[2023] Annexation feature is a bad idea

Eco always had "PvP" of that type via the economical and governmental system. Eco is about people needing to come to agreements on how problems are solved and how their society is run. The game mechanics only help with that where diplomatic efforts fail. The very same can be observed for as simple things as taxation. The new settlement system allows players of different opinions to form multiple communites taking different approaches on the very same server, making a multitude of pluralistic differently run communites possible - e.g. all those players that before either had to yield to the majority or find a different server.

Annexation is a last-resort system that allows to take over settlements that are a threat to the common goal of the planet. It can be used for griefing, but it is also your only option against griefing of a whole settlement, for example by polluting the air to purposefully increase the sea level. Or by the settlement conveniently sitting on a major resource that is not available sufficiently elsewhere and abusing that position to a unacceptable degree, hindering progress on the server. Technically, any part of the government system can be used for griefing, now and back in earlier versions. The problem is not the tools, but how they are used.

Annexation of homesteads is not really a thing - once influence covers a homestead it can no longer expand with property and towns are required to get property claims. Everyone will be wanting to join a town and that is the intention of the gameplay loop, forming local societies. The main point for it is to be able to get rid of abandoned homesteads poking holes in your influence, as those would otherwise forever block your expansion. All this is a massive gameplay change indeed, no doubt, but it is one that was announced for multiple years and known to come to Eco. Of course you can disable settlements if you don't like that system, but we are confident the system brings Eco to a new level of simulation and will of course refine the systems where necessary. It's what we've been doing for the last six months based on the feedback of the continuously running playtests.

That is what I have been trying to state - and what is a nice thing at Eco: You can choose one of many administrated servers that run the game to your liking - or you can let the game play out in a less controlled way, where players need to decide what is going to happen all on themselves with many tools at their availability. The game styles resulting from that can be vastly different, but there is players enjoying all of them. We do want to support the ability to chose.