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Triangle's Story: Independent alliance and None Ruby Players
Introduction
So this is a "My Story" thread. Specifically, it's my, "my Story" thread. Now, I am fully aware that I am not as insane as many people here, I am not as experienced as Eric, I am not as Turnip obsessed as Baldrick (was), and I am not cannibalistic enough to eat a turnip obsessed forum goer. As such, one might well assume my story to be relatively bland and uninteresting to the average player. However, I have managed to come up with two ways in which I hope to make this thread not only unique, but also relevant. More specifically, relevant to you. Firstly, I hope to use my story, not only as an entity in itself, but also to show and explain to you how I think, what my view on various topics are, and how my experiences (that are rather extensive) have shaped these. If you ever wondered why I despise family alliances, you can find out here. If you have never wondered this, or never knew about this, you can start wondering now.
The second reason why this thread may be interesting to you, is that I have now achieved the title of "the terrible", without buying rubies, and while playing in an independent alliance on INT1 (No Foreign Invaders involved either). Although my story is a bit more muddy than you might think from hearing just that. Again, you will have to read on to know more.
I should also say that this story is not only about me. I hope that you will find many themes included here, but perhaps the main one concerns the group of friends I joined when I first entered the alliance that would be my home, and how that group changed, evolved and eventually eroded.
Please, enjoy.
Chapter 1: The Beginning
So I joined the game in the last month of 2012. I was bored at the time, and hoping to find a free "castle building simulator", sort of like Sim City, except with castles. Boy was I wrong. Still with the thought of a castle building game in my head, I contented myself with building my castle, and doing quests, mainly because I didn't know what else to do. When I got a quest for it, I joined a small alliance that had a few castles near my own. I remember little from this time, but I believe they where nice people. After a few days, I was the only active player in there, and their "leader", although there really wasn't much to lead.
It was then that I found a little known independent alliance called Minden Militia. I don't know who contacted whom first, but I ended up writing a long introduction for myself as an application (mostly because I thought that's how applications where supposed to be), that suitably impressed the leaders that they let me in. I was one of the first 10 members they had.
The leaders of this alliance where a pair of brothers, one called Phalifax, the other Mhalifax. They had been part of a STEEL sub, but left it shortly before the fall of STEEL to found their own alliance. The practices and people they had seen in STEEL had not impressed them, and their goal had become to create a fair and honest independent alliance, that would not be associated with all the bullying then common amongst large families. To put it bluntly, their views rubbed off on me. Over the next two years, I would develop a disgust for most of the major and minor family alliances, and this disgust would only be reenforced by my subsequent experiences.
Personally, I feel that those first few months where the best I ever had in the game. We where a small group; no more than 20 members, but very close-nit. Not the most active of players, but happy to be there and interested in helping each other whenever possible. There where only two high level players: Phalifax and another guy called Sefaron. It was this time, so filled with inexperience and naiveté, that turned out to be the glue that would stick me forever to this alliance. Through thick and thin, through all the social and military difficulties that would accompany us, Minden Militia would forever remain my home.
Chapter 2: First Conflict
One day, the shady character event appeared. I had completed this a number of times, and by now thought little of sending out another attack. Unfortunately, this one turned out to be somewhat more difficult, and I required two attempts to finally break my target's defenses. However, it was then that my personal life intervened, and I went on holiday for a week. When I came back, I found that the player's alliance (now called Saladin Ayubis), and their family (Magic) had declared war on us. I and all my friends where on fire and utterly defeated. It was my first war, and I hadn't even been there to help, despite me being the trigger for this event.
Of course, I was horribly embarrassed, and immediately sent a circular to the alliance apologizing with a long message (This was, come to think of it, probably my first circular as well). Most of them told me not to worry about it, that they had been glad to fight and only sorry that they weren't able to defend my castle better. As I said, they where a very friendly group, and we all knew each other well.
Now, this war had two effects. The first was that, amazingly, our stubbornness had actually earned some respect amongst the magic family (no thanks to me, of course), and thereby given us our first major ally (of sorts). The none aggression agreement that was then founded would survive, even after the Magic Family was absorbed by other, larger groups. Later, when Sefaron left Minden Militia due to ideological differences with Phalifax and Mhalifax, he would join Magic, and eventually rise to become one of the leaders of a large Magic sub. His castle still stands today, although I think he may be inactive. However, despite the relatively good fortunes we enjoyed in connection to this family, I do not exempt them from the feelings that will be expressed in chapter 3. Read on to know more.
