EXCITING NEW FEATURE COMING SOON - Unit Desertion

A feature that was promised before R7 and R8 released is finally coming!!

From the earliest days of Realm of Empires, we've struggled with the problem of too many fake attacks. Attackers felt compelled to send as many as possible, defenders found themselves with too many attacks to manage.

As ROE veterans can appreciate, its a hard problem to solve since fake attacks are a core tactical tool in attackers toolbox.

In R7 and R8, we are releasing a 'Unit Desertion' algorithm aimed at minimizing this issue. Minimizing is the key here. We are not removing this tactical option just limiting it.



The algorithm in a nutshell:

1. Some troops sent over a long distance will desert thus forcing you to send more and more troops over longer distances
2. The more troops you send, the fewer will desert
3. The longer the distance, the more troops will desert
4. Including a governor with the attack boosts the troops morale and prevents any desertion
5. Sending more than 300 "population-worth" of troops prevents any desertion
6. There is no desertion if the distance is 13 squares or less (roughly a 19x19 map)
7. Troops desert the moment the attack is launched
   

The above applies to attacks only.

Definition: population-worth, ie size of an attack
For the purpose of this algorithm, we calculate the size of the attack as the sum of population/food of all troops involved.

Ie, Citizen Militia consumes 1 unit of food therefore it has population-worth size of 1
Ram consumes 10 units of food therefore it has population-worth size of 10
and so on...

What we want to achieve with this algorithm, is to prevent clans from being able to send huge amounts of fake attacks over very long distances. You may still do so, but you will take higher losses.

At the same time, we did not want to automatically remove this tactical tool thus there is the minimal distance of 13 squares in which there is no desertion.

We hope that this will limit the number of fake attacks incoming to players who find themselves in a big war yet people close to each other can still play as they do now.

Keep in mind that it is still experimental and we may tweak it over the next weeks and months based on your experience and comments.