How I see things....and this is as unbiased as I can possibly be, despite claims to the contrary:
Past merges - alliances were disbanded and had to be reformed
Current merges - alliances were kept intact except where names conflicted
Net positive: People might've taken a few days off and not known about the merge. This keeps the customers in a position where their alliance can still help them if the person is gone for 7+ days (prime example, East Coast snowstorms here in the United States...power could be out for extended periods of time).
Past merges - Advanced Teleports that did not end Truce in 48 hours if used and remained after 7 days.
Current merges - "Pioneer Express" versions of teleports that cause Truce to end 48 hours after use and are removed after 7 days.
Net very negative: I can understand closing the loophole of people creating a bunch of low level cities (positive for Evony), but they should've stopped there. Forcing people out of Truce makes this a negative in a big way. Basically they're saying "we can scatter you all around, but if you try to reorganize, then that ends your protection". Also, this means that people who may have spent money for holiday time will not get the use of the teleporters, or if they were unfortunate enough to be without power due to the repeated storms here or elsewhere.
Best advice on the "express elevator to ending truce", wait 1 day (48 hours ends when your food consumption begins) or wait 5 days (truce ends when the truce would've ended anyway), unless you need / want to start farming / attacking immediately.
Past merges - no resource boosts beyond the kickstart package
Current merge - automatic 100% resource boost for 48 hours
Net positive: Wish those of us on previous merges had that. Could be used to sell excess for gold to buy food, alleviating some need for ending truce early. Might not help much, but some.
Based on those 3 things, my view so far of the new merge strategy is:
Regressively negative
The smaller of a player you are, the more the Pioneer Express teleporting hurts you. Larger players most likely will need to exit truce when food consumption starts, or sooner. Smaller players that would want to have longer amounts of time in Truce are forced to make a decision on when to best move closer to their alliance mates given that 2 days after they do so, they'll be out of truce, but if they wait, valleys and flat locations to teleport to may already be taken. Added to this negative are any people who were away for 7+ days or had already spent money for holiday mode.
All-in-all, it looks like they're trying to force people to attack / be attacked / quit.



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