The second effect was that it set up an unfortunate but enduring pattern, that would reemerge later on when my quest to become "the terrible" went into full force. I would attack a family, usually for glory, although sometimes for revenge, which resulted in a declaration of war. Through a combination of grit, stubbornness and Phalifax's excellent diplomacy, we would usually be relieved of this within 1-2 days, but it greatly annoyed some of the other leaders, and became one of the main points of criticisms I have for my behavior in our alliance. It is interesting though that these declarations of war seemed to grow lesser and lesser the higher my glory title.
Magic, as mentioned previously, would eventually be absorbed by other alliances. Saladin Ayubis attempted to split with magic and become an independent family, but never got far. We would have a few more wars with them, all decisively turning out in our favor. They still exist today, although I don't know if any of the members from back then are still in the alliance.
Chapter 3:Fighting as an independent Alliance
Over the next year or so, nothing significant really happened. At least, not in the sense of a monumental event. Instead, we had many gradual shifts. Slowly, more members would join, I became one of the leaders of the alliance, and we slowly built upwards. The former, tight-nit group from the best of days was slowly whittled away as some left, some became inactive, and the few that remained (perhaps 3-6 of us), where gradually diluted by other people. To be sure, these new recruits where all fun, nice people. But while the "Old Guard", still remained firmly in control as the leadership of the alliance, the character of the alliance I had joined was forever altered. Not for worse, nor for better. Simply different.
Due to the lack of defining events, I thought it appropriate to quickly discuss, how it was to be a relatively small, independent alliance, at the prime time of a server famous for the might of it's families. To put it one way, it was a mixture of rough treatment and regular humiliation. One learned very quickly, that it is impossible to win against a family alliance*. Oh, one can fight like a tiger, one can stay online each day for 20 hours. But when one is outnumbered three or four to one, by people who are about 15 levels stronger than the average member in your alliance, skill and determination are not enough to save you.
And perhaps the most infuriating part of it all is how little effort some families seem to put into it. Despite weak attacks, despite poor timing and despite an almost complete lack of understanding of the game, the sheer number of enemies is enough to eventually get you. Some day, an attack or two will land when you are offline, when you are incapable of responding, and there isn't anything you can do. The sense of helplessness is simply indescribable.
You are usually threatened with such a war nearly every week, normally by a snarky big-wig with the mental acuity of a 12 year old who barely knows english but happens to be part of a family. However, what makes it even worse, is that after a while, a sort of defeatism sets in. With all the futile wars, and that feeling of humiliation, most players who want to really become powerful end up joining a family. That, or they become ever more inactive, ever less likely to set up a defense when they go to bed, ever more unlikely to attack another RBC, and ever more unlikely to log in the next day. And then people wonder why small alliances don't survive.
"while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must"
So this all sounds terrible and so on and so forth. But it can't have all been that bad; after all, we survived, didn't we? I could always leave the game, couldn't I?
Well, yes and no. Many, many many of my old friends have left the game, joined families or become largely inactive. It should also be said that on the entire Int1 server, I can think of only three reasonably large independent alliances who are fairly certain to be here next month. The reason that we survived, instead of any of the other dozens of independent alliances that have surely been started in the last few years, I would say is mostly due to our community. That original group of players of which I speak so much may have been mostly diluted, but we where successful in fostering a continued spirit of community, and in attracting more intelligent, fun and diverse people to expand our group. Once, a diplomat from HW Lords (then an independent alliance) joined us to negotiate a possible none aggression agreement. He ended up staying permanently. But the problem with such a system is that the fortunes of the alliance rise and fall with the strength of the community, and just as this player joined in a time of strength, he also ended up abandoning us when we where weak. As the character and the people within my alliance continue to change, I cannot help but remark upon the irony, that the strongest alliances are built upon the shifting foundations of people's day to day interactions.
*Quick Note: I am aware that Rat Pack is an independent alliance that has succeeded in holding it's own against the large families. However, Rat Pack is in many ways an anomaly. Furthermore, they have the significant advantage of being highly developed and having many ruby players. I also remember something along the lines of "in friendly union with Bad Boys" popping up in connection to them.
Chapter 4:The Quest for the Terrible
So this brings us to the start of 2014. The alliance was growing nicely, and I was one of their leaders. It was then that an old member came back to the game, after having left several months prior. This player was called Vlad_i_Mir, and his castle was rather close to my own. I must have been Duke, or Vice Duke at the time, because I became rather embarrassed, when I realized that this new player, with a level of around 20ish, had a glory title several ranks above my own (Archduke). Until then, I had never really paid much attention to glory titles, but now it irked me. Vlad was a ruby buyer, a good player and had won a top 3 prize in a low level glory tournament. I set out to outdo him.
