I have this tactic... My caravans are my emissaries.. I don't really *need* resources I get from harvesting... my res production is past that point at a bit over 2k an hour... However, I like to keep an eye on my neighbors, especially the new ones to the neighborhood and there is no better way to measure activity of a new player than caravan activity. You see who is active, get a feel for their play times and getting bumped can even be a way of introduction... When there is an introduction and the player is decent in form i'll often send resources and help them along as others have done for me.
NOW... what i've noticed this last week or so is that some players are just rude rude and rude. They dont care if your vans have been harvesting at a spot. They will purposively interrupt your activities, even if the node is right next to your city! you send a mail and get a response basically saying bugger off... Now how the heck does any player (especially those with ~100 pop) get off telling other players to bugger off? It's because we're in a noob friendly game.. but I tell you.. somethings only go so far! If any player tells me to bugger off they go on my black list... they are a truly a bad neighbor and in the end we won't be able to share the same mountain.. the mountain isn't big enough for both of us...
Edited by Meagh - 22 Sep 2011 at 10:27