Quote Originally Posted by Thunder TA View Post
Say story hes came up with for years.Dropping kds numbers will make more quit since alot today place because of the people they play with.The random people who bounce from age to age it wouldnt effect.Also as mentioned more will quit because all these new kingdoms need leadership and thats even harder to find. Bad leaders destroy kingdoms faster than game changes.
Agree to disagree dude, the game is barely supporting 25 player kingdoms as it is. The top constantly experiences turnover and burns through a pool of the same players each age, not to say anything for the rest of the average and above average kingdoms who can barely hang on to 20-22 age-long active players without losing people to disappointment or boredom. Leadership in individual kingdom has a 3 month burden placed on their shoulders to keep 20ish players happy and interested in playing in that kingdom, heck the game itself, while the rest of a kingdom's roster is relegated to following orders, pushing buttons when necessary, and setting sitters as needed. While sitting is a much needed feature of the game, it doesn't fix the overall problem with managing that many human players for several months at a time.

Kingdoms, on average, probably contain 15ish players who like playing together. Maybe 20 for the biggest and best. But the rest of the rosters are turnover and constantly shifting slots. I think reducing the number of provinces in each kingdom would benefit in several ways:

1) It lessens the burden placed on 2-3 players (leadership) during an age. Managing less human beings is simply healthier; the game doesn't become more work than fun and this is an important thing if you want to maintain population.
2) It eases the need to constantly recruit every age just to fill a competitive roster. Recruitment should be an option, a choice, not a dire necessity that can tank an age if a kingdom doesn't get to where it needs to be to function.
3) It lets kingdoms function successfully with a reasonable number of players that doesn't have to include fringe players and unknowns, which cause stress mid-age if they don't work out or silently abandon.

Most importantly, developing new players capable of leading kingdoms would be easier. Right now, how many players can comfortably say they WANT to lead a kingdom? Out of 2500 players, is it maybe 75? Many of you are math junkies so you know that's only 3% of the population. Sure, for new leaders it looks appealing from the outside, you have all sorts of ideas and a serious strategy itch, but once you're inside, the burden of keeping 20+ other players satisfied and having fun starts to drain you. The game mechanics are only half the equation of a player's enjoyment; the other half is the social aspect and how the community of one's kingdom feels. That's where a leader is more important and you can't foster a strong social and successful environment if you're burning out from the weight that only a small portion of the game population can handle. This needs to change and kingdom size reduction is the answer.