The decision was fairly quickly made, that I wanted to become "the terrible". But the thing is that there are lots of people with that rank. What would it matter, if one more player managed to get it?There was only one achievement in connection to glory that I had never heard beaten before, and that was to claim the top title without buying any rubies. I decided to dedicate myself to this goal, partially because nobody else seems to have done it, and partially because it basically makes you an instant-expert in all forum discussions related to playing as a none ruby buyer.
Now, I should say right off the bat that I did not stay perfectly aligned to these self imposed restrictions. Specifically, there where two incidents in which I gained rubies of one sort or another outside of the usual game mechanics. The first of these incidents was when a very heavy ruby buying, but also very nice, friend, without prompting, agreed to allowing me to buy 5$ worth of rubies using this player's money, as a gift. The second incident was when another great friend organized for me to capture one of her RVs, which held a total of 80 armorer mantlets. If you feel that these two occurrences disqualified me from the classification of "none ruby buyer", then I would also inform you that shortly after the first of these incidents, my computer managed to lag out, and, without my being aware of it, put out all the fires in my MC. This lag cost me roughly 15k rubies, as compared to the 6k I got from my first friend.
Chapter 5: Fighting as a None Ruby Buyer
I mentioned previously the discussions surrounding how it is to be a none ruby buyer, and I've noticed that there is a general consensus that none ruby buyers are virtually incapable of properly competing in this game, and standing toe-to-toe with ruby players. Some, may consider my success in becoming the terrible while remaining more or less a none ruby buyer proof, or at least evidence, that this consensus is false. Unfortunately, I will have to disappoint such people.
It's not so much that none ruby players are incapable of competing with proper ruby players (which they aren't), more that they are simply playing a different game. There are many examples and experiences I could point to, in order to substantiate this claim, but probably the best metaphor can be found in a description of how it is like to attack as a none ruby player. To put it shortly, "tactics" in the usual sense, have been replaced by singular "tricks". The problem is that when using resource tools, any and all changes in the defensive setup of any player using but a few ruby tools is enough to beat you. No matter how smart you are, no matter how well you understand the game, no matter how cleverly you set up your waves, if the defender is online, you will lose. What does this mean? Well, in essence it means that wether you win or lose, depends entirely upon if the enemy is online, which in turn depends upon your ability to judge what part of the world he lives in. Tactics, and real gameplay, have been replaced by time consuming, boring, and above all repetitive tricks.
And so it is with all none ruby players. What might be a varied and interesting gameplay, has been restricted to the point that the only way to gain necessary advantages, such as glory, rubies or resources, is to find tricks (Nomads, Sand Fortresses etc) and spam the hell out of them. Ruby and None Ruby players share the same map and score-boards, but they are playing different games.
(Final Chapter) Chapter 6: The End of the Old
So now we come to the last chapter of this story. It was originally slated to be named "the final crisis". However, my story is still ongoing, and as such I felt such a title to be misleading.
It so came that a new crisis overcame our alliance. However, this one was different from the usual conflicts, threats and wars, in that it was a social crisis. It is the nature of such social crises to resist discussion, and this one in particular left a lot of scars. Therefore, I will go no further in describing the event itself than to say that over a short period of time (perhaps, 2-3 months), a large number of players joined Minden Militia, skyrocketing our membership from around 39 to more than 50 members, only to leave again, taking some while leaving others behind. Many, many friendships where formed, only to be smashed apart, leaving only resentment and bitter feelings in their wake. But what made it even worse, was that while this was happening, our leader phalifax was forced to give up the leadership position and become largely inactive, due to unrelated real life events.
All this was quite unlike anything we had experienced before. We where a largely none ruby buying alliance, and yet millions of rubies had been donated to our fund. We had been growing slowly, 40 members over about 1.5 years, and yet our members count had flown through the roof. And until that time, the leadership had always remained firmly in the control of the "old guard", lead by phalifax and his brother, mhalifax.
It's hard to describe how all this changed us. First, there was of course the upswing in members, which made internal arguments more common, and the people less easy to manage. Although this had been becoming more and more frequent, it was now even more unlikely that you knew somebody intimately. But our leadership also changed. Previously, there had been a "leader's council", that included all the old members from back when I started, in which all important decisions where made, all promotions agreed upon and all jobs given out, in private. A sort of, dictatorship of the council of elders. But the resignation of phalifax signaled the end of this system. Instead, a new member with the name of Spekula, more or less took over the day to day running of the alliance. In all fairness, she is great at her job, and without her charisma and charm, the alliance would probably have already fallen apart. For better or for worse, discussions of war and peace, NAPs and allies, where now being conducted in the alliance chat, in full public view. I don't know if spek even knows the old leader's council ever existed.
