Rant: The early game meta of raiding inactive nations is kind of boring

[Nadya Iwakura]

So, I'm just coming back to the game, and like most of the other new players, I've raided a bunch of inactives. But... it doesn't really feel rewarding. It's just searching through the war score finder for something that isn't in vacation mode or beiged or in a competent alliance, 10 ground battles, perhaps micromanaging to replace fallen units if you feel like it, against no resistance apart from the RNG of infrastructure to your army. Fighting players with comparable military strength to you can bring some level of excitement, but most of the time there's no real incentive to do so, and you're just going to lose more resources that way. Resource production for income doesn't really work in alliances with high tax rates, so instead you have to raid since resources you get through raids isn't taxed, and commerce buildings feel extremely weak in comparison to both of those options and also suffer from the same issue of being unable to work to sustain your nation if it all goes to your alliance bank. So the only real option as a new player, at least in my opinion, is to find interesting things to do through the community of the game, like writing about your nation on the wiki or national RP subforum, or chatting on the P&W forums or alliance discord servers/alliance IRC/alliance forums/etc. NPC nations used to be a concept some years ago if I remember correctly, and I think there was one in the game at one point, but it was never brought to being a full feature, sadly. Wasn't there a concept of a technology system, too? I just wish the early game experience wasn't so dry. Oh, well. I wonder if Sheepy is working on a new game at this point, since there haven't been many new features?

[Changeup]

12 hours ago, Nadya Iwakura said:

So, I'm just coming back to the game, and like most of the other new players, I've raided a bunch of inactives. But... it doesn't really feel rewarding. It's just searching through the war score finder for something that isn't in vacation mode or beiged or in a competent alliance, 10 ground battles, perhaps micromanaging to replace fallen units if you feel like it, against no resistance apart from the RNG of infrastructure to your army. Fighting players with comparable military strength to you can bring some level of excitement, but most of the time there's no real incentive to do so, and you're just going to lose more resources that way. Resource production for income doesn't really work in alliances with high tax rates, so instead you have to raid since resources you get through raids isn't taxed, and commerce buildings feel extremely weak in comparison to both of those options and also suffer from the same issue of being unable to work to sustain your nation if it all goes to your alliance bank. So the only real option as a new player, at least in my opinion, is to find interesting things to do through the community of the game, like writing about your nation on the wiki or national RP subforum, or chatting on the P&W forums or alliance discord servers/alliance IRC/alliance forums/etc. NPC nations used to be a concept some years ago if I remember correctly, and I think there was one in the game at one point, but it was never brought to being a full feature, sadly. Wasn't there a concept of a technology system, too? I just wish the early game experience wasn't so dry. Oh, well. I wonder if Sheepy is working on a new game at this point, since there haven't been many new features?

Simple solution, raid nations from micro alliances.

[Avatar Patrick]

I actually find the later portions of the game to be more boring. When you're just sitting around on a farming build doing literally nothing to make money. At least raids require a few button clicks lol. Where the game really shines is active wars between alliances where you can coordinate with teammates and lay waste. We prob won't be seeing that for a while though.

[Nadya Iwakura]

1 hour ago, Changeup said:

Simple solution, raid nations from micro alliances.

Sadly the more fun options always seem to be inefficient in this game. In the only war I am actually finding challenge in, the opponent has no money to loot so I am simply draining resources.

1 hour ago, Avatar Patrick said:

I actually find the later portions of the game to be more boring. When you're just sitting around on a farming build doing literally nothing to make money. At least raids require a few button clicks lol. Where the game really shines is active wars between alliances where you can coordinate with teammates and lay waste. We prob won't be seeing that for a while though.

Children of the Light allows trainees to do this in wars against micros, but there isn't as much loot in comparison to the more mundane option of raiding inactive nations.

Edited June 19, 2020 by Nadya Iwakura

[Rin]

Ads: Run your own nation! Own a military!

Actual game: Buy max planes and soldiers and press 10 buttons every 12 hours for 3 months, so that you can press no buttons and complain about how boring the game is.

Honestly, if it weren't for politics and spreadsheets, I'd be out of here.

Alliances have to educate newbies that the rest of the game is fun and involve them in the gov pipeline right away. tS, Camelot, and Rose seem to be doing a good job at this, but most alliances are still too focused on growth and dismissive of newbies who get bored when they don't see any better gameplay.

[Nadya Iwakura]

1 hour ago, Rin said:

Ads: Run your own nation! Own a military!

Actual game: Buy max planes and soldiers and press 10 buttons every 12 hours for 3 months, so that you can press no buttons and complain about how boring the game is.

Honestly, if it weren't for politics and spreadsheets, I'd be out of here.

Alliances have to educate newbies that the rest of the game is fun and involve them in the gov pipeline right away. tS, Camelot, and Rose seem to be doing a good job at this, but most alliances are still too focused on growth and dismissive of newbies who get bored when they don't see any better gameplay.

Perfectly said, thanks!

[Azaghul]

Not to dismiss everything else, but the tax issue can be solved by joining an alliance without a crippling tax rate.

[KingGhost]

Welcome to a browser based game, if anything low tier raiding probably keeps you active. And it’s free money. I don’t think a lot of people are here for the action packed gameplay but instead the community.

[katashimon13]

Rant: The early game meta of raiding inactive nations is kind of boring

fixed the title for u

rawr

Edited June 30, 2020 by katashimon13
rawr

[Sid]

The early game is just a means to an end I feel like. And like KingGhost said the communities are what drives PnW.