Originally Posted by
Siegfreid
Let me be clear, I don't care about barbarian farming. Barbarian farming is only a means to an end, which is PvP. I farm for resources, which in turn helps me build and support an army, which I use to attack other players with. I don't think there are any objections to classifying Evony as a PvP game.
The main problem is, this PvP game is becoming less of a PvP game and more of a Turtle Game. Typically in most games, being on the defense is more advantageous than being on the offense, and Evony is no exception. I will explain.
Prior to this recent change, there were already 4 main factors that makes attacking another player difficult. These are the defensive advantages:
1. Fortifications: I realize their effectiveness has long been questioned, but several thousand archer towers are still quite useful. They still function as a deterrent for many small to mid sized players, and are quite strong vs melee troops.
2. Relief Hut: The speed increase by it is tremendous. Attacking a player past 10 or 15 miles is very risky as it was. If they are alert, they could easily pull troops from their other towns, or get allied reinforcements long before an attack on them would arrive.
3. Rally Point: This is probably the most limiting factor for an attacker. Suppose I had a 300k army, and so did you. Now since you were defending, you would defend with that entire amount. However as an attacker, my army sized is limited I would be forced to send 3 waves of 100k. Needless to say, you would win fairly easily, assuming we had equal techs.
4. Embassy: Taking the above example, suppose your friend also had an army of 300k, he can reinforce you, which would arrive speedily because of the relief hut. And now my 100k waves are attacking a 600k defending block. In addition, if your friends organizes his army well, he can have that entire army only take up 1 reinforcement slot.
This is just attacking alone, there are numerous difficulties with taking a city as well, which is covered in many other threads. I'll leave that alone for now. So the only consolation as an attacker was that even if my 3x100k attacking armies dies against your 300k defending army, I would still kill part of it, and hope to eventually wear you down.
Now however after the patch, those defensive advantages remain, but now there is a very important 5th advantage. your archers and towers have longer range than mine. In the same scenario instead of killing part of your army, I'd kill next to nothing. I'd lose all my troops and leave myself open to an attack. Attacking a fortified position is now tantamount to suicide.
There are a number of other issues I am not addressing. I'm trying to make this simple and I want to make this perfectly clear, I am looking for PvP. Farming barbarians, is not PvP. Attacking inactives or new players, is not PvP. There is no challenge in either. I want to attack strong people, and I want them to attack me. That is what makes PvP fun. Sometimes you'll win, and sometimes you'll lose. Problem is, now against any equal, competent player, you will always lose.
If I wanted to just build peacefully, I'd go play Simcity. If I wanted to fight against computer or NPCs, there is a number of RTS games out there. What I want, is a PvP game, which is what I thought this game advertises itself as. So why are the PvP elements being gradually reduced?