The reason I choose to end this story here, is because I consider it to be the final end of the old Minden Militia I had joined, way back in 2012. That is not to say that this new, invigorated, lively Minden Militia is in some way worse than the old; in most way I consider it to be superior. But the fundamental system, the old group of friends that we once where, who grew to lead a community of newer and fresher players, has finally been eroded to the point that I no longer recognize the sculpture I see before me. In a way, this is the story of that old group of friends from the best of days. And yet, that story is and always will also be my story.
Thank you for reading my story (if you've gotten this far). Feel free to share your own experiences and thoughts.
Regards,
-triangle
GLORY MILITIA!
So this is a "My Story" thread. Specifically, it's my, "my Story" thread. Now, I am fully aware that I am not as insane as many people here, I am not as experienced as Eric, I am not as Turnip obsessed as Baldrick (was), and I am not cannibalistic enough to eat a turnip obsessed forum goer. As such, one might well assume my story to be relatively bland and uninteresting to the average player. However, I have managed to come up with two ways in which I hope to make this thread not only unique, but also relevant. More specifically, relevant to you. Firstly, I hope to use my story, not only as an entity in itself, but also to show and explain to you how I think, what my view on various topics are, and how my experiences (that are rather extensive) have shaped these. If you ever wondered why I despise family alliances, you can find out here. If you have never wondered this, or never knew about this, you can start wondering now.
The second reason why this thread may be interesting to you, is that I have now achieved the title of "the terrible", without buying rubies, and while playing in an independent alliance on INT1 (No Foreign Invaders involved either). Although my story is a bit more muddy than you might think from hearing just that. Again, you will have to read on to know more.
I should also say that this story is not only about me. I hope that you will find many themes included here, but perhaps the main one concerns the group of friends I joined when I first entered the alliance that would be my home, and how that group changed, evolved and eventually eroded.
Please, enjoy.
Chapter 1: The Beginning
So I joined the game in the last month of 2012. I was bored at the time, and hoping to find a free "castle building simulator", sort of like Sim City, except with castles. Boy was I wrong. Still with the thought of a castle building game in my head, I contented myself with building my castle, and doing quests, mainly because I didn't know what else to do. When I got a quest for it, I joined a small alliance that had a few castles near my own. I remember little from this time, but I believe they where nice people. After a few days, I was the only active player in there, and their "leader", although there really wasn't much to lead.
It was then that I found a little known independent alliance called Minden Militia. I don't know who contacted whom first, but I ended up writing a long introduction for myself as an application (mostly because I thought that's how applications where supposed to be), that suitably impressed the leaders that they let me in. I was one of the first 10 members they had.
The leaders of this alliance where a pair of brothers, one called Phalifax, the other Mhalifax. They had been part of a STEEL sub, but left it shortly before the fall of STEEL to found their own alliance. The practices and people they had seen in STEEL had not impressed them, and their goal had become to create a fair and honest independent alliance, that would not be associated with all the bullying then common amongst large families. To put it bluntly, their views rubbed off on me. Over the next two years, I would develop a disgust for most of the major and minor family alliances, and this disgust would only be reenforced by my subsequent experiences.
Personally, I feel that those first few months where the best I ever had in the game. We where a small group; no more than 20 members, but very close-nit. Not the most active of players, but happy to be there and interested in helping each other whenever possible. There where only two high level players: Phalifax and another guy called Sefaron. It was this time, so filled with inexperience and naiveté, that turned out to be the glue that would stick me forever to this alliance. Through thick and thin, through all the social and military difficulties that would accompany us, Minden Militia would forever remain my home.
Chapter 2: First Conflict
One day, the shady character event appeared. I had completed this a number of times, and by now thought little of sending out another attack. Unfortunately, this one turned out to be somewhat more difficult, and I required two attempts to finally break my target's defenses. However, it was then that my personal life intervened, and I went on holiday for a week. When I came back, I found that the player's alliance (now called Saladin Ayubis), and their family (Magic) had declared war on us. I and all my friends where on fire and utterly defeated. It was my first war, and I hadn't even been there to help, despite me being the trigger for this event.
Of course, I was horribly embarrassed, and immediately sent a circular to the alliance apologizing with a long message (This was, come to think of it, probably my first circular as well). Most of them told me not to worry about it, that they had been glad to fight and only sorry that they weren't able to defend my castle better. As I said, they where a very friendly group, and we all knew each other well.
