Emperor Ice

This seems like a very significant exploit. Why wouldn't Alex want to patch that? @Alex

The new version is pretty prone to crashing. I love the new graphics, wish it were more stable.

Age of Empires is good when it doesn't crash. Grrr..

Fair enough, just offering to explain how a rational person on the other side of the fence could come to a different conclusion. Cant speak for BK. The leaked announcement obviously doesn't provide context for the announcement, such as member discussions or forum posts. If it's anything like the discord discussions I've seen, it was a consensus decision and people are free to do whatever they wish with their nations. It's not as if their leaders can push the big red button for them.

Obviously we have a different viewpoint here about Alex's presented evidence. If you, or anyone else, wants to have a discussion about it, hit me up on discord (Emperor Ice).

Oh I'm not deleting - at least for now. I respect the choice that other people make, and I can empathize with it.

I think this thread helps explain why many from GotG, BK, and others would rather delete and move to a different game rather than remain. Just my 2 cents, and I know sketchy does not represent the vast majority of everyone on Coal A

Not much changed, we have more than enough resources to continue fighting for a long time. Thus, we continue to fight. I see no reason to end this war, ever.

In my humble opinion, this current update doesn't impact the war too greatly. Given the power of planes, increasing their cost is reasonable (and I'm in NPO). I hope that Alex keeps improving P&W, balancing things that need balance, fixing bugs, etc. Pushing updates at war that significantly alter the warring system seems like a tricky topic to me though. The admin of a game should attempt to be unbiased in every respect or risk alienating a large player base (likely reducing the revenue he earns, and reducing player count). Issues of corruption among administrators of a game are among the most potent for killing a game, so it seems important to maintain neutrality. The following scenarios seem likely to come up as this war continues (I sure hope it continues for a couple months more, minimum) If Alex were to update the war system in a way that favored one coalition and if Alex stated that his goals were to try and level the playing field between the two coalitions, I'd hope that both sides could come to the consensus that this game would be forever changed for the worse. That type of situation seems very unlikely because Alex isn't likely to personally intervene in favor of a coalition - that'd be blatant favoritism and in my opinion: cheating. If Alex were to update the war system to balance military units in a way that varies the current meta without purposely or expressedly favoring one particular coalition, I'd hope that both sides could come to the consensus that this game would be changed for the better. This is predicated on Alex providing notice of these changes and making them playable on the test server, as he has in the past. If Alex introduces non-war changes such as making peace-time more interesting (ie. new improvements or projects), I hope everyone would be very pleased. tl;dr: My opinion is that wartime updates to the game aren't problematic unless they are meant to change the outcome of the war. Admins should be neutral or risk destroying their game.

Maybe GOONS could clarify - what percentage of your alliance use it? Regardless, that mod (or whatever term is most appropriate) doesn't negate it's impact on the game. I don't think baseball should be so important such that you can press anywhere on the screen without looking though, that isn't in the spirit of the mechanic. An interesting proposal. I saw your suggestion earlier, but I'm not sure exactly what you're proposing. I don't think baseball should be modified such that war makes it impossible to use it effectively. That would completely negate the use of baseball to prevent completely destroyed players from mounting any form of counter-attack. Reducing its effectiveness could be interesting though - strikes that do small damage to stadiums (ie. 1 airstrike destroys 1 quality level) or spy attacks being able to assassinate players (with very low chances of success, or success inversely correlated with quality level). I don't understand the last part of your response? By cheating, are you talking about the mod that Bjorn is referring to?

