There are five ways to stop other players from donating...
- Don't build the AW.
- Don't add Runes every 5th Level.
- Don't upgrade the AW when its research or Runes are full.
- Max out the AW.
- Sell the AW.
@Sir Derf @FairyNike : Plus [as a quick, temporary, and reversible fix]... No.6 : Disconnect the AW from its Road whenever it's not receiving donations from your FS... it will still appear to other players, but marked as 'Road Disconnected' [or similar], but it will essentially be disabled, certainly in terms of adding any KP to it (and this applies both to you yourself and to any other player, in or out of your FS). I can't remember (I did once know - my memory's so patchy!) whether disconnecting an AW from its Road
also disables the AW's effects or not, with my best guess being that yes, it does (? can anyone confirm...?) - so there's one more choice, if the KP Hunters really are driving you mad!
That said, this strategy does involve a LOT of 'babysitting' of the game, to be sure of not inconveniencing one's FS-mates who may wish to donate to your AWs (whether via Swaps or just on spec) at times when you're not around to reconnect their Roads. I've resorted to doing this myself, on a few occasions when one or two specific Hunters really have been homing in on me (they sometimes Hunt in packs, if you attract the type who do this as a sort of competitive mini-game within Elvenar, outbidding each other in a competitive spirit, but very rarely actually bidding enough to cover the cost of the AW Chest KPs & Runes combined... the idea of the rarely seen but real player-invented 'KP Hunt Mini-Game' - so it seems to me? - is to 'win the game' by earning max. profit [in combined KP/Runes] without actually
costing yourself anything?).
Assuming that one does object to KP Hunting in one's AWs (and not all players do, by any means), I don't recommend persistently disconnecting one's AWs long-term, though - it's laborious and tedious, and does annoy one's FS-mates, usually. I did this, a few times only, because my own AWs are few in number but are now becoming high in level (most are at 13+ and/or 26+), so they're attracting more of the [comparatively few, Server-wide] Hunters - both old and new, as well, because the mobile client, by far the most usual choice of new players, doesn't let players scan the entire Map for AW targets, so out-of-FS KP donations more frequently come from Neighbours, nowadays, than from The Usual Suspects who roam the entire Map on PC, and whose names become familiar to many of us, after a while (rather like the names of the also few-in-number but also often habitual players of the '1* Sentient Goods Trading Mini-Game', too, but this is the wrong Thread for that particular ramble!)... and of course one of the 'Hints & Tips' on starting the game - which many newbies naturally read, and pay attention to, in most games - even officially suggests that donating KP to 'other players' - which suggests ALL other players, indiscriminately - is a good way to earn back KP and Runes for oneself.
To summarise : as with many things in many games, what may appear (
@FairyNike) to be an isolated or unusual event - in this case, a player donating 1 KP to AWs despite being asked to stop - is actually an officially endorsed, er, 'feature' of the game, whether other players enjoy it or not...!
Warning : Personal thoughts incoming... skip ahead if not wanting to read How Laurelin's Rambling Mind Works... well, today, at least...
I myself see this aspect of the game (the subtle competitive element) as inevitable, to be honest - as I did when I first joined Elvenar, back in 2018, and I was idly roaming around the World Map, as I still often do... and I soon realised that I could (had I so wished) visit the No.1 player on the Server, with all their attractively high-levelled and KP-wealthy AWs - or indeed anyone else, as the situation still remains, on browser/PC - and spam KPs into their AWs without let, hindrance, nor any regard for their or their FSs' wishes. Hmm, I thought... that's an interesting design choice.
I also looked at HOW MANY thousands of $/£/Euros/etc. [back then] it would have COST to build one of the Top 10 Cities, if not more of the Top 50 than just those... and even though there's now the Spire grind to earn the required Diamonds, if you're keen enough, plus a chance to win those Magic Buildings (and may I just say GRRRR to my own one solitary MW won in ALL of the Spire's lifetime...) - despite that, it's still very likely indeed that the biggest Cities are also big financial investments (and why not, of course)... with the Top 50 on each Server now being
actively promoted to any mobile player who looks up their own Server Rank (mobile players can't view the entire Server Ranking list, as PC players can).
Those big end-game Cities were colloquially called 'Blue Cities' amongst players, back then, because of all the [back then] cash-purchasable-only Magic Residences and Workshops they featured... and I mused also upon the fact that there even ARE 'top players' in terms of Server Rank (as there are in most online games), and also upon the fact that Tourney performance is also ranked, too... and I thought : Yes - about as expected - Elvenar doesn't
look very Forge of Empires-like, based solely upon its graphics and Lore themes (although its underlying structure & mechanics are all based on FoE, whether unaltered or slightly re-worked)... but of course there's still
some degree of Player-vs-Player (PvP) design in Elvenar, just as in FoE, although it's much more subtle than the FoE system of openly trashing each other's Cities - and to me, that's just fab! I really do NOT personally enjoy competing
per se, although I'll give it my best
if and only if my Team needs me to (well, within reason - I won't actively disadvantage myself - which also harms the Team anyway, long-term) OR, of course, where decent rewards-for-effort are on offer, as in the Tourney... and FAs, I am looking straight at YOU, there, with your ever-paltry [tangible] recompense for massive effort expended...!
Anyway. Back on track, at least sort of - long story short, show me an online multiplayer game which does NOT incorporate and encourage either highly overt (FoE-like) or at least subtle (Elvenar-like) elements of PvP (because inter-player competition is the single best revenue-earner [outside of gambling] in these games), and I'll show you a gaming house which is either (a) happy not to earn as much money as they perhaps could, if they DID introduce at least some kind of inter-player competition; or (b) actively plotting to introduce some element of overt and/or subtle PvP as soon as they can work out how to do it without spending too much in the process, and/or players actually noticing, if it's not overtly a PvP game...!
Human Nature, what can you do?
Seriously though -
@FairyNike - I feel for you, and agree with you, even though Inno built the game specifically to allow for this 'hidden' form of inter-player competition, and others, too, whether we like it or not, and IMO they will therefore never alter this system in any way. The 1-2 KP Hunters are a nuisance to many of us, with most of them choosing to ignore friendly messages asking them kindly to cease & desist - although that said, some of them really DON'T know that KP Hunting can be an annoying habit, especially those who are newer players, and those players often will respect pleasant requests to please stop it, and might even reply in just as pleasant a manner - after all, it's sometimes difficult for ALL of us to get hold of enough KP for our AWs/Research, and much more so during the early game, and this is much worse for players who aren't in supportive FSs operating Swaps, too, so there are many sides to ANY argument... but I myself (a) don't believe in being rude to other players for any reason (and it won't get anywhere, for sure, if one tries to demand that KP Hunters leave one alone...) but also (b) don't buy the "It's just a generous gift" argument/excuse... especially now that my AWs are costing over 1,000 KP per level to upgrade. Generous... hmm... sure...
PS :
@Herodite : Thanks for your excellent, concise & good-natured summary of how to politely/effectively [try to] discourage KP Hunting, while remaining cheerily resigned to it - which IMO is [mostly] all that those of us who don't like it can do, and so is usually about the best response!
