Architect Archive

Ok Devs, We've asked for a few details on player cities and you never respond. You leave us no choice but to speculate on what little information you [i]have[/i] given us. Some of this is very shocking and dissapointing to me, but much of it is only rumor... rumor which you refuse to address one way or another, forcing us to act on half information which may lead us in the wrong direction. Player cities are the single most anticipated aspect of this game for those of us who are coming to believe this is nothing but another combat game. Many of us have been putting together our cities for over 3 years now.

Here are a few things we need to know about now, even if you say you do not have any concrete information yet...

5k distance from other cities... this is just a rumor. I've tried for over a year to get this confirmed, but the devs refuse to answer. It would be nearly impossible to build a city and still be 5k from all other cities or player cites and still be able to have more than 1 player city per planet. Our PA is currently only 3500 to 4000m from keren and theed, and we are as far away from other cities as we could get. Lots of people already have their cities established MUCH closer to existing cities because YOU have not made this information public. [b]what is the distance limit for player cities?[/b]

"allowing" others in the city... whether you like the idea or not, you cannot keep ANYONE from moving into your city. All anyone needs to do to be a city member is plop down a house and declare it to be his residence. The devs said someone can be warned and banned from the city, but watch the cries of griefing cause that to be nerfed so fast your head will spin! This is the single biggest game breaker for player cities! Please allow cities to approve who becomes a citizen!!! [b]What do you plan to do about people who grief by moving into your city and refuse to cooperate with the other citizens? What do you plan to do about griefing by cities how /ban people from their houses for no good reason?[/b]

Mayors are elected every week... (stupid idea) That means that by the time one election is over, it's time to start campaigning again. Since we cannot keep people out, any enemy we make can have all their members drop a small house in town, declare it their residence and within a week, vote our mayor out, strip the treasury, and delete all our public buildings and /ban all the old residents. All a large group needs to do is wait for a smaller one to do all the work, then move in and vote the small group's mayor out of office and take over all their hard work! If I have to work my butt off to get the materials and skill up to urban planner, why would I want to build a city only to have my smaller PA overrun by a larger one?[b] what do you plan to do about this?[/b]

City population limits...How many people do you need to become a city?

The current city system is full of holes [i]as they have described it to us[/i], and so far, I have yet to see any responses to mine or other people's player city question posts. PLEASE do not allow player cities to become another way to compete within this game!!! Player cities are too important for those of us who want to form real online communities. We don't want to have to build a city, have a bigger group move in and take it over then have to fight to get it back. We don't want the hassle of having to vote every week. We want a city to hang out with our friends, not to have to deal with imature jerks who crash the town just to be pests, just because they can! PLEASE give us some discussion before you go live with this important feature!

We have a PA of 65 people. our houses are already set up in streets and blocks... but we have doubts if we will even BE a city. Are we too close? Is 65 people enough? Are we wasting our time building a city only to have it taken over after we do all the work?

Please give us some answers!

I would like more information too, but the weekly election thing is the most interesting.

I know why they are doing that, it is simple, some griefer mayor could destroy a town with high taxes and such changes very quickly. A weekly election would avoid that.

It is an interesting problem

Player cities are going to be interesting. So many chances for great game play, but also so many chances for abuses.

1. The 5k thing is a rumor I have heard as well, but I don't see how it is possbile. Right now we made sure we are 3k away, I hop that is good enough.

2. Weekly elections. Since getting votes is how you get XP for mayor, I think it has to be weekly. I too am concerned about hostile take overs. What I would like to see is that people get sponsored to city resident status much in the same way PA members do. I doubt that would happen but that would be nice.

I agree, I dont see a way around the weekly vote thing. Way too many reasons to have it be weekly.

A politicuian will have to be in constant campiagn mode, that is almost ture int he real world . But if he does a good job ( that that he thinks he does, but everyone else thinks he does ) he will be hard to replace, everyone will know him.

It is safter to stick with a politician you know is doing a pretty good job then to vote for one you dont know that is making promises.

If developers answered every post asking for them to answer, there would be no progress on the game at all, ever. They would spend ALL thier time answering posts.

Smart develoeprs, post a weekly update and move on.

I am anxiously waiting more details as well =)

If you look at the city terminal screenshot they posted, there's something very interesting I noticed. We knew the elections were weekly (posted in the past), but it seems that whoever wants to run for mayor for that week has to register for it (unless im wrong, but read the chat text on the screenshot). Which solves so much problems because you'll know instantly before and can take care of any problems that might arise before it's too late.

[quote]I have to admire the unbridled enthusiasm and optimism of somebody who makes a post here with a title indicating they would like the devs to answer.

... as if the devs read the architects forums.[/quote]

Yeah you're right Jazz... we who are interested in player cities aren't writing about combat or a pistol nerf or problems with creatures... after all, this is PetWars Gallaxies.

Maybe I'm getting cynical, but I've been asking these questions since beta2 and I'm beginning to feel like I have as much chance of getting an answer as droid engineers have of getting a usable profession. They will continute to not give us even a clue and leave everyone to rush to move their established town in one huge land rush.

I remember reading you can ban people from your city. SO once u see some people moving in you can just ban them. Also, they will have to get atleast 50% of the votes, meaning they will have to get the same amount of people in their town.

THis will be hard due to most people in PAs having all their lots lent out. I wouldnt worry about hostile take overs.

My concerns are: there should be other ways for mayors to get exp. The main way should be votes, but otherwise it will suck cause they can't really do anything to improve their exp (organized PAs will get 100% of the votes everytime)

Other concern is who's plots will town buildings count against. It better not be against individuals. What if a new power is voted into power and people who have the buildings just leave? That will totally be horrible. Town buildings should count against a town lot count. The bigger your town is, and better your major is the more plots you get.