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[FAQ] Help, I am being plundered!

  • Thread starter DeletedUser8152
  • Start date

DeletedUser8152

This is probably the single most common thing that people ask about on the forum. There are several ways to address it, depending on what you are looking for:

What are some strategies to minimize my chances of getting plundered?

There is no way to eliminate the chance of being plundered, but to minimize it you can:​
  • Schedule your production times so you can collect right after they finish. You can only be plundered when you have uncollected items in your city, so this is by far the best method.
  • Run multiple short productions; you can only be plundered once per player per 24 hours, so if you can't collect on time, this will at least minimize your losses. You should still collect as often as possible.
  • Post the strongest defensive army you can. This won't stop players who are several ages ahead of you, but it will often deter players in your age or lower.
  • Send a friend invite to your attacker. You can't attack friends, so if they accept this will make you safe. Implicitly you are promising to aid your friend regularly, and if you don't you will probably get dropped from their friends list and become subject to attack again.
  • Offer to contribute a few FP (per day, per week, or just once) to the attacker's Great Buildings. This may be a smaller price than the plundering losses, and also gives you a chance to receive rewards for the Great Building donations.
  • Try to join the guild of the player who is attacking you. You can't attack fellow guild members. Do be aware of any guild policies in the guild you want to join.
  • Join a guild that has some powerful cities in your neighborhood. Many guilds will try to protect their members by threatening to plunder people who have plundered one of their own. (On the other hand, some guilds try to plunder people in other guilds that they are at 'war' with, so this could make you a target; talk to someone in the guild about your situation first.)
Being plundered makes me angry, can you help me feel better?

You certainly have my sympathy, especially if you are being plundered by a player much more advanced than you. It is unpleasant to be stuck in a neighborhood with aggressive advanced players. But you will probably be rotated out of this neighborhood before too long. Over the long run, things tend to even out. You'll find yourself in easy neighborhoods sometimes too.

In the meantime, take advantage of high-age players in your neighborhood. By aiding them you have the chance to get blueprints for high-age great buildings. You might see if some of them would like to trade high-age goods for forge point donations; you can earn a lot of goods that way. If you have a lot of high-age players, there's a good chance a few will be using two spears as a defensive army. You can beat that, and a single plunder from a high-age building can make up for all your losses from being attacked.

Added: The new (January 2017) neighborhood rules modify this a bit; you should no longer find yourself in a hood with far advanced players. But there will be players an age ahead of you, and players with much stronger attack bonuses than you. That is still frustrating, but a strong defensive army is likely to impose some losses on your attacker, and you have the option to build up your great buildings as well.​

I am philosophically opposed to games that reward conflict and aggressive behavior. Is there any way to opt out of the player-vs-player part of the game?

No, it is an intrinsic part of the game and the developers have made it clear that they don't plan to change that. If this makes the game unpleasant for you, then your best bet might be to find a different game that doesn't have this element. Elvenar is another city-building game that doesn't have PvP fighting.​

I think it is immoral for people to plunder me, will you support me in condemning them?

No, players who plunder are playing the game as intended, and are not acting in an immoral way. No actual damage is being done to anyone, and by playing the game you are agreeing to subject yourself to its rules. Condemning someone who plunders you doesn't make any more sense than condemning a chess player for capturing your pawn.​
 
Last edited by a moderator:

DeletedUser20427

when I started playing FoE over 2 years ago, my neighbourhood changed every 4 to 5 weeks. I would sometimes be at the bottom, and sometimes in the middle, never at the top. This game was fun then. But from June of 2015, I have been near the bottom, and their is only one or two players I could beat. I am attacked daily by numerous players, which takes a great deal of fun out of a game where I can not progress forward as quickly as the ones attacking me, because the goods I need are plundered. Often while I am gathering goods, I am being plundered. Obviously these players either have no life or they are sharing their game so to monitor 24/7. I conclude this because I change the collection time from morning to night to middle of the night to afternoon but to no avail.

Also, the ones attacking me have numerous (35 or more) watchfires, which they obviously earned 3 years ago before I started playing, when acquiring them was quick and easy. which is quite unfair.

I am fine with the concepts that I am plundered, I have done it in the past, but when I have little and sometimes no chance of plundering, this I feel is unfair, especially when during special events, I cannot complete tasks, because a task maybe to plunder. Thus others that do plunder move further ahead.

I understand that a computer is set to combine players together with similar strengths/levels, and sometimes your at the bottom, middle or top, but to be at the bottom for 10 consecutive months is not a fair system.
 

DeletedUser8796

then progress move up in era get better troops that is a good start
 

DeletedUser8152

@boots1961, what is the situation? Has it been a pretty static hood, or does it keep changing around and you keep ending up on the bottom? Are you far below the other players, or in a similar age and just a bit behind?

If you've been stuck with a bunch TE/FE players for the past 10 months and you were EMA to start with, then I don't think Shady's advice will do you much good. In that case you've just been horribly unlucky.

