As a relatively new player, I'm struck with how completely off balance the plundering system is. Attacking another player for quest purposes is understandable, but plundering? There simply is no way that a player can avoid losing resources if they are put in a hood with players literally millions of points ahead of them. Even the most novice game player can agree with that.
So what then could Inno's rationale possibly be to continue with such a broken system? Is it that difficult to ensure that hood members are all within certain point parameters?
Relatively new player who recently moved to EMA, 200 days into the game. This is my take on plundering. I consider it a part of the learning curve of the game.
First the hood arrangement. I have no idea how they pick them but it seems to be consistent. In IA I was at the bottom of my hood until I got stronger and built up my city. I worked my way up in the hood until I ended up top of the hood for several changes. It was gradual as I played. I think this is intentional so the player knows if they are gaining or treading water. If you are consistently at the bottom of every hood, you are not progressing, you are stagnating.
I was plundered quite a bit early in the game. I got hit and they would get a goods building or supplies or something, but not game breaking. I just made sure I overproduced so anything they took was not vital to my survival. That was lesson #1, do not live on the edge of starvation.
Also learned rule #2, get your city on a schedule and collect on time. They could not plunder me if I had collected everything. And, as I got to the top of the hood the plundering all but stopped. I did nothing special, no awesome defenses and I even left the 2 spearfighters as my defense. I knew there was really nothing I could do as far as defending my city, any attacker could defeat me so I left them and just made it so there was noting for them to plunder. Have at it!
Once I got settled in and growing at the top of the IA hood, I aged up to EMA. I guess I grew a little too much in IA as I have been at the top of my EMA hoods since I aged up. I have HC so battle the hood daily. Bottom half of the hood still has the 2 spearfighters as defense so are not really learning the game, or not actively playing. The bottom half of the hood never has anything to plunder either. It is not until you get to the middle of the hood that you find the daily players. The lower end are the ones I suspect of complaining about Plundering. They log in once a week and have nothing because we all have taken it little by little all week!
I also put in a defensive team once I aged up to EMA. A good mix I change up regularly. I have been attacked a few times but none have defeated me for some reason. Watching the replay, they start the battle then retreat. They have mostly been users from the middle of the hood attacking.