Now, this war had two effects. The first was that, amazingly, our stubbornness had actually earned some respect amongst the magic family (no thanks to me, of course), and thereby given us our first major ally (of sorts). The none aggression agreement that was then founded would survive, even after the Magic Family was absorbed by other, larger groups. Later, when Sefaron left Minden Militia due to ideological differences with Phalifax and Mhalifax, he would join Magic, and eventually rise to become one of the leaders of a large Magic sub. His castle still stands today, although I think he may be inactive. However, despite the relatively good fortunes we enjoyed in connection to this family, I do not exempt them from the feelings that will be expressed in chapter 3. Read on to know more.
The second effect was that it set up an unfortunate but enduring pattern, that would reemerge later on when my quest to become "the terrible" went into full force. I would attack a family, usually for glory, although sometimes for revenge, which resulted in a declaration of war. Through a combination of grit, stubbornness and Phalifax's excellent diplomacy, we would usually be relieved of this within 1-2 days, but it greatly annoyed some of the other leaders, and became one of the main points of criticisms I have for my behavior in our alliance. It is interesting though that these declarations of war seemed to grow lesser and lesser the higher my glory title.
Magic, as mentioned previously, would eventually be absorbed by other alliances. Saladin Ayubis attempted to split with magic and become an independent family, but never got far. We would have a few more wars with them, all decisively turning out in our favor. They still exist today, although I don't know if any of the members from back then are still in the alliance.
Chapter 3:Fighting as an independent Alliance
Over the next year or so, nothing significant really happened. At least, not in the sense of a monumental event. Instead, we had many gradual shifts. Slowly, more members would join, I became one of the leaders of the alliance, and we slowly built upwards. The former, tight-nit group from the best of days was slowly whittled away as some left, some became inactive, and the few that remained (perhaps 3-6 of us), where gradually diluted by other people. To be sure, these new recruits where all fun, nice people. But while the "Old Guard", still remained firmly in control as the leadership of the alliance, the character of the alliance I had joined was forever altered. Not for worse, nor for better. Simply different.
Due to the lack of defining events, I thought it appropriate to quickly discuss, how it was to be a relatively small, independent alliance, at the prime time of a server famous for the might of it's families. To put it one way, it was a mixture of rough treatment and regular humiliation. One learned very quickly, that it is impossible to win against a family alliance*. Oh, one can fight like a tiger, one can stay online each day for 20 hours. But when one is outnumbered three or four to one, by people who are about 15 levels stronger than the average member in your alliance, skill and determination are not enough to save you.
And perhaps the most infuriating part of it all is how little effort some families seem to put into it. Despite weak attacks, despite poor timing and despite an almost complete lack of understanding of the game, the sheer number of enemies is enough to eventually get you. Some day, an attack or two will land when you are offline, when you are incapable of responding, and there isn't anything you can do. The sense of helplessness is simply indescribable.
You are usually threatened with such a war nearly every week, normally by a snarky big-wig with the mental acuity of a 12 year old who barely knows english but happens to be part of a family. However, what makes it even worse, is that after a while, a sort of defeatism sets in. With all the futile wars, and that feeling of humiliation, most players who want to really become powerful end up joining a family. That, or they become ever more inactive, ever less likely to set up a defense when they go to bed, ever more unlikely to attack another RBC, and ever more unlikely to log in the next day. And then people wonder why small alliances don't survive.
"while the strong do what they can and the weak suffer what they must"
So this all sounds terrible and so on and so forth. But it can't have all been that bad; after all, we survived, didn't we? I could always leave the game, couldn't I?
Well, yes and no. Many, many many of my old friends have left the game, joined families or become largely inactive. It should also be said that on the entire Int1 server, I can think of only three reasonably large independent alliances who are fairly certain to be here next month. The reason that we survived, instead of any of the other dozens of independent alliances that have surely been started in the last few years, I would say is mostly due to our community. That original group of players of which I speak so much may have been mostly diluted, but we where successful in fostering a continued spirit of community, and in attracting more intelligent, fun and diverse people to expand our group. Once, a diplomat from HW Lords (then an independent alliance) joined us to negotiate a possible none aggression agreement. He ended up staying permanently. But the problem with such a system is that the fortunes of the alliance rise and fall with the strength of the community, and just as this player joined in a time of strength, he also ended up abandoning us when we where weak. As the character and the people within my alliance continue to change, I cannot help but remark upon the irony, that the strongest alliances are built upon the shifting foundations of people's day to day interactions.
*Quick Note: I am aware that Rat Pack is an independent alliance that has succeeded in holding it's own against the large families. However, Rat Pack is in many ways an anomaly. Furthermore, they have the significant advantage of being highly developed and having many ruby players. I also remember something along the lines of "in friendly union with Bad Boys" popping up in connection to them.