Same if you're not so far off in age, but every time you advance the hood shuffles and puts you at the bottom again, then that too is awful luck.

But if it's been pretty much the same hood, where you started just a bit behind and you're still a bit behind, then I'd say Shady is right, you can move up by out-performing other people in the hood. Plundering isn't essential for that, and I'd guess the big majority of other players in your hood don't plunder much either. It's more about planning your city well, being in a good guild, learning to fight effectively, and managing your GBs.
 

DeletedUser25397

So I've been plundered, and without much of an army, I've addressed my neighbors to be my allies, only thing I can do, but I can't seem to build on my military, how do I do it?
 

DeletedUser8152

You need to construct military buildings, then train some troops, then select them to use as your defensive army. Which of those steps are you having trouble with?
 

DeletedUser25273

To build a military you need to build various Barracks to use to train troops. To build Barracks, you need to research certain technologies.
 

jkl51

New Member
I get attacked, but I haven't been plundered very often because I keep the times where goods, supplies and money are going to become available to when I'll be online. The problem is that I have one player who is in the Colonial Age who keeps attacking me. I'm in the High Middle Ages. He has cannons and Musketeers, I have Knights and Heavy Infantry. I'm absolutely no match for that, even with a Watchfire and a Monastery. I was in a much more level neighborhood until a couple weeks ago, and now I'm in one where there are people VERY far ahead of me. I'm not at the bottom, but I'm hundreds of points away from the top. I hope the neighborhoods are going to be reshuffled soon, because the one I'm in now is VERY unbalanced.
 

jkl51

New Member
What bothers me is that it's the same person who keeps attacking, every early morning, and with his cannons and Musketeers with guns are so above what I have that he sees me as a continual easy mark. Why the neighborhoods are so unbalanced suddenly, I don't know, but it's a definite problem for those of us who are still in the Middle Ages. I reached the Late Middle Ages last night, but that's still nowhere near being a math for somebody in the Colonial Age. Can we please have more evenly matched neighborhoods? I don't think there should be neighborhoods where some people have hundreds of thousands of points and others only have 33,000 points.
 

DeletedUser10415

I get attacked, but I haven't been plundered very often because I keep the times where goods, supplies and money are going to become available to when I'll be online.

Getting attacked isn't a problem - You lose nothing. Getting plundered is a problem, but solvable. You seem to have solved it, so what's the problem?
 

jkl51

New Member
Getting attacked isn't a problem - You lose nothing. Getting plundered is a problem, but solvable. You seem to have solved it, so what's the problem?

It's becoming a problem. He was able to plunder one of my Foeberge Shops early this morning because I fell asleep without setting things up for a time when I was awake. If he keeps attacking every single morning, which he's been doing since he got put into my neighborhood, he's going to be able to plunder more buildings. I don't have much, and I don't know why he wants what little I have when he's obviously got so much more than I do. I was in a much more level neighborhood before this one, where I wasn't at the very top, but nobody was attacking and plundering every single day.
 

DeletedUser10415

Mistakes happen. Even I have made them, and someone has gotten something off of me. Someone the same Age I am. You may be having difficulty seeing it now, but the tech level of those who would plunder you has little to do with if they're successful or not. Collecting on time is the best defense against a plunderer in any situation. If a production matters to you, set it for 1-day, at a time you're fairly certain you can be there in time to collect it as soon as it's ready.
 

DeletedUser10415

If he keeps attacking every single morning, which he's been doing since he got put into my neighborhood

...it means he's got a routine, so he's predictable. This is the very best kind of situation you can have with a plunderer. You know when he's gunning for you, so you set your collection times for afternoon, or evening.
 

DeletedUser

My advice to you would be to send a friend's request. If he befriends you then he can't attack you any longer. Has worked for me at least once when I did that.
 

DeletedUser10415

I am pretty sure you can also AID the enemies in your neighborhood and thus block them from plundering you for 24 hours

This is ENTIRELY FALSE. Aiding someone does nothing but give you 20 coins, possibly a blueprint of the same age as that building your aid polished or motivated, and may have the side effect of endearing you to the one you aided, if you do it frequently enough throughout the week. There is nothing you can do to prevent a neighbor from attacking and trying to plunder you.
 
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DeletedUser25786

Thank you for addressing that, I wasn't sure as I know you cannot attack a player that you have aided for at least 24 hours, I was not sure if that meant they could not attack you either during that time period.
 

DeletedUser23656

This is probably the single most common thing that people ask about on the forum. There are several ways to address it, depending on what you are looking for:

What are some strategies to minimize my chances of getting plundered?

