Tumbleweed, I think the main reason to remove the 2nd phase of OPs is not because counter declares are annoying and occur at unfair times, but rather to make OP wars more dynamic and frequent and to make OPs change hands more often.
At TH12 or so a smaller force could win an OP but it'd still require considerable manpower and strategy. And when planning an OP war you don't need to take 2 nights out of your busy week to make it happen, just 1.
About the unfairness of the attacker being the one to choose the time, there's tweaks for that. I like Virg's suggestion of the owners setting a "timeframe" of 8 hours in which they can be attacked. And the 24 hours declare can be stretched to 48h for example to give more time to prepare a defense.
As for the "useless" OPs, I really dislike the idea of bringing cats back. I think the rewards for OP pvp should be something unique and enticing, but nothing that completely shifts the balance of the gameplay. OP mats are great rewards, but not essential enough that folks can't go without them. The difference between "normal xp" and "double xp", on the other hand, is just too huge and too fundamental to the game experience to link it with OP pvp like this. I don't think it'd be fair to non-pvp players. I never liked the idea of cats and was very happy when they were removed (plus it works as a great incentive for people to sub).
I prefer the idea of converting a quantity of smaller quality OP mats into a higher quality mat. Although I think 6 q50 into 1 q250 would be too easy. I'd probably make it harder than that. Or alternatively, all OPs could have a % chance to yield a q250 mat. The smaller the OP level, the smaller the %.
At TH12 or so a smaller force could win an OP but it'd still require considerable manpower and strategy. And when planning an OP war you don't need to take 2 nights out of your busy week to make it happen, just 1.
About the unfairness of the attacker being the one to choose the time, there's tweaks for that. I like Virg's suggestion of the owners setting a "timeframe" of 8 hours in which they can be attacked. And the 24 hours declare can be stretched to 48h for example to give more time to prepare a defense.
As for the "useless" OPs, I really dislike the idea of bringing cats back. I think the rewards for OP pvp should be something unique and enticing, but nothing that completely shifts the balance of the gameplay. OP mats are great rewards, but not essential enough that folks can't go without them. The difference between "normal xp" and "double xp", on the other hand, is just too huge and too fundamental to the game experience to link it with OP pvp like this. I don't think it'd be fair to non-pvp players. I never liked the idea of cats and was very happy when they were removed (plus it works as a great incentive for people to sub).
I prefer the idea of converting a quantity of smaller quality OP mats into a higher quality mat. Although I think 6 q50 into 1 q250 would be too easy. I'd probably make it harder than that. Or alternatively, all OPs could have a % chance to yield a q250 mat. The smaller the OP level, the smaller the %.
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"We are Kami. We are here to be you. We are many as you are of many minds. We are one as you are one in Ma-Duk."