Massive multiplayer strategy games and their metagame. Can something be done?

[dado]

I think what we need also is anonymous village defenders for defending NPC villages.  This would encourage more people to sign up for village defenses.  With the amount of factions that are in alliance or "friendly" or even neutral, almost no one is singing up against each other.  Making the defenders anonymous would solve that issue.  Obviously you would want to watch the rosters to make sure factions weren't exploiting this but i think it could be easily done.

That is, along with fixing NPC villages not paying people

I like this idea.  A possible extension on it would be a faction with <X number of fiefs gets a % bonus amount of tickets or something for defense.

[Zaharist]

Its UIF that has to change, not the game.

Try to change yourself first. May be then you'll be able to do smth

[Vibe]

Go on, give us some ideas.

Start playing Strategus, not Sim City

[Gheritarish le Loki]

I guess we need a real Clan management system and a real alliance/diplomacy system (for example : you will have to be allied to make some action like transfer troops, for trading you'll need trade agreement, etc.)
I know that such system are oppressive and cut down player creativity, but it comes with restriction that allow to regulate big alliances.
With such system you can favourite small clans and gives restrictions to big clans/alliances.

[Erasmas]

Vibe,

Strategus, as the name suggest it, is about strategy. We (Grey Order) do have a strategic target and we work on it. It takes time in current game environment.

Actually, you should be glad that GO did not do anything in this Strat round yet (except for taking fiefs), but I understand you being worried by that...

EDIT - and trust me, it has nothing to do with any alliances GO may have.

EDIT2 - you got bored? Start the war on your own, I personally have nothing against it. We need to deal with the actions of other players and so you do.

[Vibe]

Is the strategic target one of the UIF clans? No? Ofcourse not

[Blondin]

The problem is that small clan have no other choice that ally to bigger one otherwise they are wiped, i don't say it's not normal and logical, but there is no other option.

Small clan can't exist without a big daddy to cover their back against biiger one, bigger map could solve the problem as small clan could find a place that no one wants.

[Erasmas]

Bullseye, Blondin, I totally agree. IMHO bigger map will resolve this issue to some extent, but may bring another problems, like making everything very local due to time required to go in longer distance. But it is a small price and can be counterbalanced.

Also I am aganist the NA/EU split. To cut the crap that will fall after this statement - not because of any alliances but because it will make Start more complicated and unpredictable, more spicy. Just as it was before. Having a neighbor fighting on different servers forces players makes you to look at matters from another angle, forces players to make more strategic decisions.

EDIT. even a small factions may need a place to stay. How can you expect few guys running the clan of bandits without ability to craft items or recruit troops due to lack of access to the location. 

[Erasmas]

Is the strategic target one of the UIF clans? No? Ofcourse not

It is not your business.

EDIT: Or, actually it may be your business but (on serious note) who gave you the right to allow or disallow other factions to enter into any diplomatic relations with other factions? It is our internal issue. What would you say if we state "Fallen cannot be in alliance with HRE" or "Fallen have to ally with Templars now."

In certain circumstances you may achieve this effect - forced alliance or forced break of the alliance. That is what diplomacy is about, to some extent. We have seen that before (quite recently in fact), it usualy ends badly.

All in all the whole rant about "carebear alliances" should be regarded as badly performed propaganda and provocation. Nasty move but viable. That is a part of the game as well.

[Vibe]

Oh jesus you're so full of shit.

First off, I'm not telling any clan what they should do. I'm simply saying that you and your west Calradia carebear bunch are lame.

Telling facts is "badly performed propaganda"?

[Erasmas]

Oh jesus you're so full of shit.

First off, I'm not telling any clan what they should do. I'm simply saying that you and your west Calradia carebear bunch are lame.

Ah, ok. Fuck you then.

Telling facts is "badly performed propaganda"?

It is not about telling facts, it is about telling the (twisted) perception of them. It is propaganda and it has aim. If you do not see that, I am sorry. In fact, the information on certain events was stated incorrectly, but I am not in position to correct them.

[Lepintoi]

If you have nothing to fear from your neighbours it is a major strategic advantage and you can concentrate all your effort on one spot. Bashi, Raven,Risen and DRZ have nothing to fear from their neighbours and can feed troops to the front and overwhelm the enemy. Thus making it a short lived game, after that of course you can start attacking each other and have epic battles... I'm just annoyed it has to be this way and i can't join in

EDIT : I will not continue on this issue because the good ideas that were stated here are getting flooded out xD

[Tristan]

Hey, Aemaelius before you give me a minus, think for a while. My proposal is probably very simple and fast for implementation. It's important, because we play here and now. Centralization - it's true, but it gives great potential for faction with only one village (read - small clans). You don't need to have a lot of villages to be strong. In our particular case, three or four villages would be ok. It can work nearly as big map.
Simple and quick solution, similar to better XP, without making a doctorate.

PS. Ppl, stop complaining and trolling.

It's not a personal minus, it's a post minus. And I still don't like the idea.

The way I see it, the fewer fiefs the lesser chance a small clans has to even own a domain. It is not a matter of advantage when you have one. It is the problem of getting one at all.

[Nessaj]

Yeah, no.

The problem is that too many are way too friendly towards each other, for no apparent reason due to the current game-play. Having an alliance, or friends should not be an easy side-thing in Strategus, it needs to be a decision that has benefits and consequences, not just benefits. Medieval style!

Making things more local is indeed the right move, if there's far between everyone there's a way better chance of a proper working Strat world for all ways of playing it - Unless a large group predetermine to go to the same place, hence IMO why more installments would be needed, such as dividing all areas into zones where who ever has most land in the Zone is the 'King' of the zone, making everyone else in that zone his subjects, with no exceptions, no one is equal, let's throw some taxes and what not on top too. These zones would need to be very large though so that if you can make a claim for a zone, it would still be a hard task to do and maintain.

I want loads of random bandit attacks, neutrals running around, raids what not going on. Full scale war shouldn't just be something you just do instantly or randomly whenever, especially not ones that take up most of the map in terms of action - not that any Strat round should go without some big ass wars of course, I'm not saying we shouldn't have full scale wars, they need to be there of course, but there's many other aspects to the game that can coexist, all we need is a few damn reasons, at the moment there's no reason not to be in a huge friendship circle, if one wishes to be, at least there should be consequences then, to ensure proper game-play.

[Keshian]

What Strategus could be?  First half of strat 1.0 - tons of little wars between 1 clan possibly 2 clans against another and much vying and fun was had by all.  Then slowly the metagamers arrived where they steadily have been adding everyone and everyone into one mega-alliance and also supported heavy glitching and multi-accounting - all in the name of winning rather than having fun. 

Now this alliance composes over 70% of the player base on strategus and if you don't realize how stupid and boring that is to have 70% of a small community stroking each other's junk, you don't understand any of the fun of strategus where allies one day could be enemies the next or vice versa or sign a  non-aggression pact and buy fiefs or have dynamic fluctuations common by NA side of map.  Frankly - not NA, but these metagamers should have a separate part of the map with an uncrossable ocean and the people trying to have fun, actually can have a fun game environment for all the people wanting to have fun.