Am I the only one who's strangely enjoying their fear of larger alliances simply taking what they want? It's a GAME after all, and one of the reasons I enjoy gaming is for the challenge. As a player of sub-4000 population, trying to acquire what I need/want while co-existing with players far, far stronger then I am is an entertaining and very satisfying challenge.
I'm really glad those with the power have a chance to use it on something worthwhile now, since it adds such a more exciting dynamic to the game. When we create concrete, absolute rules like "first come, first serve" and "everyone should get a piece of the pie," the game becomes nothing but monotony, luck, and a heaping helping of whining. Since real lives and livelihoods are not in danger here, and in most cases neither are the cities people have been building for months or years, I see no problem in accepting that "might makes right."
Let's say a player twice your size claims a rare herb spot and kills your harvesters in the process, even though you were there first. Why do you deserve it? Because you saw it first? What about the amount of time and dedication that player put in to grow his armies and cities so that he/she could possess the power to lay claim to such spot? Does that take a backseat to you happening to see the spot on the map first, a factor which measures nothing other than chance and perhaps a little diligence?
As someone mentioned earlier, communication is key. Here's an example of a situation that occured today. I spotter a rare herb spot unguarded, about 8 or so squares from another player. I greatly desired to harvest the spot, as the rare herbs around my gatherer city were all strongly protected and I'm in no position to even barter with the behemoths around it. Before sending an army, however, I messaged the nearby player asking if he/she was planning to harvest there, and if not, could I occupy and harvest it? I got a reply back thanking me for the contact, and that I was free to harvest. Lucky me! I promptly threw together a few charioteers to race to the spot and occupy until my herbalists made it.
Unfortunately, when I logged on later today, I was notified that my soldiers had slaughters some poor gatherers who apparently had been sent out and moved onto the spot between the time when I sent my troops and when they arrived. I decided the best thing to do was send the player an apology message. Lo and behold, the player responded, thanked me for the notice, and said he/she didn't even notice anything had happened, recognized that it was accidental, and that was that.
Once I'm big enough to have a decent army, I would love to engage in some friendly competition, premeditated and organized, with my neighbors for the rare spots. I would also like to test out some shared harvesting systems where we take turns owning the spot and harvesting, perhaps on a weekly basis. Overall I'm very happy with all the updates and the fact that it seems to have stirred the denizens of Illy a little.
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Rare Res and their Armies
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