I've read through this thread, and I don't see evidence to indicate that every player that's replied here runs a mod that modifies baseball buttons. I play baseball and I don't use any modifications, and I don't see evidence that this mod is common within the NPO. That being said, modding the button so that it's easier to press doesn't negate the activity that baseball generates, nor does it change baseball's usage during war. The baseball economy doesn't change simply because it's easier to spam the button, nor does it change the need to ping people to run homes/aways, tipping culture, or the site traffic. Being able to spam the button easier also doesn't change it's ability to keep players in the game by providing them some recourse to buy units and fight rather than be blockaded to death. I agree that if Alex changed baseball such that it had zero effect within the game of P&W, that baseball's community would end overnight. That is precisely what I'm arguing would be detrimental to the game. It has already been nerfed such that it still takes effort to be impactful, but not so much effort that it is effectively useless. For baseball to remain useful, and for its community to remain, it needs to generate a meaningful amount of cash for an individual nation within a reasonable time. To not break the game, there needs to be a cap on how much you can earn per day. Those criterion are currently met by the current baseball meta. And while you may have started this thread within a concern regarding baseball's ability to generate cash, and you may feel that baseball's community is irrelevant to the topic, I disagree. Baseball's community is not fake, it has positive benefits to the game, and baseball itself is a positive attribute to the game's community regardless.

Regarding CN: The mods and admin decide what's cheating, it's their game. Either way, it really didn't change anything in CN because the community had already left that game behind. I think that lesson in CN can be applied to P&W: Support and encourage the community wherever possible. In regards to how this applies to baseball, it is obvious the community surrounding baseball generates significant activity (and helps via ad revenue and site traffic). It also helps prevent people from leaving our community out of frustration by providing a safety net. It's not just Col B that benefits from baseball, Col A does as well. This war will not last forever, and baseball will likely benefit lots of players in future wars that drag on. Happy players stick around, play the game, and buy credits/click ads. Overall, I think your boiled down version of the arguments for/against baseball are a bit simplified, and misses the positive impacts that baseball has on the continued activity of players in P&W.

Thanks for a respectful reply, I've hoped to avoid the toxicity that plagues Orbis. I don't pretend to understand the motivations behind the grudges that motivate the toxic posts I keep encountering, but I'm hoping that things will abate eventually (that includes toxicity from both sides). Regarding baseball - it's clear that baseball has diverged from whatever original purpose was devised for it. That doesn't mean it doesn't provide value to the game's community. Although the original intent of baseball doesn't reflect its current usage, I'd argue that its value exceeds its original purpose. Removing the cash that effects the main game will obviously destroy that value. Nobody plays baseball because its fun to click - upgrading players is a nightmare (the upgrade options jump around each time) and spamming games for cash is not entertaining. The value added by baseball - a backup option for nations that are strapped for cash, community development, and increased activity - significantly impacts this game positively. As an aside, Alex mentioned that he was amused by the tipping system. I think that's a neat feature about baseball that underlies its value in this game.

Regardless of what the original intention of baseball was, it appears to play a significant role in the strategy of the game today. There is a large community that plays baseball, it has spawned it's own little (read: large) economy, it generates site-traffic/ad revenue, and it generates activity. Baseball also acts as a fail-safe for blockades and bill-lock that could otherwise prevent a beaten opponent from recovery. Given the disparity in the amounts earned via baseball, it is clear that baseball currently is benefiting one side of this massive war significantly more than the other side. As such, this suggestion is likely motivated by political reasons rather than pure intentions about the original intent of baseball in P&W. This is supported by by OP's post history and the OP's continued reference to particular alliances in one coalition. I understand this motivation - it would be advantageous for baseball to be nerfed for a particular coalition. However, this war will not last forever. The disparity in the advantage afforded by baseball isn't likely due to inherent differences in activity or effort, but rather differences in economics and tier positioning. There may come a time, in a future war, where baseball permits another coalition to continue to fight despite large disadvantages. In the spirit of this suggestion box, I advocate that baseball remain as method to persist during difficult wars. Removing baseball has the potential to further reduce our player base by removing any options they have when completely annihilated on all other fronts.

I ground attacked 4 times, only one took away MAPs. I had low service at the time of attacking if that helps. I was using mobile. Link to war: https://politicsandwar.com/nation/war/timeline/war=564216