Conquering capitals

Of course it is. And the great challenge and difficulty for the players, but even moreso, the designers is to get that balance right. Not sure whether it is too in favour of the pacifists who basically want nothing to ever happen, but time will tell. Mule thinks I am some kind of bloodthirsty barbarian :). If I am then so is every chess player out there. Chess is the ultimate war game.

By that logic, real life is a war game.  I'm glad differently minded people run some of our nations.

It's also an argument completely auxiliary to whether achieving solidarity from a position of advantage should be easy.


Edited by HonoredMule - 01 Apr 2010 at 22:38

When you remove any sense of consequences, the world degenerates into a thug fest.  I've played games that let people squeeze neighbors out of the game (Tribal Wars).  It sucked royally.  Even after I established a successful multi-city empire, I ended up quitting out of sheer boredom with the mindless slugging and complete lack of higher strategy or social maturity.

I think SC's idea is a great one! Only a fool wouldn't relocate if they're next to a major power bloc who is pounding them incessantly... Great way for alliances to expand their "spheres of influence" without killing off the other player...

Jim wrote: Stormcrow - great game. Thanks  for it.   xxx

You're welcome!

Here's a suggestion, that may or may not be of interest:

How about allowing players who have their first and only city "levelled" the *option* to relocate - an "Abandon City" button or somesuch - that relocates them to a fresh city on another random part of the map, but keeping their username / account details.

There could be a timer (say 1 week) during which time players have the option to abandon the city or not.  If they chose not to abandon the city during this time, they could seek to join an alliance / hire mercenaries / rebuild their city or whatever they wish to try to keep their foothold - but if the city is still levelled at the end of the one week timer, the relocation could be "forced".

This would apply only to the first city of course.

HonoredMule wrote: 1)  Can a player restart from the same account or somehow forward purchased prestige to the new account?  Can he optionally retain his username and account id?  Or is he forced to abandon one or both of financial investment and a username that he may consider intrinsic to his online presence?  Some people like myself invest heavily into a single username whose reputation has been cultivated for many years.  Losing my username would be a deeper fatality than losing my account.

Think this suggestion handles this.

HonoredMule wrote: 2)  Are accounts that have purchased prestige also be subject to inactivity-triggered account closure?  Will the account holder be able to re-open/restart his account and retain the purchased prestige?  It becomes a sticky matter if real world money could be deducted without any recourse to reclaim the benefit of that investment.

No, prestige accounts won't be closed.  But they would still have their city relocated under this mechanism.

Any thoughts?


Edited by GM Stormcrow - 01 Apr 2010 at 11:17