The reason im quitting

[Emtea]

I have spent a few weeks on this game and yes i put some money into it for the daily chest rewards.   but the Fact that 1 player DAY AFTER DAY AFTER DAY   can sit there and just POUND ME OVER AND OVER AND OVER  and keep my resources down to nothing so i cant rebuild or anything  *which i would call GRIEFIING*   and there is nothing i can do about it  makes me REALLY hate this game.    i cant get protection i cant do anything    just blah...



So thank you  guilherme.az  from fb8  for killing this what i thought was wonderful game  for me.

[Angela]

There is an option which allows a certain Empire to defend itself from the attacks of another one for a certain period according to the speed of the realm. During this period, neither the capitulated Empire nor the attacking one can send attacks to each other. The Capitulation is available in the Command center -> Capitulation menu and is possible only if you haven’t attacked the player you intend to capitulate to in the passed 12 hours in blitz realm (48h for fast realm) and if the player you intend to capitulate to has attacked you in the passed 12 hours for blitz realm (48h for fast realm).

[Brickstin]

I don't mean to post on an old post but I thought because of the relevance to my own situation dealing with being constantly pounded I should share my views and echo the feelings of the OP.

There is a major downside to using Capitulation , when you do this you loose 10% of your MP which is really not fair because when you loose in battle you keep loosing MP and Honor anyhow despite being defender and your not the original aggressor: it's like only delaying and postponing the inevitable impending doom of your aggressor..

This is a way completely different system compared to the game Empires from Goodgames as when one is attacked, there is an automatic time limit installed by the system on your account for that attacker to not be able to attack you for a certain amount of hours, also the more the player attacks you and wins battles against you the less the honor will be received by the attacker whom attacked you;

if you attack more then 3 or 5 times within a 24 hour period the attacker will actually start LOOSING honor because they are attacking someone with NO military defense and your buildings are destroyed and need repairs and there is no soldiers there to even fight against a battle in defense, and .. It is considered dishonoring when you attack someone when they are weak; it is a old Medieval honor structure that existed back in the day: attack someone for honor but only with a worthy Opponent because there is no glory in attacking someone who is completely so much weaker then you it makes you look like a coward and that you have no honor and courage to attack someone as worthy opponent whom could rival with you , as much as I like Imperia game.. it is more themed for a Dark Era (Dark Ages); type time that is when honor really wasn't important anymore and it was all about destroying one another.


Honestly not my forte in this kind Strategy game. lol

[Angela]

Hello Brickstin,

Thank you for your suggestion, I'll forward it for a review. Currently, when a player is attacked by a stronger one with more than twice than his net worth points, the bigger player is punished by honor, morale and attack strength drop. Destroying buildings and army causes net worth points drop, when the weaker player gets outside of net worth points range x2, these punishments apply to the attacker.

[Karminea]

I agree with both Brickstin and Emtea, the amount of attacks are just crazy ! There is not a hope of growing when stronger players constantly attack multiple times and the capitulation is a joke, 42 hours and these 'bullies' return to start over.

Why cannot the game limit the amount of attacks which can be sent against you from players who not only have 2 times your points but a huge amount more military points than you. It is ridiculous that a player who is ranked 87 can attack a player ranked 247 !

[TaurusRex]

It is disheartening trying to put together enough resources to advance one's territory only to again and again have it lost to aggressors
And I also joked about this in the in-game question/bug option where it was suggested to me to offer a suggestion in the forum.

Well I didn't ever make a suggestion about it, so I'll suggest my idea here which was that a mechanism be installed in the game which does a lot more than just add or subtract *"honor points"* ...

A player twice as strong as another attacking with heavy units against light units should find that plague has stricken his populations, locusts have invaded his farms, earthquakes have collapsed his quarries and mines and even civil wars have reduced his armies.

PS:
Although, I have found that I can't play three of these fast games very well and also meet my real life obligations, I'M NOT quitting;
But however, I have also found that I can almost totally occupy myself with just one of these fast games;
And I might even consider joining an alliance where the leadership is just happy to have me as a member without expecting any special alliance tricks from me.      

rex

[Starbuck]

Hi Karminea, TaurusRex


There are many ways to play Imperia Online, but remember that this is first and foremost a battle game, not a city construction game.
therefore, all your efforts should go into recruiting and maintaining an army that can both attack and defend

let's be honest : you won't succeed all the time
there are many options and tactics, plus some random luck.
but if you have a firm grasp of the game mechanics and play sensibly (by the game's standard), then you shouldn't have too much problems progressing

Here are a few advices for you :

1) adopt a development strategy that fits your time availability
no need to play long hours, but quick, frequent logins are a must
the less you play, the more defensive you need be
the more you play, the more offensive you can afford to be

