about addons and upoopu repeatedly has worn me thin ... these addons are realistically pointless at all but the top level and as experince will ceaselessly show - they are a useless waste for the losing side anyway as all but number one ranking Kingdom are losers in this game. And theyd still rank first without them!

Raw game is beautiful ... people should use it more - the forums are often ghost towns ... seemingly fussing over the addons is the Monarchs number one time taker hereabouts ...

[javierNelson]

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.

pretty easy to do if you're not worried about what other people think of your kingdom. monarchy means logging like 3-4 (realistically, twice) times per day instead of 1-2 (realistically, also twice) if you trust you don't have r-tards in your kingdom and don't take ****.

[Binar]

pretty easy to do if you're not worried about what other people think of your kingdom. monarchy means logging like 3-4 (realistically, twice) times per day instead of 1-2 (realistically, also twice) if you trust you don't have r-tards in your kingdom and don't take ****.

sounds like your kd is a good kd for OP then

[javierNelson]

sounds like your kd is a good kd for OP then

what ghetto do you play in these days?

[Binar]

the emeriti one

[Akkadian/Taylor]

so you can spend all of this time on the forum explaining why you disagree with it, which is bogus, but you can't spend half of that time downloading the app and trying it out? or better yet, 30 seconds to enter Munk information, to realize what you are truly missing?

Utopia is a team game. Learn how to be a team player.