New incentives needed

[FRANK_THE_TANK]

The low troop count and poorly geared battles aren't really attracting the kind of attendance they need.

On top of that AI fief defences have been pretty bloody awful.

I attended an assault with CA in which we out numbered the defence about 3-1. We totally wiped them out.

I personally think that we need to add a c-rpg gold payout to the battles. That will bring a lot of people in 0 upkeep for a 20min battles and then a big old 15k pay check will get a whole mess of people in.

My 2 cents anyway.

[GOBBLINKINGREATLEADER]

Strategus battles aren't fun.

[Testicleez]

Due to the increased prices of gear, it'll be a little while before things really start to kick up. People are trying to establish confidence in their economy before purposefully waging any major wars, otherwise they'd run out of half-decent gear 3 weeks in (in NA at least). Most battles right now are small since they're mainly attacks against unarmed S&D thieves. I say give it 1-2 months...


But what do I know, I'm just Testi.

[Keshian]

Due to the increased prices of gear, it'll be a little while before things really start to kick up. People are trying to establish confidence in their economy before purposefully waging any major wars, otherwise they'd run out of half-decent gear 3 weeks in (in NA at least). Most battles right now are small since they're mainly attacks against unarmed S&D thieves. I say give it 1-2 months...


But what do I know, I'm just Testi.

Problem is the ai castles and cities actually have pretty decent gear but most of na is allied so even with pseudonyms last 2 castle fights had 33 then 20 mercs.  Could have been great fights with good xp.  Blame the players more than the devs on that one.  Too many people this round want to play trading simulator and take no risks rather than fight.  Wish everyone was like BIRD clan, Wardens of North, Frisians, and Astralis - seems only small clans carrying the torch, while all the largest factions merc for each other, even against ai and dont fight each other.

[Testicleez]

Problem is the ai castles and cities actually have pretty decent gear but most of na is allied so even with pseudonyms last 2 castle fights had 33 then 20 mercs.  Could have been great fights with good xp.  Blame the players more than the devs on that one.  Too many people this round want to play trading simulator and take no risks rather than fight.  Wish everyone was like BIRD clan, Wardens of North, Frisians, and Astralis - seems only small clans carrying the torch, while all the largest factions merc for each other, even against ai and dont fight each other.

Another problem is that not enough people in NA are actively participating in strat this round, and with the new economy it's a joke how slow things are moving. So maybe the large factions are trying save up enough to be able to fund an ongoing war (with actual good gear) against another large faction, instead of back-and-forth welfare battles.

[CrazyCracka420]

Problem is the ai castles and cities actually have pretty decent gear but most of na is allied so even with pseudonyms last 2 castle fights had 33 then 20 mercs.  Could have been great fights with good xp.  Blame the players more than the devs on that one.  Too many people this round want to play trading simulator and take no risks rather than fight.  Wish everyone was like BIRD clan, Wardens of North, Frisians, and Astralis - seems only small clans carrying the torch, while all the largest factions merc for each other, even against ai and dont fight each other.

It's partially that.  But a large part is that people just aren't signing up for strat battles because of other reasons besides being allied/friendly.  I think a lot of it is that people don't feel any reason to fight in these battles, and there's no incentive for them to fight in them (can get better XP in battle servers, and you're not making any gold or silver when you fight in them, and you're not making any strategus ticks either).  So unless you have a personally vested interest in the battle one way or another, why would people be wasting their time to sign up?  You're giving up your x5, lots of xp and lots of gold to go fight in a 5 minute battle?  Maybe it's a snowball effect partially too, people see the defense is weak and not a lot of people are signing up, so they figure they're not going to waste their time fighting a quick battle for no personal gain. 

Frank is hitting the nail on the head (surprising he's able to swing it so accurately when he's likely bombed out of his mind). 

Strat battles right now are not fun.  However when you have even quantity and quality of mercs on both sides, even if gear is outclassed, it's still usually a lot of fun. 

[MURDERTRON]

This thread is full of quitters.

[Artyem]

Problem is the ai castles and cities actually have pretty decent gear but most of na is allied so even with pseudonyms last 2 castle fights had 33 then 20 mercs.  Could have been great fights with good xp.  Blame the players more than the devs on that one.  Too many people this round want to play trading simulator and take no risks rather than fight.  Wish everyone was like BIRD clan, Wardens of North, Frisians, and Astralis - seems only small clans carrying the torch, while all the largest factions merc for each other, even against ai and dont fight each other.

While I do agree with you, I'd just like to point out that Wardens of the North are actually bigger than Kbw, GFORCE and LCO.  Not exactly a small clan, but you're still right that there are too many factions that are unwilling to fight each other.

Personally, I really enjoy the few battles that we have in NA.  People actually tend to die in 1 - 2 hits as opposed to everybody smashing against each other for an hour.  That, and it's actually somewhat exciting to see new gear on the field.  I mean, leather scale and heraldic tunics are cool and all, but I like to see the variety that others use.

[Sandersson Jankins]

Unfortunately, Kesh is correct.

Still, he doesn't tell the whole tale. During the last half of strat 4, you could expect both a fun, relatively balanced fight in most wars, as well as at LEAST 500k XP during a large battle. At the moment, you're lucky to get 200k out of a large battle, and the rosters are going to likely be unbalanced for plenty of reasons. During strat 4 when there was a battle on, you'd have like 25 people still in cRPG, mostly people that were new, too low level to be accepted, or just REALLY REALLY hated strat. Now when there is a battle on, you're likely to see 60 people still on NA1 if its primetime. The XP in NA1 is better, and its simply more fun than a strat fight. The only reason to be in a strat fight now is if you have a dog in the fight, so to speak. You've either got to be allied with or part of a faction fighting, getting paid cRPG gold, or for some reason actually like strat (wow what nerds amirite).

Essentially, strat=dead. Dead people have been revived before, but it doesn't happen too often. We'll see later on.

[GOBBLINKINGREATLEADER]

my grandpa died and was revived

seriously though kesh, the problem isn't MEGA-ALLIANCE NOBODY WANTS TO FIGHT ANYBODY BECAUSE TRADEEEEE OMGOMG

it is just simply not very fun, its hard even getting people into battles when they're allied with you because the battles are unbalanced liquid shit gruel that people don't enjoy

[Gmnotutoo]

It is actually a combination of strat is dead and the people who still play don't want to fight or merc against each other.

[HappyPhantom]

It'll be interesting to see what these big clans who can capture castles do with all their resources...

And be interesting I mean, probably incredibly boring...

[Noodlenrice]

We gotta perform a sabatoge relations act between MB, Gforce, Occitan, Acre, and WoN.

[FRANK_THE_TANK]

I think 2 things.

1) I'm right more incentives

2) The economy is stupid and needs to scale like a mother fucker. It feels like this slow curve upwards and I think it should be more like a nice flat bit with a cliff with a flat bit with a cliff.

You should be able to equip 500 troops with mid level gear for 130k with ease. At the moment you can easily spend that much just on rubbish mid tear armour.

[Noodlenrice]

I think 2 things.

1) I'm right more incentives

2) The economy is stupid and needs to scale like a mother fucker. It feels like this slow curve upwards and I think it should be more like a nice flat bit with a cliff with a flat bit with a cliff.

You should be able to equip 500 troops with mid level gear for 130k with ease. At the moment you can easily spend that much just on rubbish mid tear armour.

Aren't they the same?? But that is besides the point. I have been able to equip my 500 man army with gear I would wear in the battle server. Just one or two long trade runs with 1000 goods.