2) a good defense imply 2 things
a) denying a profit to would-be attackers
b) strategic fog-of-war

to deny a profit means both preventing them from pillaging you (do not leave ressources in your fort beyond its vault capacity, just spend or convert it, especially so before you log out for several hours), and strengthening your defenses to the point that an attack becomes unprofitable (because of expected losses or outright defeat)

simple defense tactics include :

raising your Fortification level
building Walls, Tower Defenses and Moat
filling your garrison with Archers (if light units) or Ballista (if Heavy / Elites + a small troops of swordsmen to absorb attacking archer's fire)
using a General whose skill set include Healer (to recover more troops after the battle), Fort Guardian (to increase the Fort's hit points), Tactical Garrison (to increase its size, and thus damage output) and Tactical defender (to increase defending troops's damages)
raising your Armor tech level to give more hitpoints to your troops
fortify your capital, by annexing all four adjacent provinces as soon as possible (Centralisation 4). this will give a -20 Morale penalty to all attackers. the annexation pattern should be like
   x  
x C x
   x

leave a few troops (but not your main army !!) in the field with high defense/hit point capabilities (like swordsmen or cavalry) to force a field battle and decrease further the Morale of any attackers before the siege begins


the strategic fog-of-war includes all tactics to prevent your opponents from having a firm grasp of your true defense capabilities, either through Counter-Espionnage or hiding your main battle army and best general until you need them to ambush your attacker

Counter-Espionnage is both a research and a skill-set (Secret Agent)
the system is relatively simple : if one side has a value that is 5 levels or more than its opposing side, then it's a 100% success, no matter how many spies on either side are engaged
therefore, you need to strive to have a Counter-Espionnage value in both your capital and provinces that is as high as possible to deny your 5x opponents a chance to peek in
Eugenism is the simplest way to achieve this at low cost : marry Great People who have Secret Agent as an Inborn Talent and get the skill Secret Agent
the max bonus is +5 (Talent) and +5 (Skill)
some provinces add a +50% bonus to the skill too

http://prntscr.com/75e66s

let's say that you have an Emperor with Secret Agent both as Talent (+3) and Skill (+5)
your Counter-Espionnage level is 13 with +3 from your Alliance researches
that gives you a basic value of 13 + 3 + 3 + 5 = 24
to this we need to add the province's bonus (but it can vary)
however, it means that you will be able to fend off all espionnage attempts by anyone with an Espionnage value of less 24-5 = 19

you invest 13 and you deflect against all players who invested 19 (less in practice due to Alliance research and skill Master Spy)
and you'll have high odds to do better against stronger players (those with Espionnage > 19 in my example), if you also leave spies in the field. of the capital mainly, but also some in your provinces, colonies, military and commercial posts too

at the very least, captured spies warn you of a possible impending attack !!


strategic fog-of-war is more complicated and means hiding your battle troops from sight
therefore they need to be on movement always, since spy reports only show stationary troops
on movement means either sent on mission to attack/plunder or in Expedition when you are offline
do not leave your troops at home when absent for long period, and always try to send them away from the safety of a military post (activate the option "Retreat" to provide some security)
hiding generals mean using a "fake" or just an average fortress commander in position, while keeping your good defensive general ready to replace him/her when you want to ambush your attacker
few things give as bad a surprise as changing your General from one with a low level, inefficient skill set, to one with +40% Fortress hit points (Fort Guardian Talent and Skill at +20% each) in the last 20s-15s before impact

http://prntscr.com/75e5yo


2) networth and 2x
players who attack outside their 2x have Honor and Morale penalties
that won't prevent some from attacking, but most will refrain
however, be warned that in Alliance War, Honor penalties are suspended and that you can attack another player in your 5x same way if it's a 1 strike retaliation (either because you have been attacked or one of your Dynastic Allies was)

therefore, you should strive to limit your networth growth to a level whose 2x players army strength is highly unlikely to break through your defensive preparations
a classic example are the players who reach Centralisation 6 and upgrade their troops to Heavy, recruiting catapults and go on to attack players in their 2x who are still in their Light units
they play fast and smart, and they deserve to profit from the fruits of their work
the responsibility is on the late-comers to develop by being out of range of those players

this will take a lot of game experience to find the right balance into building/researching/recruiting only what you really need to progress and thus "keep your points low"
troops cost 2x more networth than constructions or research, you should only recruit what troops are most adapted for the missions you want to use them for
not all researches and buildings are vital
all are important, but at different stages of the game
pace your development to keep your defense in line with how strong your would-be pillagers are

in a 4x World, a simple (but not perfect) guide is as follow
build a fort 3 right before exiting 200 points networth
you need a fort 4 before reaching 1000 points
you need a fort 5 before reaching 3000 points
you need a fort 6 before reaching 10k points
you need a fort 7 before reaching 60k points
you need a fort 8 before reaching 200k points
you need a fort 9 before reaching 800k points

it will all depend on your environment, but it's pretty much correct
your safety won't be 100%, it can never be because players are crafty and daring, but you sure will find it a lot easier to play "cool"  


Have fun,

[TaurusRex]

a classic example are the players who reach Centralisation 6 and upgrade their troops to Heavy, recruiting catapults and go on to attack players in their 2x who are still in their Light units
they play fast and smart, and they deserve to profit from the fruits of their work
the responsibility is on the late-comers to develop by being out of range of those players

Hi Starbuck,
originally I admitted that I'm a free-bee player, but I also stated that I still think we free-bee players count for something even if it's just as potentially diamond buying paying players
And/so unfortunately I don't fully agree with your opinion above.

