While I appreciate the sentiment of the change to protect new players, it does not fulfill the goal of 'make sure players have a chance to get familiar with the combat system of the game before being exposed' to the rampaging hordes or the lone clockwork pirate who raids everyday.
This change does not expose the players to defense scenarios or tell them how to set defending units. The newer player may be more familiar with unit types, C-Map and possibly GE, but suddenly find themselves being raided with only the event history video to learn from and no hook or tutorial to push them assign defenders and learn defense strategies. This change allows the non-combat campers of BA & IA an immense advantage and incentive to remain where they are in the tech tree so their Palaces, Terrace farms & Zen Zones to never be touched again. The change also may turn away players who enjoy the idea of PvP raiding as the game delays their ability to don their corsair hats.
To protect new players from rage-quitting and ignorance, I would have set up a 2-3 week invulnerability period (Or whatever time window the Devs feel is appropriate to maximize retention and minimize day 1 pillage quits) and a quick follow up quest to General Grievous's 'intro to combat/spearmen' quest that explains that they can be attacked by their neighbors after X time and they can set defenders to scare off the weak ones. I've seen the invulnerability window in other games that play similar to FoE (Travian I believe?), if that precedent helps or is informative. As someone who may have lost Inno income from raiding BA/IA neighbors, I support some measure to allow newbies to become invested in the game and prepare them for the realities of pillaging.
I must also echo that the timing of release was terrible for the Halloween event, especially without any forewarning. I'm lucky that I completed it early, as the battle and defeat enemy quests were mostly achieved through hood raiding. Although, if the master plan was to punish the BA & IA campers, then I applaud the Machiavellian scheme. Has anyone run the numbers and timing of the battle quests to see if a fresh BA player would even have a chance at completing the Halloween event if they started day 1?
Military tactics feels a bit late for PvP to be unlocked. Is there a reason it is so late in IA instead of being wrapped with Militia tech? Having GB donations & PvP unlock as incentives to hit IA feels more right timing wise pour moi.
Anywho. *Dons sassy sarcasm hat* The worst part of the change, for me, is the 20FP I must spend to see if I can raid my high-end neighbors that have Palaces, Terrace Farms & Zen Zone. On the plus side, the BA/IA campers that dislike and/or complain about pillaging will be able to stock up on salt. Send me a PM if you prefer my flavor.
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