Chapter 4:The Quest for the Terrible
So this brings us to the start of 2014. The alliance was growing nicely, and I was one of their leaders. It was then that an old member came back to the game, after having left several months prior. This player was called Vlad_i_Mir, and his castle was rather close to my own. I must have been Duke, or Vice Duke at the time, because I became rather embarrassed, when I realized that this new player, with a level of around 20ish, had a glory title several ranks above my own (Archduke). Until then, I had never really paid much attention to glory titles, but now it irked me. Vlad was a ruby buyer, a good player and had won a top 3 prize in a low level glory tournament. I set out to outdo him.
The decision was fairly quickly made, that I wanted to become "the terrible". But the thing is that there are lots of people with that rank. What would it matter, if one more player managed to get it?There was only one achievement in connection to glory that I had never heard beaten before, and that was to claim the top title without buying any rubies. I decided to dedicate myself to this goal, partially because nobody else seems to have done it, and partially because it basically makes you an instant-expert in all forum discussions related to playing as a none ruby buyer.
Now, I should say right off the bat that I did not stay perfectly aligned to these self imposed restrictions. Specifically, there where two incidents in which I gained rubies of one sort or another outside of the usual game mechanics. The first of these incidents was when a very heavy ruby buying, but also very nice, friend, without prompting, agreed to allowing me to buy 5$ worth of rubies using this player's money, as a gift. The second incident was when another great friend organized for me to capture one of her RVs, which held a total of 80 armorer mantlets. If you feel that these two occurrences disqualified me from the classification of "none ruby buyer", then I would also inform you that shortly after the first of these incidents, my computer managed to lag out, and, without my being aware of it, put out all the fires in my MC. This lag cost me roughly 15k rubies, as compared to the 6k I got from my first friend.
Chapter 5: Fighting as a None Ruby Buyer
I mentioned previously the discussions surrounding how it is to be a none ruby buyer, and I've noticed that there is a general consensus that none ruby buyers are virtually incapable of properly competing in this game, and standing toe-to-toe with ruby players. Some, may consider my success in becoming the terrible while remaining more or less a none ruby buyer proof, or at least evidence, that this consensus is false. Unfortunately, I will have to disappoint such people.
It's not so much that none ruby players are incapable of competing with proper ruby players (which they aren't), more that they are simply playing a different game. There are many examples and experiences I could point to, in order to substantiate this claim, but probably the best metaphor can be found in a description of how it is like to attack as a none ruby player. To put it shortly, "tactics" in the usual sense, have been replaced by singular "tricks". The problem is that when using resource tools, any and all changes in the defensive setup of any player using but a few ruby tools is enough to beat you. No matter how smart you are, no matter how well you understand the game, no matter how cleverly you set up your waves, if the defender is online, you will lose. What does this mean? Well, in essence it means that wether you win or lose, depends entirely upon if the enemy is online, which in turn depends upon your ability to judge what part of the world he lives in. Tactics, and real gameplay, have been replaced by time consuming, boring, and above all repetitive tricks.
And so it is with all none ruby players. What might be a varied and interesting gameplay, has been restricted to the point that the only way to gain necessary advantages, such as glory, rubies or resources, is to find tricks (Nomads, Sand Fortresses etc) and spam the hell out of them. Ruby and None Ruby players share the same map and score-boards, but they are playing different games.
(Final Chapter) Chapter 6: The End of the Old
So now we come to the last chapter of this story. It was originally slated to be named "the final crisis". However, my story is still ongoing, and as such I felt such a title to be misleading.
It so came that a new crisis overcame our alliance. However, this one was different from the usual conflicts, threats and wars, in that it was a social crisis. It is the nature of such social crises to resist discussion, and this one in particular left a lot of scars. Therefore, I will go no further in describing the event itself than to say that over a short period of time (perhaps, 2-3 months), a large number of players joined Minden Militia, skyrocketing our membership from around 39 to more than 50 members, only to leave again, taking some while leaving others behind. Many, many friendships where formed, only to be smashed apart, leaving only resentment and bitter feelings in their wake. But what made it even worse, was that while this was happening, our leader phalifax was forced to give up the leadership position and become largely inactive, due to unrelated real life events.
All this was quite unlike anything we had experienced before. We where a largely none ruby buying alliance, and yet millions of rubies had been donated to our fund. We had been growing slowly, 40 members over about 1.5 years, and yet our members count had flown through the roof. And until that time, the leadership had always remained firmly in the control of the "old guard", lead by phalifax and his brother, mhalifax.
