Allow name change while staying in the same level. The current server format discourages land exchanges.

Current format discourages risk taking with getting land IMO.

we've been talking about allowing name changing while in protection...

Yeah but you'd keep the same country number, if they know your name and number they'd be able to track even if you change names?, it'd be more useful in between resets IMO lol

i had a thread about this on tournament talk and was convinced this should not be allowed actually. See here:

http://forums.earthempires.com/...to-change-name-set-to-set

I don't see it. If someone grabs me and I can't retal. I'm coming after them next set. If a grudge develops, it might be more then one set. Grabbing right now carries the risk of not being able to netgain succesfully if a single one of your targets carries a grudge.

Current system encourages a bunch of all explore countries which isn't very dynamic or interesting at all. If you want proof of this I'm willing to bet there are substantially less dictators and tyrannies on the tournament server compared to say the primary server.

but retaliation can be retaliated, so people learn to accept landgrabs and not go crazy suiciding ever. That was the norm that was established in old 2A at least. Part of the help there was it took 3 months to get to 2A, and we no longer have that, but actually the dynamics of the server lead to less suiciding IMO. The length of the set does lead to less grabbing, as well as the higher skill level on average...

I agree with Bobby. The dynamics would best be improved by taking it longer to get to Game A but I don't think we can do too much about that.

I'm not sure why grabbing should not have the risk of retaliation? People already can carry a grudge the same set you attack them, but if you make several LGs near set-end, why should you be protected with anonymity? The server specifically depends on the ranks of multiple sets, if you bypass that, then it would more likely encourage over-aggressive grabbing with no lasting consequences. That's probably more dynamic, but I'd hardly say that it would be interesting.

There are plenty of other servers that allow you to change names and wipe the slate clean from set to set. If you're looking for that dynamic than you can use the leaderboards of primary or express. Personally, the major factor of tourny that draws me to it is that you can't change names without dropping levels. There's always a trade off.

I don't understand why people are so concerned about last day grabbing.

If people are netting, they won't grab you on the last day. If they are not netting they'll be hitting the people that hit them the most, which is to be expected.

No one has addressed my point about tournament server mostly being an explore fest.

I don't buy this random suicider argument. Even with more levels, suiciding leads you drop down a rank most likely because it hurts both countries.

It just seems to lead to boring gameplay mechanics to me. Like I mentioned before, I am willing to bet there are little no dictators or tyrannies in game A tourney compared to a solo server like primary.

Do you guys think that dictators and tyrannies are also both so useless in short sets for netting that no one finds it beneficial? The reason is blatantly obvious to me, it's because the same name requirement leads to people playing ultra conservative all explore strategies for the most part. So the benefits of playing a strategy reliant on expansion is diminished to the point that no one bothers using it.

You can take off the same name requirement in game and I feel pretty confident that you'll start seeing some countries get a lot bigger than they are now, along with the previous record for highest net in game A in tourny being broken the first reset it is implemented, two at most.

Why are you so adamant that dictators and tyrannies would be good choices to get the highest networth? Maybe you don't see them because they are not ideal for netting. Maybe they're all stuck in Game B or C? (To be fair, I was a tyranny this last set, but mainly because some guy hit me 10 times in 3 days, so I knocked us both out of A)

I'm not sure what you want us to address about exploring being the safe option. We all know, if you make attacks and have more land, you can have a higher networth. People can do that already. There are a lot more explorers because in tourny there are no set guidelines for retals. Some people will suicide on two grabs throughout the entire set, and there just aren't enough people to spread the hits. I think that's the basic reason it is "an explore fest" because there are not enough targets to grab daily and not be considered farming someone.

Even if you allowed people to change their names, it wouldn't change the fact that if you farm someone, they can suicide you in the same set.

I think having the same name could even promote grabbing, because if someone grabs twice in the last week of the set, which happens a lot actually (typically the big theo's hitting cashers who won't waste their stock hitting back), then that casher can make a few retals the next set when they're more set up for it without having to ruin anyone's set to begin with. Then you can have land trades over multiple sets without a huge grudge (though it can always lead to that).