Discussion Exploiting Vacation Mode Ruins The Game?

[DeletedUser]

Hey all,

From what I had read about Vacation Mode, it is there to allow people to log out for several days or weeks without having to worry about what will happen to their cities.

However, a recent event has shown that is open to abuse in a way that, frankly, makes Grepolis pretty much pointless.

A very detailed coordinated attack was going well, with several of the targets cities in Revolt. The players response was to activate Vacation Mode, which meant that no Colony Ships could be launched during the second 12 hours of the revolt.

Interested to see what the player was still able to do, I tried out VM on my own account. You can still rebuild your units, still demand and loot from Farming Villages and still send messages. So, when 24 hours later his VM was cancelled because he had logged in, he had support from cities much further away than would have been able to get there in time to save his cities. It means that any time you have more than one city in Revolt, you just have to hit VM and you are safe whilst you summon support!

I've gone from a Premium Player who spent hours a day enjoying Grepolis to someone who thinks this is a broken game. You can buy more Vacation Days so you can use this abuse of the system as often as you like.

I wonder if other people have found this a problem? Spend ages preparing and coordinating a well designed Op against someone and have it ruined by that player click Vacation Mode, allowing them to rebuild in total safety?

At the moment, I wonder if it is worth continuing with the game or if I should go and find another game that doesn't give the benefit to a "cheat"?

Over to you - what do you think?

 

[DeletedUser]

It takes 48h for VM to become active. In this 48h you are still able to send attacks and take over a city as long as they arrive within the 48h. If you send a revolt attack and a CS you should be able to take the city even if he activates VM as soon as your attacks begin (unless you give him more than 48h notice before your CS arrives). Some players do abuse VM, but the 48h activation period prevents them from hiding in VM instantly as soon as they see an attack.

 

[DeletedUser]

It takes 48h for VM to become active. In this 48h you are still able to send attacks and take over a city as long as they arrive within the 48h. If you send a revolt attack and a CS you should be able to take the city even if he activates VM as soon as your attacks begin (unless you give him more than 48h notice before your CS arrives). Some players do abuse VM, but the 48h activation period prevents them from hiding in VM instantly as soon as they see an attack.

That is how I had understood VM would work. However, in World EN33, it was possible to send in normal attacks as soon as he hit the Vacation Mode button, but it was impossible to include a CS in an attack.

So the events unfolded in the following way (which seem to be very different to the way it is supposed to work)

1 - The player is attacked and a good number of his cities go into revolt.
2 - The player informs his alliance he is going to activate VM.
3 - As soon as he does this, attacks on non-revolting cities are blocked, but attacks on the cities already in revolt are able to continue.
4 - Although normal attacks were allowed, as soon as a CS was added to the attack, the "Not possible while player is in VM" message appeared.
5 - One of his cities was very close to mine and therefore the travel time of my CS was well within the time limit.

It seems, at least on world EN33 there is a problem with the way the VM works.

 

[DeletedUser22431]

As the previous post explains it takes 48 hours for VM to kick in, so maybe it is a coincidence that his VM started before your CS or you should consider whether you may have a spy in your alliance

 

[DeletedUser]

That is how I had understood VM would work. However, in World EN33, it was possible to send in normal attacks as soon as he hit the Vacation Mode button, but it was impossible to include a CS in an attack.

So the events unfolded in the following way (which seem to be very different to the way it is supposed to work)

1 - The player is attacked and a good number of his cities go into revolt.
2 - The player informs his alliance he is going to activate VM.
3 - As soon as he does this, attacks on non-revolting cities are blocked, but attacks on the cities already in revolt are able to continue.
4 - Although normal attacks were allowed, as soon as a CS was added to the attack, the "Not possible while player is in VM" message appeared.
5 - One of his cities was very close to mine and therefore the travel time of my CS was well within the time limit.

It seems, at least on world EN33 there is a problem with the way the VM works.

If the attack lands BEFORE he enters Vacation Mode, it is still possible to launch. If the attack would land AFTER he enters Vacation Mode, you cannot launch it. In the situation you describe, it is highly likely that the player had already activated Vacation Mode and was near the end of the 48 hours. I would assume that you were able to launch regular attacks because they would have landed before he entered Vacation Mode. However, when you tried to launch a Colony Ship it would have taken longer, and thus you would have been prevented from launching because it would have landed AFTER he had entered Vacation Mode.

Your post strongly implies that you launched attacks, he activated Vacation Mode at that time, and then you were immediately prevented from launching a Colony Ship. I would question how you know when his Vacation Mode was activated, however. Are you simply assuming that he hit the button once your attacks were launched?

 

[DeletedUser]

Are you simply assuming that he hit the button once your attacks were launched?

yes - that is what he says he did and that is how it appeared. As I was so close to his city travel time was not the issue.

As soon as he started VM cities not already in revolt could not be attacked. Cities in revolt could be attacked unless a CS was part of the attack. Attacks from further away and which would arrive AFTER my CS could be sent unless they too included a CS of their own.

I assume this is a bug and will report it as such

 

[DeletedUser]

yes - that is what he says he did and that is how it appeared. As I was so close to his city travel time was not the issue.

As soon as he started VM cities not already in revolt could not be attacked. Cities in revolt could be attacked unless a CS was part of the attack. Attacks from further away and which would arrive AFTER my CS could be sent unless they too included a CS of their own.

I assume this is a bug and will report it as such

No offence, but you should not always believe what you are told. He may be 'pulling your leg', as the saying goes. You could send in a support ticket ingame, if you suspect it as a bug, and the moderators will look into it for you. However, I would advise you not to hold your breath.

 

[DeletedUser]

I have reported it as a bug as, regardless of whether several other players are being accurate in their reports, the point remains;

I could send an attack without CS that would take 2 hours to arrive at a city in second stage revolt - no warning message
I could not send an attack that took 1 hour to arrive including a CS - warning message that player was on VM.

That strikes me as a broken mechanic so I may just take my leave and find some other way to fill the days!

 

[DeletedUser]

That strikes me as a broken mechanic so I may just take my leave and find some other way to fill the days!

Well it is a shame for one bad experience to ruin your view of the game, so I hope you give it another chance eventually. If this really is a bug, I'm sure the moderators will do everything they can to ensure it is dealt with swiftly. I can understand that you might have a poor view of the game because of this, but I hope you'd find that it is a great game if you give it a chance.

 

[DeletedUser]

On the other side of this I had a city put under conquest just before my vacation mode hit. I could not send attacks from other cities upon my own city to clear the attack. That doesnt seem very balanced to me either. You should at the very least be able to launch attacks against your own cities. You cant cancel VM once it is started. Plus RL dictated I could not even if I were able.