Originally posted by Extreme-Ad-4265
You say that pre-made groups power is now decreased - but that is not true. Imagine the situation: 10 random players form a town and another pre-made group found another town close enough to the first one because of crops yeild potential. Both towns have shared borders and start pumping culture to not be annexed. Because of how reputation network multiplier works - 10 players from pre-made group can actually annex a lot more territory and start force their laws on others players from another town easely.
And yeah, in real world pre-made group will found town earlier then 10 random players in almost 100% cases.
I pesonally don't like when the game forces to have pretty high level of collaboration to have the same amount of fun from the game. For what reason? It would be fair, if the "old rules" where in place, but if you want - you may form a group and have more opportunities and more fun. But now, you forced to solve a lot of complicated social issues to have the sa...
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Towns cannot annex other towns, they don't need to defend against each other.
Yes, a premade group will be faster and more efficient, but that will not allow them to take over the whole world anymore. They are confined to restricted space, which is definitely decreased power.
Eco is all about collaboration and players figuring out communication and build a society - it is the point of the game. Not sure what other reason I could give you than that being the intended gameplay Eco is and has always been developed for?
I've seen countless introverts becoming involved and more social over my years with Eco. And we're still a framework, there is already multiple servers that change gameplay mechanics from the default to put focus a bit differently, for example with global federation start. If the base gameplay isn't for someone, there is alternatives.