Admittedly there's much about the game I haven't mastered yet, but without diamond assistance there's a lot of wasted effort put into the game for the sake of those that *"deserve to profit from the fruits of their work"* which *"work"* in my humble opinion when a player starts at the same strength as me with his first attack on me and two days later is double my strength, he accomplished because he used *diamond assistance* beyond the given diamond bonuses.

Also, after three days of free-bee playing and finally building a level 6 fortress while also trying to gain level 6 Centralization and then getting my light units attacked by a player from across the map with as many as 10000 heavies of one type alone plus thousands of the other types, if you believe that such players deserve their apples, bananas and oranges because they earned them, I have to say I think it's more because they can afford them;

And as much as I like this game, without sufficient reins on such in my humble opinion game imbalance, I doubt I'll be continuing to vendor fruit much longer.  

rex

[Starbuck]

Hi Taurus


yeah, my wording may have seem a bit harsh
but since you are talking in general terms, there is no way for me to properly assess whether the situation you experienced is due to time played and skills or help from extra bonus

let me give you a practical example : if you build a fort 6 at 10k networth, there is absolutely no way, that you can be besieged successfully by a 10k heavy army ... even assuming that player is 5x from you
most heavy units will be developped around 40k networth at the earliest, and believe me when I say it requires lots of "sacrifices" (in how you developped and played your kingdom)
again, a fort 6 in a fortified capital will have pretty much nothing to fear from such armies, not until they reach around 25k-30k networth themselves

however, if you are talking about how a player with a fort 6 and light units at 50k-60k networth got himself plundered by a 10k heavy army of a player with 90k-100k networth, then I'd say that's pretty common
and truly nothing strange or "unfair"

in the explanations, I gave earlier, I insisted on the strategic responsibility of players to adjust their defense level and rate of growth to the strength of the players in their 2x
I usually build a fort 7 before I'm 30k networth
if not, then that's because I'm Centra 6 before I reached 40k ... but there is still lots of work to do to upgrade my light units into heavies
and unless there are specific conditions (high Morale, multiple Attacker skill bonus, no fortified capital, no archers in garrison ...), it's extremely difficult to break a good fort 6 with fortification 6-8
not impossible, but extremely difficult

as for rate of growth, I usually discount my newbie protection right away
within a few hours I usually get fort 4 build around 500k-700k networth
within 24 hours after starting, my fort 5 is launched
I do not need more than 4-5 days to reach Centralisation 6 ... no strange things or excessive diamonds usage (4 diamonds temple bonus, premium activated, 10hrs bonus production), only active pillaging
and I insist on this, in the beginning you earn way more ressources from plundering than any of the extra bonus I cited

I totally understand that my way of playing IO is not necessarily your cup of coffee
and that's fine
there is plenty of way to play the game. that's the beauty of it.
but you shouldn't assume that because other players progress faster than you, it's necessarily because of some unfair mechanisms
most of the time, it's simply a better grasp of the system, battle experience and more active playing

to play relax, you definitely need to play low points and defensive
just today I got my ass kicked, right before I was going to spend my hard-earned booty ... that's the game   

I play in world 193
if you need more tips on how best to develop as per your tactical environment, don't hesitate to ask


Have fun,

[Brickstin]

Hello Brickstin,

Thank you for your suggestion, I'll forward it for a review. Currently, when a player is attacked by a stronger one with more than twice than his net worth points, the bigger player is punished by honor, morale and attack strength drop. Destroying buildings and army causes net worth points drop, when the weaker player gets outside of net worth points range x2, these punishments apply to the attacker.

Oh is that soo? well then some punishments being there is good then it is somewhat like Empires then a little bit like it that is.

Still a delay timer would be wonderful: perhaps if one is attacked 2 or 3 times within a 12 hour period; one can use the capitulation option as defender and not being the original aggressor there would be no punishment induced on the defender?

[Himself]

Capitulation is NEVER an option.
 

 


Find a way to use your resources and fight back with the army you build.

I must modify this.....Capitulation is NEVER an option for ME     Fight fight fight

[beicumine]

let me play ur account one month and u will be a feared monster   

[Starbuck]

let me play ur account one month and u will be a feared monster   

lol

you damn farmer !!