The Utopian Code Of Ethics
What is acceptable behavior in Utopia? No two people would agree. In a game that has players from many different nations, cultures, and gaming backgrounds, there’s bound to be disagreement. Here is what I would Utopian code of etiquette.
Out of Game Alliances: Utopia has not forbidden out of game alliances. You can be in an out of game alliance and be totally within the rules of Utopia. However, if you read the Utopian forums you will soon find that Alliances are for the most part hated by players who are not in them. That’s because of various abuses of power that many alliances engage in. When does an ethical alliance bring their power to bear?
When their members are attacked by other alliances or multis. To defend others that are weaker who are attacked by multis or other alliances.
Don't attack people on your kingdom or your island. These are your best potential allies and can be your most dangerous enemies if you cross them. Make sure you treat your kingdom and your island right or you may find yourself in a dangerous situation.
Posting other players statistics, kingdom names, or locations to the Utopian Forums is behavior of the lowest order. This lowly behavior is perpetrated by lamers who should be banned from the game. The only possible exceptions to this rule would be posting the names of obvious multis who misuse their accounts and alliance members. Since these factions are out of game, then posting their names (not statistics) on the forums (which are out of game) isn’t necessarily out of line.
Land grabs are part of Utopia and always will be. What is an appropriate retaliation for a land grab? Whatever you can muster within the game. If that province can strike back, their kingdom can strike back, their allies within the game can strike back, etc. Then that is acceptable. Attacks by multis or alliances over a land grab is not acceptable behavior. What is an acceptable number of hits for a land grab? There really is none. If you hit and land farm, dead province , or inactive player it’s doubtful that anyone will fill the need to retaliate. If you hit an active player and their kingdom is united, you may have to take them all on. That is the nature of game.
What about multiple thief attacks from a small province? If the attacks are anything other that perhaps rob towers or rob banks, this may call for extreme retaliation . Due to a flaw in the way the game is designed, a small thief province can do massive amounts of damage even to a huge province by burning their homes. If that province attacks the thief province, they may ironically be making them even stronger by increasing their ratio of thieves to land. In a situation where a small province continually thieves a larger one, the small province may even have to be eliminated with mass attacks. Tread carefully in this area.
Another loathed practice is sharing targets and/or gang banging. Person A finds a target. They hit the target and then share the targets weak defense with several others. Suddenly a land grab turns into 7 or 8 hits and the province attacked is devastated. Any time target sharing occurs it is appropriate to do massive damage to the original hitter or the person who shared the info. Buring down 3/4's of his homes or starting a war is an appropriate response. Nothing is a more hotly debated subject in Utopia than "Newbie Bashing". The practice of provinces of various sizes hitting much smaller provinces that arrive late to the game. This problem has decreased significantly because of diminishing returns however it still exists. There is no easy answer to this problem but you should avoid hitting people who are fresh out of protection if you have 5 or 6 times their NW. However how do you tell the difference between a "newbie" and a bad player? How much bigger is too much bigger to hit someone? There is no easy answer. Almost everyone can agree that newbie bashing is bad, but it's very difficult sometimes to define when hitting a good target becomes newbie bashing.
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