Note: This is my viewpoint on the situation and may not be shared by the other officers, the General or the King.
At the current time I have been asked multiple times if we are a peaceful faction and/or if we raid. To put it simply, we aren’t as well prepared as we use to be a year ago. A year ago our faction was quite good at fighting. We were largely a non-premium faction (as we still are) but minecraft’s combat system has changed since then. Enchantments weren’t a thought and armour worked differently*. Few had high mcmmo skills and fewer had Grandmastery** of any combat skills. The combative difference between premiums and non-premiums was slim for most, now it means almost everything.
As for now, I will not take anyone under Novice** in a melee skill on a raid nor will I sanction one. The consequences of raiding a faction for satisfaction of the moment are outweighed by the repercussions of said action. While we may have fun at the time, it’s likely they will come to raid us and then we will get complaints about it which is more challenging to deal with. People will complain of the items they lost and their armour that was destroyed and will demand compensation. The way to remedy this is to train. Train your skills like there’s no tomorrow. I’ve been training my skills for about two or three weeks now, about 3-4 hours a day, and have gotten my swords and axes to 500 and my unarmed and archery to 600. I know most have jobs or school among other things that limit the amount of time you can play but when I see most of you, you spend no time training at all (Note: I do know some have other things they are working on while they are on and are therefor excluded from this). Some do train but when you hit 50-100 in a skill you immediately want to raid and test your new abilities. That will almost always get you killed, I’ve been there so I know firsthand.
Now to address the difference between premiums and non-premiums. While I understand that some of the younger players haven’t a credit card to buy premium with, others just don’t want to pay for one reason or another. I see no problem with either just know that without a high skill-set (around the Journeyman or Experienced ranks at the very least**) you will, in most cases, never win against a premium. If a premium has god armour and Grandmastery of a combat skill it is unlikely even three to four non-premiums could kill the premium. That’s just how it is unfortunately and I hope they fix this as I would love to have all of my friends beside me as I fight without watching them be murdered with one or two hits from an axe. Again, this can be remedied slightly if you have iron-god armour but iron just doesn’t have the durability diamond does.
To conclude, we don’t involve ourselves in raids/wars because our citizens aren’t trained enough to handle them yet. I hope everyone can understand this as it can only change if you train. With that, I hope to see you on the field. -Wolf
* Armour would protect you less the more it was damaged. This meant a person in a damaged set of diamond armour could be killed as easily as someone in iron if not easier.
** We have a ranking system for skills with Upcoming being the lowest (0) and Grandmaster being the highest (1000). The list of ranks is provided here as well as on the Archery Masters tab in Army Divisions. It was drawn up by strider6106 (our King) and shows what level is needed to be considered each rank.