It's hard to describe how all this changed us. First, there was of course the upswing in members, which made internal arguments more common, and the people less easy to manage. Although this had been becoming more and more frequent, it was now even more unlikely that you knew somebody intimately. But our leadership also changed. Previously, there had been a "leader's council", that included all the old members from back when I started, in which all important decisions where made, all promotions agreed upon and all jobs given out, in private. A sort of, dictatorship of the council of elders. But the resignation of phalifax signaled the end of this system. Instead, a new member with the name of Spekula, more or less took over the day to day running of the alliance. In all fairness, she is great at her job, and without her charisma and charm, the alliance would probably have already fallen apart. For better or for worse, discussions of war and peace, NAPs and allies, where now being conducted in the alliance chat, in full public view. I don't know if spek even knows the old leader's council ever existed.
The reason I choose to end this story here, is because I consider it to be the final end of the old Minden Militia I had joined, way back in 2012. That is not to say that this new, invigorated, lively Minden Militia is in some way worse than the old; in most way I consider it to be superior. But the fundamental system, the old group of friends that we once where, who grew to lead a community of newer and fresher players, has finally been eroded to the point that I no longer recognize the sculpture I see before me. In a way, this is the story of that old group of friends from the best of days. And yet, that story is and always will also be my story.
Thank you for reading my story (if you've gotten this far). Feel free to share your own experiences and thoughts.
Regards,
-triangle
GLORY MILITIA!
Post edited by triangle on
My Thoughts:
Two years of Playing GGE: Independent Alliance and None Ruby Players
How GGS handles our Feedback
Why I decided to Leave
Thoughts on the Legendary Update
Achieved title of "the terrible", on the 8th of August 2014, without buying rubies, and while playing in an independent alliance.
Two years of Playing GGE: Independent Alliance and None Ruby Players
How GGS handles our Feedback
Why I decided to Leave
Thoughts on the Legendary Update
Achieved title of "the terrible", on the 8th of August 2014, without buying rubies, and while playing in an independent alliance.
0
Comments
King jollyjack8, level 48 (I haven't done quests since level 19 unless it was a good one)
I've only been playing for less than 3 months, and I've managed to get to Lv 43 Prince, (I have bought rubies in the past though, mostly spent on infrastructure, level 2 stables, upgrading bakeries, watchtowers, moat in main etc),
We do have bigger alliances trying to dominate the server, but they mostly go after each other- except for some of the bigger targets, or during the tourney.
The problem in en1 is not so much bigger alliances trying to destroy smaller ones, as having a limited pool of reasonable targets to fight over, and tiptoeing around diplomatically.
Thanks for sharing.
abdul @ International 2
abdul @ canada1
#thedreamliveson
The nice guy that attacks you and then sends resources. ^^ ----> Not anymore
A proud non-ruby player
Winner of 3 Nobility Contests, soon to be 4 (hopefully)
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
i know ur leader....skull smashers wouldnt be independant as you rule over them
King jollyjack8, level 48 (I haven't done quests since level 19 unless it was a good one)
-Albert Einstein
also skull smashers are our level 4 training alliance, so I guess we started a family as such, but it's more like a single mom struggling to raise her children than a mafia clan..
That is almost dot for dot how my old group went.
Nice story.. I don't know why I always seem to get named at the beginning of each one of these
Essentially what you said about ruby buyers vs. non-buyers is true. As well as if the defender is online, it doesn't matter, you are going to lose.. End of story.
Advocate of speaking up regarding mental health and seeking help
I was vaguely alluded to.
-Albert Einstein
And Congratulations to Triangle for succeeding in his goal!
King jollyjack8, level 48 (I haven't done quests since level 19 unless it was a good one)
Because a non ruby buyer can beat all those ruby whales glory wise. I don't care how skilled or how active you are. It won't happen.
BTW Nice story triangle!
http://en.board.goodgamestudios.com/empire/showthread.php?82159-FAQs&p=951186#post951186
#TheDreamLivesOn
(Mix of ruby/armorer tools)
http://prntscr.com/39gqa6
http://prntscr.com/3xf6wl
http://prntscr.com/4ee952
#GG$
#GGreedy
#GreedGameEmpire
GGE is always trying to get players to buy rubies, and to do that, comes up with horrible updates. Put this in your siggy if you agree.
R.I.P. in peace Billy962, King of the forums ;_;
[SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]TM
However, I'm afraid that I consider becoming the invincible, or even any title above merciless, quite impossible for a none ruby player. Let me explain.
I mentioned previously that my attack setups rely entirely upon the enemy player not being online. If he is, I will lose, even with tools on every slot. For this reason, I don't actually put normal tools on flanks which aren't defended, instead preferring to load those up with coin banners. Sometimes, when only one flank is defended, I only put four soldiers on that flank (one per wave), and go with 520 coin banners.
