Account Sitters

Ok there are plenty of reasons why sitting is good or bad. 

Angrim wrote: both Binky's and Brandmeister's comments seem to beg the question: why have an account limit at all?

Well, it's not really the account limit - it's the ten-city limit.

Before I begin my commentary, I think DeathDealer89 said it very succinctly.

Angrim wrote: 1) sat accounts take space that actives might be using. i take a dim view of players who arrive in the game and immediately announce that "all the good spots are taken"...

I personally believe that people who complain about all the good spots being taken actually have no idea how to play Illyriad. What they are really complaining about is that all the PERFECT spots are taken, and that isn't anywhere close to the same thing. Only hardcore military players (and to a certain extent, hardcore tournament players) have any real need to closely tune population, including sov support using dolmens and fisheries. If you aren't fielding massive armies--and the vast majority of the complainers are non-military players--then there is no particular point to fretting over food sov. You can easily hit 10 cities with ordinary 7 food plains squares. You're just obsessing over your neighbor's Porsche when you can barely even drive your Mazda. I don't feel sorry that not everyone gets a Porsche in Illyriad, because 90% of the people complaining want one as a garage-kept status symbol, not as a tool to be used.

Would it be nice if there were lots of available 7 food plots with dolmens, conveniently placed in your desired alliance cores? Actually, no. That would remove all challenge for city building from the game. If you're not participating heavily in the military or trade aspects of Illyriad, then you're basically turning this into a very slow city builder game. Removing the last challenge to city builders would turn Illyriad into a remedial chore.

Angrim wrote: 2) sat accounts cannot spend prestige. they are dead to the revenue stream of the game, taking space and power and hardware capacity and giving nothing back.

That describes most Illyriad players. However, it is likely that big permasat accounts had prestige spent in the past (otherwise they probably wouldn't be worth sitting). Therefore, many of those accounts represent spent money, and punishing them somehow would just discourage future expenditures, because you know your investment might ultimately be wasted.

Angrim wrote: 3) current use of sat accounts concentrates power in old, well-established alliances (or really, veteran, well-established players)

THAT is the problem I have with permasat accounts. Permasitting basically collects power in the hands of the oldest alliances and most veteran players, far above and beyond the level they have already reached personally. Because Illyraid is a game of alliances on the large scale, this pretty much hoses everyone new. A big farm account can produce billions in gold and huge piles of equipment. This gives big, old alliances a source of nearly unlimited firepower. I expect their active players can run enormous deficits, +150-250% or more troop sov on every city, and never come up for air.

Anyone who doubts that needs to read the Herald more often. The daily battles in the server war are ridiculously huge. There is no way that unsupported accounts could sustain that level of troop production under normal conditions, for more than a few months.

Aug, there is nothing wrong with advocating for a policy change. Talking is a valid way to "deal with it". If you prefer silence, enjoy.

DeathDealer89 wrote: In fact since u believe sat accounts are largely stored in training alliances which ship res to new players its likely sat accounts generate prestige purchases in new players.

not sure where this came from. i believe that some sat accounts are stored in training alliances. i have no opinion on how many or what percentage of them are, and i would imagine that most are used as farm accounts for established players, not for newbs.