He said he doesn't know what to do about it. No need to ask him again for his suggestions. It is perfectly fine to come on here and ask, "Hey, this is a problem, does anyone know what to do about it?"

1: Remove the coalition achievements that give direct incentive to hit capitals for no reason other than to earn coalition achievements. It is not an achievement to march over a capital of a group of players who are not nearly as strong as the attacker. Downgrading a capital of a rival coalition in a war between matched coalitions is an achievement in its own right that often has much higher perceived value that the current official achievement on the coalition page. However, if point 5 further below is implemented, then it may not be necessary to remove such achievements.

2: You need some kind of warning system of an incoming attack, perhaps coupled with a new item that can put up protection temporarily at a capital. Below is one way this can be done:

* If an attack is incoming towards a capital, the HM and Poles should be able to see this at the bottom of their screen, similar to how you see raids incoming to your city. Please read this point together with points 5 and 6 further below.

* A new item can become available in coalition tournaments (should not be be easy to earn) where you can put up protection at a capital. 

* It should also be possible for the HM or another coalition member with "capital rights" to evacuate all defenses in a capital, safely into the acropolis of all the contributing members.

The above system suggested is similar to how players prevent their armies at their cities from being destroyed by stronger players.

3: While this doesn't directly address the problem, it does make capitals more meaningful to many players: Introduce a way for coalitions to increase the level of their capital at which it cannot be downgraded, for example, from the current level 5 to level 10. You can make the cost of raising it by one level very high (perhaps use the medals and tools resources for this). This will close the gap between mostly level 5 and level 20 capitals a bit and also give smaller coalitions something sensible to work on, while they build their defenses.

4: Introduce an information page in the game where everybody can see which capitals were downgraded by which coalitions. Also show the rank of the defending and attacking coalition on this page. The hope is that if stronger coalitions see these things happening, a handful of their players may feel obligated to help out.


5: If none of the above works, I see no option but for an in-game feature to allow/disallow attacks on another coalition's capital based on a sensible differential between the defending and attacking coalitions total defense and offense. By "total defense" and "total offense", I mean the total across the coalition, not what sits in the capital only. For example, if per the "statistics tab", coalition A's total defense and total offense adds up to 300mil and coalition B has 1.5bil offense, then coalition B can't attack the capital of coalition A. The reason for combining the offense and defense of the defending coalition to do this "test calculation" is to prevent coalitions who focus purely on offense from having a "save" capital on this system.

6: Or combine the warning /evacuation system suggested in point 2 with point 5. For example, if the defense to offense differential is very large, the minimum amount of travel time to hit the capital is increased.

Hi! Why don't you leave your ideas in Suggestions thread? :)

agaghas said:

This is not a post about not liking coiners.

Have you seen how many coalitions there are with capitals in the level range 10 to 15, and growing. Those coalitions are doing well, players are sticking their defenses in to grow, and having fun defending the capital against assaults from similar strength coalitions. Until one day ... BOOM ... someone comes with 100k Agema and marches right over that capital and wipes it clean. When this happens there is a good chance that many players stop playing the game. 

The sad part about it is that many players in those coalitions do spend some coin, so it is a lose-lose situation for players-plarium.

Someone like me who has been around for a while, can tell you for sure that there are only two ways to go when it comes to capitals. You either have it at level 20 with 4 billion + defense in there (staying clear of wars/challenges) or you leave it at level 5 with zero defense in there. Anything else is just a time bomb. I know this and many others too, but the point is that most don't and are currently sitting on this bomb.

Diplomacy is not the answer, because several coalitions will wipe capitals clean to earn their coalition achievements. Others do it for tournament rewards, example, I was once in a coalition where we all lost 75% of our defenses, which can take easily 1-2 years to rebuild, and at that point you stop playing. We asked the attacker why he destroyed the capital. His answer was a simple response of "XP tournament, Have Fun!".

I don't blame the coiners / stronger players for their actions. The problem is that the current capital system doesn't make sense for the average player and it is not good for the game either. Plarium, you simply can't wave that carrot (the capital) in front of the average players and have them walk into that time bomb. 

What to do about it ... ? I don't know. I am hoping people can shed some light on this and/or give ideas. Perhaps something more sensible in terms of capitals can develop for the average player from this thread.

Hello Agaghas,

Truth be told coalitions with weak capitals are an easy target for the coiners.

It is also true that you need much defense in the capital in order for it to survive from the predators.

But what change would you suggest yourself?