Even so, getting large quantities of glory is difficult. My average victory involves about 300 banners, 200-300 casualties for me, roughly 700 defenders (not including militia), and between 7k and 8k glory. However, I would estimate I only have a 66%-80% success rate, meaning that every 3-5 battles the player will be online, and I will be massacred. I have never gotten more than 19.5k glory in a single battle (That particular one was against a Hells Warriors main alliance member, who was using a full ranged defense).
Additionally, there is the problem of resources and coins. Even assuming infinite of both of these, one needs to recruit several thousand troops, in addition to several hundred tools and banners for each attack. This takes hours of time, with 500 attackers usually taking about 6 hours of feast to recruit. This means that even on a successful day, you need to spend about 3 hours just recruiting. And once one loses a battle, it's 3-4 days of no glory what-so-ever.
If one doesn't assume infinite coins and resources, things become even more complicated. Tools actually need a lot of resources, meaning that often one can't develop one's OPs. Underdeveloped OPs in turn make events such as blade coast, thorn thing, the underworld (*sigh), marauders or the colossus, that all require significant amounts of resources, very difficult. Often, tool production must be halted for such events, leading to shortages there. Fires are also difficult to deal with for the same reason. I've been on fire in some castle or other, probably since the first few days of playing. Coins, of course, are also a pain, because not only do you need them for troops, you actually need just as many, if not more, for banners.
In the end though, none of that really requires "skill". Just a tone of time
Two years of Playing GGE: Independent Alliance and None Ruby Players
How GGS handles our Feedback
Why I decided to Leave
Thoughts on the Legendary Update
Achieved title of "the terrible", on the 8th of August 2014, without buying rubies, and while playing in an independent alliance.
im just wondering, for you to achieve the terrible title did you have to be online for how long each day approximately and how long each week approximately?
im wondering because i too am a non-ruby buyer and i wish to achieve terrible but my activity is considered to be low and so i ask for you to clarify how long it took for you on average per week of playing time to achieve the title.
thanks
p.s.
i really enjoyed your story triangle, reminds me of some of the old war stories
lv70 archduke
The path to Hell was paved with good intentions...
So the path to Heaven is paved with bad intentions?...
a) A 90% combat strength commander
b) an army of 1280 ranged troops
c) roughly 300 glory banners, plus 120 other tools, per day
d) a suitable target
Let's go through these in order. The first, doesn't really require daily time, rather you just need to do some preparation with events and hit some towers. I have a 80% ranged, 60% wall, 50% moat commander, with a few other bonuses from combining equipment from blade coast, berimond and towers.
The second, is a bit more difficult. In a won battle, you should take no more than about 350 casualties, while on a lost battle, you'll lose all of your troops. As you'll be sending an attack a day, and, in my own experience, you lose roughly 75% of battles, that means that you must recruit an average of 582.5 soldiers per day. With a feast, 7 barracks in your different castles, you should be able to recruit 35 men every 15 minutes. This means that you'll probably be spending roughly 249, or 4 hours each day recruiting troops.
Next, are tools. Because banners are always used, and you'll only be putting resource tools on when they're needed, you'll probably be using a full 520 tools per battle. If we say that you can again recruit 35 tools over seven barracks each 15 minutes, it means that you can do this at the same time as you are recruiting troops, and it will take roughly the same amount of time.
Lastly, a suitable target. The problem with this is not so much that it takes particularly long in itself (usually, by using the alliance rankings you can find an appropriate target within about 15 minutes), but rather that often, i order to time your attacks properly, you must stay up very late, often up to or beyond midnight.
So, to summarize, an average of about 4 hours of play, plus staying up until midnight on most nights. This is in addition to all the usual alliance business or RBC hitting work you got to do. It took me about 8 months to climb from Duke to Terrible, although that did include better and worse periods. Sometimes, you get a series of unlucky hits, sometimes, you must go on vacation for a week. In the end, the main advise I would give you is to go for people who's nationality you know, don't have less than 700 defenders in their castle, but are unlikely to be supported seriously.
Good luck, you'll need it.
Two years of Playing GGE: Independent Alliance and None Ruby Players
How GGS handles our Feedback
Why I decided to Leave
Thoughts on the Legendary Update
Achieved title of "the terrible", on the 8th of August 2014, without buying rubies, and while playing in an independent alliance.
thanks triangle
i can barely fit three hours a week let alone 4 a day! why?! lol at this rate i will never reach my goal.
lv70 archduke
The path to Hell was paved with good intentions...
So the path to Heaven is paved with bad intentions?...
Thanks dear triangle.
Spek
I also started playing in 2012, but a good bit earlier in the year.
Founder of Camelot Beasts.