The worst age?

[bdbcoyote]

Been playing this game since the very first age off and on. Got about 40+ ages altogether and there have been at least 5 terrible ages in all those ages, might have been more but it is usually a bad age or two that makes me leave the game. The start of this age isn't looking good for this one. Seems this age is only for like 20 kingdoms while screwing the other 130+ and only added new mechanics to improve the kingdoms with advantage. I am not one to whine but prosperous is a joke and the 100 point cf is an abusive tool to support bullying. If i wanted to buy a game and make it enjoyable for only a select few groups and drive away the masses I would make age 73 and make attacking drones of undead and a feeding frenzy and eliminate ways for anything other than undead to grow because all kingdoms that enter prosperous are waved by multiple kingdoms. While the top make fake wars and send each other cfs and don't have to deal with the garbage the rest of the honorable players have to deal with. Already a week into the age and i think i am done with this nonsense. It's not enjoyable to have nothing but attack after attack, could have 8 dspa or higher and you are still getting hit by undead five times a day and it doubles in prosperous and have no way to actually build outside of war but no means to war since everyone just pummels each other except those who can stay above since feces floats and they are all on top. Anyways who else wants to weigh in on their least favorite age? There a more than enough to choose from over the years.

[MasterShake2129]

Too much fiber in your diet if your feces float.

[Darkmoore]

All the changes are an improvement.. Thumbs up..

[DonJuan]

teh prosperous is annoying sure but kingdoms no longer can run into fort when things go bad.

if anything it should push you to get better...or even join a new kd that gets it all because the monarchs of Uto need to change the mentality in order to keep up with the here and now...and not what it was before

one of my mates figured using prosperous 24hrs before EoWCF ends to come out full prosp bonuses so you can use it until you get waved...then if you needed you can switch out since the min 24hrs required was during EoWCF.

also it makes you have to use affluent ritual if you really need to push drafting...no one can sit and pump GC as before in a 3 day EoWCF...so if you win a war and get acres you have to scramble to train the bare essentials.
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[StratOcastle]

It presents challenges to those of us that haven't found a kingdom to our liking.

I reside in a micro-kingdom and the projected difficulties are numerous. The problems are generally the player base. I expect a tough age by the nature of being in a small kingdom: we are always fighting up.

But I sit and watch as a few kingdoms stretch their lead unopposed. I wonder about a player base incapable of grasping the idea of taking on greater challenges. Winning, to most, is more important than learning. In essence this is animal behavior, not intellectual endeavor.

Why don't I lead? Because I'm at a loss for the amount of nurturing some players require just to function logically. You can't buy the meter expecting guys to understand why. Many are brilliant at intricate math yet content to never contemplate cause and effect.

Some ages magnify the difficulties, but we share the same mechanics. Undead was a smart move, but that's only the beginning of a journey. Use that power to discover why others are successful not playing undead. You do this through greater engagements. Believe me; I'm not attempting to reduce the amount of flack we experience. Because there will always be those who will see something small and expect reward without consequence. :)

[bdbcoyote]

Very good comments, and maybe its the bias of playing in a top 10 the last handful of ages and going back to a kingdom under top 50 you realize the struggle other kingdoms have to grow and how much easier things are when you have the ability to grow without threats due to NAPs. Prosperous is only a 24 hour stance for sure and how many people have had a war so far to enjoy eowcf? I like changes to a degree, but i do agree its the community as a whole that needs to learn more about game dynamics. Unfortunately most of them never come into the forums.

[StratOcastle]

@ bdbcoyote, Yes. When I've joined the available top kingdoms to brush up on mechanics I wasn't surprised. The premise of the top is what I find humorous. It is what the 'highest damage output' thread is in D&D forums. The difference is, and this is the funny part, the top situates itself to experience these near vacuum outputs through diplo and other neighborly 'keeping up with the Joneses' strategies.

This is not a vindictive view I have, it's admiration. But it is funny because I know guys that'll twist in their chairs if mechanics aren't fully used. I'm not far from it in certain ways myself. I'm something of a tweener on this:

One one hand we have guys that are totally committed to character conception to an absolute fault. I like these guys but they don't like me.

I like a harmonious balance of mechanics and conception to maximize fun. Like this age, I knew I'd get beat up playing a t/m so I went in D&D parlance as a cleric-magic-user. Better known as a faery cleric.

One the other hand we have guys that are totally committed to mechanics to a fault. Note the misery last age in the top. Their inability to back off the gas, on turtling, forced trench warfare and an outcome none of them wanted. It's impressive to see whole kingdoms tanked up and log jammed with diplomatic shenanigans as the only grease to churn the wheels. This isn't a reflection on their intellect, but it is a reflection on their wisdom.

The time spent playing Utopia should be enjoyed. Look, I've got friends on both sides of these things. Guys who must push the mechanics till the game tarnishes. We find out the creators weren't perfect and we hold them at fault for being human.

