Just read the entire thread and being a still very new player I tend to agree with Juujuux on many things. This for example:
Look at it from a different point of view. You are new, just joined a server, just starting your town. Notice these enormous super powers, then they attack you for "building on sacred ground". Guess how quickly that could have pushed us away had I not seen the chat notification?
For those familiar with all the mobile empire building games on your phone, things like Game of war, Clash of Kings, etc. Loka has many of the elements of that game play style. One of the biggest problems with those games is that after about a month or so, the top players and alliances are completely beyond the new players that join. They simply can't ever catch up fast enough before being crushed back down. Because Loka gives players the ability to improve over a very long period of time it means that the veterans have an absolute and total advantage over the new players.
Now unfortunately, I don't know what can be done to make this problem completely go away. And as a matter of fact, its not a bad thing to think that it veterans should have an advantage. If a player or town has that much work put into it a new players should have to work their ass off to catch up. Despite this, servers tend to have a hard time unless they can draw in new players. So having the game me more geared towards giving newbies the advantage is actually to the benefit of the server as a whole.
Anyway, it may seem unrelated to everything i just said but I also believe the territory size of towns should have a much lower cap on it. 10-15 generators should be all a town needs. Also, towns should be limited to 15-20 members and alliances 5 towns. In general this will help limit the "superpower" feel new players get when they see the map.
This is a point from planzorg1 that I also found was very interesting:
My frustration about this stems from the fact that the server was advertised as PvP, and yet there has been little to no town PvP since I joined.
As I mentioned above this server does fit into the style of gameplay you'd find in mobile empire building games. In those games you'll find that while everyone establishes their towns and and starts to build up there is very little fighting because people are more interested in getting powerful and establishing their claim. After they get bored though they begin to bicker and yes, the top alliances then butt heads and beat the crap out of each other. It always happen but given that instead of simply clicking a button to upgrade a town (mobile game), and instead having to build each block of it, the initial build up stage will be extended much longer.
So in general if you are looking for your PvP fix, log out, join me on mineplex or something for some mini games then we can come back to loka where I feel our creations and actions actually matter to the community. XD As many of you can probably relate, one of the best parts of loka is being part of a community.
Anyway, yeah, loka isn't going to have as much pvp as you may want.When you do engage in pvp on loka, though, I'd bet it'll get your blood pumping much harder than some random minigames or the like you might find else where.
And the last thing I'd like to address:
It's very hard to criticize anything on this server as a new player. In this thread I've seen some new players trying to point out some frustrations they've had and seeing the community of loka ganging up on them and more or less telling them why their point doesn't matter. I've felt that way on occasion too. Now I understand that you can't bend to the will of any new player just because they have complaints, that'd be crazy. It does feel like the community in general gives them the message that their ideas don't matter though and that they are wrong for thinking it should be any different.
If you have a player no matter how new signing up on the forums and posting you've probably found a very good player who would be a great asset to the community. Pushing them to the side just because they are new is not a good way to make them want to stay especially when these players are actively trying to be a part of the community. So just watch what you say members of Loka, us newbies have good ideas and points too and we don't like to be pushed to the side.
Alrighty have fun with that wall of text, see y'all tonight.