There is no way to eliminate the chance of being plundered, but to minimize it you can:​
  • Schedule your production times so you can collect right after they finish. You can only be plundered when you have uncollected items in your city, so this is by far the best method.
  • Run multiple short productions; you can only be plundered once per player per 24 hours, so if you can't collect on time, this will at least minimize your losses. You should still collect as often as possible.
  • Post the strongest defensive army you can. This won't stop players who are several ages ahead of you, but it will often deter players in your age or lower.
  • Send a friend invite to your attacker. You can't attack friends, so if they accept this will make you safe. Implicitly you are promising to aid your friend regularly, and if you don't you will probably get dropped from their friends list and become subject to attack again.
  • Offer to contribute a few FP (per day, per week, or just once) to the attacker's Great Buildings. This may be a smaller price than the plundering losses, and also gives you a chance to receive rewards for the Great Building donations.
  • Try to join the guild of the player who is attacking you. You can't attack fellow guild members. Do be aware of any guild policies in the guild you want to join.
  • Join a guild that has some powerful cities in your neighborhood. Many guilds will try to protect their members by threatening to plunder people who have plundered one of their own. (On the other hand, some guilds try to plunder people in other guilds that they are at 'war' with, so this could make you a target; talk to someone in the guild about your situation first.)
Being plundered makes me angry, can you help me feel better?

You certainly have my sympathy, especially if you are being plundered by a player much more advanced than you. It is unpleasant to be stuck in a neighborhood with aggressive advanced players. But you will probably be rotated out of this neighborhood before too long. Over the long run, things tend to even out. You'll find yourself in easy neighborhoods sometimes too.

In the meantime, take advantage of high-age players in your neighborhood. By aiding them you have the chance to get blueprints for high-age great buildings. You might see if some of them would like to trade high-age goods for forge point donations; you can earn a lot of goods that way. If you have a lot of high-age players, there's a good chance a few will be using two spears as a defensive army. You can beat that, and a single plunder from a high-age building can make up for all your losses from being attacked.​

I am philosophically opposed to games that reward conflict and aggressive behavior. Is there any way to opt out of the player-vs-player part of the game?

No, it is an intrinsic part of the game and the developers have made it clear that they don't plan to change that. If this makes the game unpleasant for you, then your best bet might be to find a different game that doesn't have this element. Elvenar is another city-building game that doesn't have PvP fighting.​

I think it is immoral for people to plunder me, will you support me in condemning them?

No, players who plunder are playing the game as intended, and are not acting in an immoral way. No actual damage is being done to anyone, and by playing the game yourself you are agreeing to subject yourself to its rules. Condemning someone who plunders you doesn't make any more sense than condemning a chess player for capturing your pawn.​
 

DeletedUser23656

This is the situation I find myself in with the latest neighborhood realignment with 77 players in the Future world and the remaining 8 players in the colonial or industrial world. According to information posted on the Web site the following was the goal "There will still be enough variance within these chunks to provide healthy competition, but with this method you will see more balanced neighborhoods and - because of the usage of chunks as opposed to entire neighborhoods - players will no longer find themselves "trapped" in small neighborhoods ". I contacted the support group who stated that "Neighborhood merges are handled automatically by the server. Support can do nothing to change anything about a neighborhood merge." Well it not working as previous stated, so where do I go to have this obvious discrepancy corrected. I totally understand that I cannot totally eliminate the possibility of being attacked and plundered. But there is no fun in playing a game when the odds are staked against you. I consider my a aggressive player but it will take me a long time to the future world. Who can I contact regarding this matter to get some assistance.
 

iamtheemperor

Active Member
I totally understand that I cannot totally eliminate the possibility of being attacked and plundered.

That's not entirely true. You cannot eliminate the possibility of being attacked. But so what? Being attacked is meaningless. You can 100% completely entirely prevent being plundered. Join a guild, get some friends, aid them regularly and they will return in kind. Motivated coins and supplies cannot be plundered. Schedule goods for a time you expect to be online and collect on time and abracadabra you have eliminated the possibility of being plundered!
 

DeletedUser25786

Don't forget that you can set your defending army as well. Your defending army never dies (unless you use them to attack). If you stock your defending army with strong units, you'll be able to stop a lot of defeats. They can't plunder you if they either lose the battle or surrender. Many use the default defense which is easily defeated. When you use stronger units some of us who like to plunder might withdraw if the battle looks too be too costly. When those of us attack and win after taking heavy losses, nothing is more frustrating than finding nothing worthwhile to plunder, so please make sure you leave me something like produced goods that you did not harvest on time, they really make my day.

Plundering is part of the game, even though not everyone enjoys that aspect. When I first started playing, I never attacked, but found myself an unwilling victim. Once I began to retaliate and found out all the goodies people would leave available, things I needed, and learning about obtaining medals for the top tower rankings, attacking became more commonplace. Sometimes I feel guilty about plundering and will leave someone alone, but when I have lost my expensive troops in battle, the spoils of war are for their sake. You see, we take a risk when we attack you. Our units will be injured or killed, but your defending army will always remain in tact. If we plunder you, your seeking revenge upon is also part of the game, and we won't complain about it.
 
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