Your suggestion is not without merit, but though everyone, within the game rules is entitled to play the game as they want,I can't help wondering if you are using the wrong strategy in yours.

Though this will not solve your problem of being able to attack inactive or unshielded towns when you like,if you are playing in a well organised clan you ought to be able to do as you suggested and effectively hide your army when not in use.

Apart from that, do you really need all those poorly developed troops?

Also, though those that are more  familiar with how the battles work,and could give you assistance, but might prefer not to, it strikes me that rather than anything else ,its mainly to do with the opposition sending higher troops or simply outnumbering the opposition, which for someone who spends more time and money on the game, and there are many,  is easily done.

Though the happy bunnies will likely disagree with my take on it,I believe the game has many flaws and this is one of them.

It used to be the ultimate goal, so congratulations that you are building palace 21, I hope that will be as happy after it is finished as your are now that its under way.

Mind me, anyone may play the game as they like and farm anyone around. I have no issues with that.My suggestion wouldn't change anything of that mechanic, nor anything regarding the combat system. Anyone could still attack unshielded towns.

As of now, each attack will destroy 90% of the losers units. Which means, me losing against multiple hits will extinguish almost every single unit (still: at least in my town), since I can only maintain ~200'000 men before having trouble supplying them with food. taking 4 hits will downsize the army to 20 units. 

As I understand it, the resources hideout was implemented so that every Jarl has a guaranteed stock of resources he can use and thereforse still develop his town, even under constant siege. Because if that was not the case, you could literally prevent a Jarl from developping, by constantly emptying each and every single resource he might get. Other than that, the buliding itself had zero purpose.

Now, with some military, I could just start building my stocks up, after a hit from some other player and get a bit of lumber / stone / iron from an intruder's deposit. My army is just for that: Carry some resources into my town. Can't fight with it, I haven't had time to build all the knowledge, let alone the resources to effectively advance my troops.

Edit: The fact, that some players use a so called "workaround" for that problem tells me, I am not alone with this. I see lots.. and really LOTS of players with alts. They put their towns in close proximity and use one to attack and the other to store their troops. You know how it works: They build one town, just to attack. There is no resources in it, just lots of Barracks. Their "main" town is shielded, 24/7 and stores the troops (Mead hall). In case of an attack, this happens from the unshielded alt and once it's done, the troops go hiding in the shielded main town again.

You might say: Well, do it like that. I'd say: Why? The game was not meant to be played with multiple accounts. And just becaues many do it, this should never force anyone to do it as well. Plarium states that they want to support Jarls who play by the rules. Well, this would be a start 

Though the hiding of your troops can also be similarly accomplished if you are in a clan,you are also smart enough to have seen what is actually happening .

You are right, this type of game is meant to be played with one account per person, per server, but isn't, they have either given up, or cant or wont police the cheat , or it suits them not to because  players also spend money on the alts, and as the game is really only about profit for them, they are happy. 

You could try only having as many troops as you can heal, that way maintaining what you have will be easier,cheaper and faster.

The food shortage is another thing that can be addressed.

I heard that there used to be some penalty for not having enough food, but as that is currently not the case, the only drawback to a food shortage is no food for updates.

Knowledge is the key to many benefits ,but as I wrote before, I am both sceptical and without sufficient expertise in the matter concerning strengthening of troops.

I would also suggest foregoing attacking inactive towns until you have enough gold or shields in order to resume this strategy, and a weeks shield is a better deal and if you haven't got it VIP is a good use for gold.

I played the game when gold was much harder to come by so I know the problems associated with finding enough to do the necessary, these days even a low level palace can pick up considerable amounts of gold simply by logging on every day, and also how much at palace 20 you should be picking up.

I have been in a few clans, but they all eventually died because of inactivity. So, while being in a clan could be a temporary solution (Although, no guarantee a town shield can wear out and your troops can be attacked wherever they are), it requires a second party again. Nothing wrong about it, but it still doesn't accomplish the suggestion's goal.

Sure, Plarium wants to make money. And people pay money even with their alts. Fair reason. But what about keeping the game alive by making it attractive to new players? Develop the quality of the game? Have an open ear to loyal, long term players? If you neglect everything but just the money making, it will ned up being a second "Battlestar Galactica".. maybe.

I actually appreciate the mentioning of cutting the size of troops to the size of the infirmary to heal. I might follow that piece of advice 

Also, I do not attack inactive towns, when I know I am about to put the game on timeout (I am a family father with a full time job, so it happens I can't login for days), but just when I am around and able to react to sudden threats. However, as I said. I also do have to be economical with shields, and don't want to waste the gold you mentioned.

