I'm sorry about not answering your question, I was dealing with others at the same time-that was all talk and no real input-my mistake. Everything I produce is on a 24hr cycle gives a plunderer a very small window to take anything for their efforts. (with the exception of housing-I've normal put it off roads so I get the population but miss out on the coin production-had to put some of it back to build up coin) I've increase the defense ^% to over 1,000%-but can't do anything else to increase the attack %. (All of my Great Building are at their highest possible level.) I've noticed that all my great advisers never shared where they were at in their world rankings and what era their were currently in! Anyway FOE could fix this problem, when they create a neighborhood they could check to see where people stood previously. They could make it so that 50% of the time you were in the top half of the neighborhood-and 50% you were in the bottom half-by doing this everyone gets to play both side of the field. This would work except for the top 40 or 50 players in each world. (Since it is impossible for them to be in the lower section of any neighborhood.) When you play a game for over two years and have never been in the top half of any neighborhood it gets a little frustrating. And, you see that was the questioned asked-what did you hate about FOE. I like things to be fair for everyone-I think FOE has loss players because of this fact-They somewhat addressed it by grouping people that was closer together in strength-(They did this about a year ago, I think.)That really helped allot of players-they need to go one step further!
There is far less plunder risk involved if you use Great Buildings instead of housing to provide the required population.
You start as early as the Tower of Babel, and then use Great Buildings such as the Capital and Inno. You can subsidize the coin loss using other Great Buildings like the Cathedral of Aachen and so on, accessing more effective use of space.
Placing and leveling those Great Buildings will also provide more points and gain you higher placement in your neighborhood. It also frees up space, that can be used for more productive options that better support the overall well-being of your city.
In other words ... Having a house not connected to a road is a waste of space. Almost every square in your city should be serving more than one purpose. Then in the space you free up you can put single purpose buildings like the Ritual Flame (Defense) or Wishing Well (Resources).
Edit:
You can also focus on Event Buildings for multi-purpose population. Athletic Quarters and Contestant Estates offer population, gold, and options such as defense or improved resources. They can be motivated and protected from plundering.
The game provides you with all the tools you need ... And no matter how poor your defense may be, it’s hard to get plundered when there is nothing for them to plunder in the first place.
It’s really funny when you keep trading blows attacking a neighbor, until you visit each others’ cities and figure out neither of you have more than 2 buildings that could be plundered, and those buildings don’t provide anything worth the effort in the first place.
If you are having problems with buildings that can be motivated being plundered, there are measures you can take. You can gut your Friends List of inactive players who are not aiding you, and you can find ways to replace cultural buildings and bobbles (trees or whatever) that really just rob aiding that could serve a better purpose. There is a strategy to every little part of this game, and if you ignore it, you will struggle.
