I don't mean to be disrespectful, but reading more than a few of the threads here causes confusion.

I have no issue with the "this is a solo server so no teamwork allowed" idea. I prefer it. Changing the GDI to the Express version may prevent the 'Dantzig suicider' issue, but as I see it it doesn't really prevent buds from playing as a team. My 2 cents is that the fact that we can have 'allies' for defense or intel or offense is leading some to believe that teamwork btw allies is ok. There should be no allies in a solo game.

My main question, however, is the recurring point I see about hitting/being hit. Some feel that unprovoked hits are taboo and should be verboten. I see comments about reporting someone who hits the same country more than once. I see comments about reporting people for retals above what the initial hit 'took', as if WWII should have been limited to sinking 7 Japanese battleships and blowing up some planes on the ground.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining or criticizing (ok, constructively maybe). But in a game that's based so largely on the weapons and technology of war, it's confusing to see so many people saying war should be punished and even prevented through administrative means.

I know that the Alliance server has agreements between groups over how many times, and in what form, and in what time frame a retal can occur. I see a smoke filled room where one guy says "Hey, if one of my guys, he hits youse, uhhh, youse can hit him back. But only in this way..."

Is there really a place in a 'solo' game for this kind of structured play? I got a pretty nifty manual to read in Alliance that spells out what I can, ought and should never do. I see very similar, yet informal 'rules' here in Primary. Who is gonna write the manual letting all us new players know it really isn't a solo server, it's a 'solo with benefits' server?

Lest you all think I'm just a hot head warmonger, I made one hit last set, a SS. It was before I was ready to adequately defend (dumb), but there was no retal. I was hit by others a handful of times in the last set (but no more than once by anyone). I considered retal but determined it wasn't in my best interests to slap back a bigger opponent, as it could cause them to rain down on me (or so I thought).

You should never know in a solo game (well, I guess you guys who all know each other do) whether your single LG will be tolerated as 'civilized' or seen as a challenge to the death.

'If ya buys your ticket, ya takes your ride.'

the point is to stop people killing countries for no reason at all

My opinion is that if you want to play as a team, and use your team to enforce a retal policy, or to fight together as a team, or do any actions in support of your allies to your mutual benefit, that you should play on the team server.

The argument that 'it was to my advantage to help him out' doesn't hold any water because alliances were initially created in Earth 2025 (before there were tags) because it was mutually beneficial to create alliances. It is that type of mutual benefit that individual servers are supposed to prevent.

Aye, you can still have relations in Primary

might be a good idea to just remove that.

imo you can retal how you want on solo servers, since "alliance etiquette" doesnt apply. but yeah, as its up to the individual you will have to take your chances every time you grab.

i personally go by "an eye for an eye"

hope i got your question right, if you even had one :P

Thanks Spawn, you got part of it. The other part had to do with attacks. I'm sure I'll get it figured out.

?

grabs/retals are attacks no? ;)

It would seem as tho the "buddie system" has been effectively killed with the application of the new GDI rules.
I for one applaud it..Cant't be suicided on by anyone now unless you "provoke it" with at least 2 grabs/ops.
Seems to me that no one can complain about ab/missles/gs and the such now.

And there's the rub Spawn... you said retals can be however one wants (many posters seem to disagree), but you didn't address grabs or non-grab types of attack except to say that grabs are risky (as I think they should be). If the culture here is that grabs should only be responded to only in kind and in result, then how risky are they really? I grab you, you grab me back, eye for an eye. If I grab you again, or would like to grab but have to run your tanks down first with a non grab attack (suicide I know) ;) then the impression I get from the forums here, as well as from the new rule change, is that I've crossed a line. I just wanna know where that line is, because it's not evident.

I apologize if my original post was muddled. I only wanted to ask why there seemed to be an attack etiquette here that people get upset (multiple posts with multiple commiserating replies) when it isn't followed.... but I have yet to find the etiquette rules to follow so that I (and other new players) too can fit in with your culture.

on Alliance there is an "etiquette" for either Land:Land or 1:1 escalating retals (1:1 for the first hit, 2:1 for the second,...), whatever the particular alliance enforces

some people hang on to those unwritten rules on solo servers, which dont count here unless you can enforce it here on your own, which i doubt very much.

imo if i grab someone and he retalls with a missile i usually move on, if someone would GS me a couple of times i would probably ignore him, but if i get BRed/ABed too much i will war them :P

(destructive) spyops are not really seen as retal option, however if someone retals you and you bomb his banks and send him a "retal message" i doubt he will war you over that

People should be able to use whatever attack form they like, when they like. It adds more strategy to the server trying to hit yet still avoid suiciders. If everyone could play without Penalty for their actions, what's the point? I got suicided to a degree last set but got myself out by deflecting attention on someone else. This is part of the old 1b way. War if you want, and net if you want, if you CAN.

I think the only real change that should happen is the elimination of Allies within Primary. Since it's intended to be a solo game, the idea of alliances makes no sense.

Otherwise all attacks of all kinds are fair game. The new GDI is useful and the idea of preventing the super large countries from raining down on smaller ones is good. But within a certain range, the idea that you might get suicided on or just a single retal makes the game more exciting.

more shade.. lmaoooooooo... dayshade, nightshade, Zeroshade..

Thanks Spawn for the info!

I agree with zeroshade, Relations in Primary sets up team thinking.

hey paulie... brightshade might still be available... ;-)

I play with some friends as in game allies all the time, the game would not be nearly so much fun without them.

I have never had a suicider come after my country at any time, but I always prepare to have to defend something like that. It makes the game a real challenge. I build a really tough country, so I don't really have to worry about more experienced players attacking me since they can figure out the numbers at least as well as I can. It's the newbies who generally will try to hit me up. I try to teach them a thing about the game then. It will only improve the game's challenge in the long run.

I seem to be a land magnet for all you vultures out there..

Interesting! Cool change on primary :D

Personally, I don't like double-taps, especially against me or my allies. But I also don't like lots of rules.