The amount of Gold I can earn has increased, yes, we both know that as we're both long term players. But so did the cost increase to improve buildings. So it's been evened out I'd say.

Yes, parking your troops in another town  that's not your own is not a trouble, nor risk free option .

Though you never know  I still think your request is a non starter, the resources from a ransacked town will probably come in handy but I think the  main reason for attacking,apart from the  potential buzz,is because of the points scored, and increase in influence which until recently didn't seem to serve  any positive purpose,so switching off the defense of the town by the troops would significantly change the game,much to annoyance of those who live to fight.

Though I would agree that keeping players interest is important, the fact that this game is effectively pay to play its counter productive because of the reason you raised again, where the "professional players " who likely are also the big spenders crush the life and interest out of the more casual player.

I think its as much true that they  ruined the original Battlestar Galactica as they ruined the second, where they, like in this game seemed to stretch it out to keep it going but then changed direction quickly and then couldn't wait to wrap it all up.

Overall I can know see the difficulty in getting gold if you cant log in everyday or take part in the competitions.

 However,unless its being tempted to stay and play, I wouldn't have thought just logging in and out was too time consuming.

The "live to fight" would rather be addressed by the option of making city defenses not as easy to obtain as it is now. That's really not about hiding troops if you ask me. I see each and every town attack, pop up a town shield immediately, just to send a few seconds after, another attack and pop another shield. It's basically: "I don't have to worry about anything, because these shields are a few gold and always available". If anything those who "live to fight" should raise their voices against, it's the 24/7 availability of town shields. Its' basically also a sort of "hide troops" option - just with some more benefits (like: Hide all resources too). And it's for those who can afford it.

I can't see big fights happening, where some level 35 city players take it out on each other. Because all these towns are shielded 24/7 sometimes until a few years (Yes, imagine that: YEARS) in the future. Is that meant to be? Yes, because that's how paying customers want it 

I simply want my soldiers to use their brain and kindly step aside, when an army of 5'000'000 soldiers com to attack a town of 50'000 defenders. But I guess that's asking too much 

As this is the only game I  have played where its advertised as free to play but with a huge incentive to spend money to accelerate personal progress and attempt success in the scheduled events, I  can only base my comment on this game, and the little I have read,or heard about others in this genre.

I would say that from the casual players point of view, the payment option is the main problem encountered, but there are others too.

I have played only one other of these get resources, build and battle games, which If, and I believe still is operated as it was when I played the game  might suit your needs better.

Thake said:

tl/dr

a) Add the option to hide military / army or..

b) implement a switch to tell the forces: defend town / do not defend town

explanation

I play since January 2018. That's 33 months of Vikings, and I am now waiting for my lvl 21 castle to be finished (a couple of weeks left). You can guess by my advancement, I do not use the banking system and now, you might get an understanding, what my life has been over that period, whithout ever being able to compete with enemies and their military forces.

Long story short: The real downside for me is, with every attack, I lose everything except for buildings. I don't mind much the resources, sure it blows to lose 20m of built up stock, but I can kill an intruder and take the resources from the left behind camp.

What's more of a struggle is my army. While I try hard to maintain a shield, sometimes it wears out. I have to be economical with those shields and I can't just slap a 3 day shield on top and use another when it's only 20% gone, because I decided to farm some inactive town,

With an army, I could relatively quickly build up the resources and maintain a steady income, but with each hit, my army is just turned into a pil of dust.

In my mind, it makes no sense for my army to fight anyone. It's poorly developped and it takes me almost a week to build 100'000 tier 1 troops.

So, I'd just tell them to step aside, when some 500'000'000'000 might player comes to farm my 10'000'000 town. Maybe even have my soldiers to help prepare the bags with resources, so the enemy has less of a hassle, carrying everything out of town... know what I mean?

As much as I'd believe every single Viking I've trained is a hidden Braveheart, that's kind of delusional. So, like there is a hideout for resources, I'd welcome something for troops as well. Just so you can maintain a couple of men (100'000 ?) around. You know.. the cowards, that run away and come back after everything was turned to dust.

This is what my whole army looked like this morning, and it will take another month to build the troops I had before, losing to some random guy with literally 50'000 times the might I have.

Maintaining your shield should be your top priority.  You can purchase shields. The most economical way is to use gold and purchase a huge coffer of retreat. This gives you a 3 day shield for 4,100 gold.  When you play, make sure you hit checkpoints in events to get gold from there.