The role-players are all but gone. Palem might be the last voice, but I think ReQi is still around. They had no choice but to be pushed out as the game shrunk. That's why, through wisdom, we play gently when we don't have to play hard. The community doesn't have to be at total war/retaliation but it chooses it. I play gently even now because I can, but it is very challenging.

[Swagger]

So far this has been the best age in a while. Fort was a crutch that too many people got accustomed to and was ridiculously overpowered while stifling gameplay.
I agree the 100 point surrender thing is probably a bad idea, it just gives a goal line for kds to aim for.

It's still early in age, whoring tier is still in range of a good chunk of the warring tier/ghetto. Give it time and the gains won't be worth it and you can war people of similar skill level.

[Uhm hoi]

That 100 point cf is annoying af. We tend to punish powerplaying kd's in war when they keep feeding off of us. Now we had to keep in mind to not let the meter difference run up too far before we were prepared and in builds with which we could properly war. If a powerplaying kd just ramps up the meter fast, they can just take whatever they want and have a cf forced without the "victim" able to take a warwin off of that. We had to give hostile ops to our opponents to prevent a cf before we were in a position to declare. Highly annoying. Would be easier if that forced cf is the same as max meter; then you wouldn't have to give ops while preparing to take down a bully kd.

Also, the destroy ritual spell being non-existent while it was in the final changes and devs not communicating about it or fixing it is very frustrating aswell. We tweaked our entire setup towards that change. I'm pretty annoyed about how that situation is being handled.

[Persain]

The only thing i whole hearty disagree with is is

I am not one to whine but ... the 100 point cf is an abusive tool to support bullying.

The 100 meter points is designed to stop bullying more than anything else in the past. Now if someone is being an asshole and they hit u to 150 points, you can b 50 points and just say "no more hits on me for 1 week" in the past there was litterally no way to get a bigger kd to stop hitting you if they were bullying you.

To that end there seems to be a missconception

That 100 point cf is annoying af. We tend to punish powerplaying kd's in war when they keep feeding off of us. Now we had to keep in mind to not let the meter difference run up too far before we were prepared and in builds with which we could properly war. If a powerplaying kd just ramps up the meter fast, they can just take whatever they want and have a cf forced without the "victim" able to take a warwin off of that. We had to give hostile ops to our opponents to prevent a cf before we were in a position to declare. Highly annoying. Would be easier if that forced cf is the same as max meter; then you wouldn't have to give ops while preparing to take down a bully kd.

that a cf will be forced if there is a 100 point differnce.....the Kingdom with lower meter points will have the option to Surrender...Nothing has changed with how the meter and hostile works as far as declaring goes other than the cap went from -50% gains(100+ differnce) to -75% gains(125+ difference), which actually helps the kd geting waved/beatdown.

[Coldhearted]

Getting rid of fort was a terrible idea and the server being 1/3 undead shows it was a bad idea. All getting rid of fort did was force cores to be undead. It also takes away alot of strategies, but so did going to a individual explore pool. It seems like the goal is just to increase logins At this point. Will these changes lose the soul of utopia? Unsure at this point but fort was a great stance for warring tier. They make up 90% of the game now but hey where all undead core and will continue to be until fort is brought back.

[Uhm hoi]

Getting rid of fort was a terrible idea and the server being 1/3 undead shows it was a bad idea. All getting rid of fort did was force cores to be undead. It also takes away alot of strategies, but so did going to a individual explore pool. It seems like the goal is just to increase logins At this point. Will these changes lose the soul of utopia? Unsure at this point but fort was a great stance for warring tier. They make up 90% of the game now but hey where all undead core and will continue to be until fort is brought back.

Not all warring kd's went for an undead core. Some choose to be able to counter undead cores well... So well we're winning without even being able to destroy our opponent's ritual.

[Korp]

Getting rid of fort was a terrible idea and the server being 1/3 undead shows it was a bad idea. All getting rid of fort did was force cores to be undead. It also takes away alot of strategies, but so did going to a individual explore pool. It seems like the goal is just to increase logins At this point. Will these changes lose the soul of utopia? Unsure at this point but fort was a great stance for warring tier. They make up 90% of the game now but hey where all undead core and will continue to be until fort is brought back.

takes away a lot of strategy, lul. You call going into fort all the time a strategy?

[absalomon_GO]

The worst age?

It is the BEST AGE. No more fortified is great improvement, sure my kd buddies get attacked a lot and me with them, but now they will need to learn to play the game properly and don't do stupid stuff to kingdoms that have less than 3 inactive provinces. It is still to early to give predictions but if they get to reason fast and start playing in accordance with changes this might turn out to be even better age than the best.

[Coldhearted]

takes away a lot of strategy, lul. You call going into fort all the time a strategy?

Fort made it possible for warring kingdoms to draft deep. Build tms like faeries with protection. Play out hostiles using fort, few times I have dragged hostiles 24 to 48 hours to go fort and mass train before declaring. One war I remember they bounced our bank, I went fort and funneled gc to him to get him unbreakable again. But really the point is getting rid of fort just made everyone go undead. Now if you got rid of undead converting elites and made them train again it would be a legit change in my mind.