2 AI village defenses...nobody signs up for defense

[KaMiKaZe_JoE]

I think village defenses go much more smoothly if large numbers of a particular clan/faction sign up together. That way, while the whole team may not be working on the same wave-length, at least little clumps of clanmates will be coordinating.

An official TS/Vent channel server thingy would be helpful for those wishing to organize village defenses, though I might point out that organization is difficult without any sort of chain of command, even if that chain is composed of only two links (one leader, and the mass of 'the lead').

Perhaps somebody--an admin, a dev, or (even better) a person chosen just prior to the battle by popular consent, could be appointed as the A.I. defense's official leader. If defenders got into the habit of doing this, the defense of A.I. shit would be much more coordinated.

[Tomas]

I think the AI only accepts people who sign up every hour on the hour.  So if a battle was at 11:30pm, you'd have to apply before 11pm'ish to be safe.

This is correct as far as my experience goes.  You can still be accepted after the battle starts though.  In the past i have applied for battles 10 mins before they start and still been pending when the server goes up, however after checking back later I find I have been accepted and can fight.  I think this final round of accepting happens at the point the defenders begin to spawn, so 2(?) mins after the advertised battle time.  Could be a bug, could be intentional - I have no idea

[Tomas]

Just had a thought.

Half the advantage from being able to capture undefended AI villages is the loot.  So how about removing loot from AI villages and just awarding a set winners fee of say 20k gold for villages, 100k for castles and 200k for Towns.  This way the only advantage from attacking an undefended town is that its an easy battle and you save your own troops/gear.

Its not perfect by any means, is far too late for this version of Strat and it doesn't address any of Strat's underlying issues but if we do get a reset it will at least have a noticeable and positive impact on the game.