I agree with the majority on this. Vacation Mode, as it is, is fine and no one is stupid enough to use it as means of escaping attacks due to the 48hr attack window.
More than that, if they do try and use it for, say a week, they will probably forget about this game or simply lose interest as they have become less involved. So they'll be free cities in a little while longer.
I disagree completely, and have about 10 examples of players using it purely to avoid attacks. a few days after they initiate the vacation, they return to play; we notice they return, initiate attacks, and 48hrs later, they are on vacation again. I don't care what you say and if you haven't been privy to it; it IS being abused
I know people who have used it when they are not going on holiday, not for such an absurd reason as to avoid attacks but because of real life issues and a lack of spare time. People do need to leave a game for personal reasons. If they don't then they have a problem. Addiction is a serious condition, so I am more concerned about those who play constantly, rather than those who take short breaks.
once again, never have I said that there shouldn't be a vacation mode. but w/ all of the data Inno have available about players, login times, when attacks are launched, when incoming attacks were launched, there should be SOME algorithm that can, on average, detect people who are just using vacation mode to avoid large coordinated attacks that they wouldn't be able to defend against otherwise
for instance, one simple solution is to not allow the 48hr vacation countdown to begin while the player has incoming attacks on them.
So if you were to head off with the kids to Disney Land for the week, you tried to activate vacation mode, but someone has an incoming attack on your city in 80hrs, what are you to do?
Even if that countdown started after the attack that still leaves a large frame of time were using the setting was pointless.
The abuse that modification would get would be endless. If a spy gets a hold of the news you're going on holiday, that's it. An enemy alliance can send a single attack from the other side of the world to keep that protection from coming into affect.
perhaps people shouldn't be allowed to initiate vacation mode so quickly. perhaps there should be a longer "ramp up" time before it takes place. perhaps that player should have gone on vacation a week earlier, instead of trying to go on vacation after an incoming attack has been declared on him. perhaps the restriction on initiating vacation mode is only considered for incoming attacks <20hrs away; I don't know. I didn't make the game. but you speak of abuse by a spy finding out and keeping someone from going to vacation, what about the converse of that? a spy finds out that an alliance is planning a large coordinated attack on a member; some of the travel times for some of the CSHIP attacks are approaching 48hrs; however, the player knows about it ahead of time, and immediately runs to vacation mode. when the alliance launches the attacks, they have to wait on a 48HR ROUND TRIP for their clearing troops and ships to return (since they were launched early), but when the alliance tries to launch the longer slower CSHIPS, since the vacation has been initiated and the 48hrs countdown will expire BEFORE the CSHIPS are able to hit their targets, the game WILL NOT EVEN LET THE ALLIANCE LAUNCH THEIR CSHIP ATTACKS. so now all of those other clearing waves are wasted on a long round trip; and the player escapes certain loss of multiple cities.
there is no 48hr period they have to wait to launch attacks; they can immediately blindside all those who were hammering on them prior to their retreat. the system is flawed, and there should be some way to disallow people to abuse it the way I (and others) have seen it being abused.
Baffling.
You're back from Disney, you want to pick up where you left off. War has broken out in your ocean but you can't do anything aggressive for 2 days?
Your neighbours have a running conquest in their city, everyone is depleted, your grey flagged cities are brimming with resources, your spies show a naval nuke city inside your reach when you know that target is offline.
None of which can be interacted with. You just killed off most of the game.
This is not a city building game, it's a war game. I would hate to log back in to find out that I can do nothing more than build and support, the two most boring aspects of the game.
right, war has broken out in your ocean WHILE YOU WERE AWAY, PROTECTED BY VACATION MODE
so why should you be able to, in an INSTANT, w/o any countdown period, immediately remove the protection and start launching attacks and utilizing resources?
I don't see any reason why a person coming out of vacation mode should be allowed immediate full access to their account at all. the only fair way would be to require a 48hr period after the vacation is ended where the player has no control over their account in any way. if you can't handle a two day refresh period after the vacation ended, then DONT GO ON VACATION IN THE FIRST PLACE. the only people who will be unhappy with a rule like this are the very people who use vacation to avoid attacks, and then strike out when their enemies are unprepared because they think the player is still on vacation.
Keep it the way it is. It may not be perfect but it's least flawed of our options.
the "least worst" argument is about one of the most pointless arguments i have ever heard, because the designation of a "least worst" option is purely subjective, and governed by the opinion of the person making the claim
the system is flawed in many ways, but not much work would need to be done to eliminate the ability of a high percentage of abusers to abuse it easily
