Aug 3rd 2012, 17:40:43
If you start with 6.5k acres before you start landtrading, and you hit each of your other countries exactly 3 times all set, that allows you to do 45 grabs, with 6% growth on each grab. This 6% is exponential growth, not additive (although the number of acres to rebuild after each attack also grows exponentially, so exponential growth as a landtrader is impossible).
1.06^45 = 13.76
So assuming 6% growth per grab, and starting at 6.5k acres, you can grow to 89.5k acres while only hitting your own countries.
If you keep 117% military strategy tech all set long, then we can change it to 7% growth per attack.
1.07^45 = 21
If you start at 6.5k acres and grow 7% per attack, after 45 attacks, you will be at 136.5k acres. If you're landtrading with dictators or tyrannies, or with 120%+ strategy tech, you can easily get past 150k acres per country without having to do more than 3 attacks per country all set.
These new changes don't weaken landtrading AT ALL. They just make it a really big hassle to keep track of which countries have been hit already and which ones have not.
So thanks, qzjul. You didn't actually weaken landtrading. You just decided to stick your finger in the eye of those who don't want to spend hours playing their countries.
You also took away the ability for a person to play more than one strategy with their 16 countries if they want to play optimally, without having to landtrade with other people. Before I could play 8 cashers and 8 techers if I wanted. Now if I do that, I need to find someone else to landtrade with if I want to make it past 30k acres.
There isn't really any added skill in the new changes. Keeping track of which of your countries have hit each other and which have not isn't a skill. It's just a pain in the ass.