Glad that your server has gotten more active now, but I'm left wondering how much that fact has to do with the update. For the past few years it became normal for 1 small server to take the spotlight, while others become stagnant in the meantime. Something happens outside of the game that influences all players to move to that server, act out their war there and then move on to the next, leaving that server empty again. It would be great if your server escaped that cycle due to the update and stayed active for a long time, but the small servers that I play on are all entering deep into the stagnant phase again.
For me personally it just feels like there are less and less things to do in the game. When a server is doing site swaps, you have to join the game right before each phase starts (as a site owner - to swap quickly, as an attacker - to have any chance to drain a single site before the swap is finished). I rarely get attacked by other players until there are only a few sites left on the map. All sites often become recently claimed in less than 20 minutes.
Years ago I used to love defending sites - I would immediately stop whatever I was doing in the game and run up to any site that became red, no matter who it belonged to, or how many enemies there were. Now it feels counter-productive to do anything besides sitting in the map with your sites for the whole phase (as a defender) or just straight up swapping sites with an ally to get the phase over with quicker and get back to doing anything else (farm dds, ores etc).
As an attacker I used to have a lot of fun even when I was losing, now I'm barely getting any enjoyment, even when I'm "winning" a couple sites during the Vulnerable phase. But it doesn't even feel like winning, most of the time no one is there to stop me - and if anyone does show up, they can't kill me (Adrenaline buff for attackers, the defender is busy draining other sites), so the person with the higher drain rate wins regardless of the fight. My enemies can literally follow me around sometimes and block from taking any sites thanks to their high drain rate and there is nothing I can do about it when I'm in that situation. Likewise, it feels pointless to go after any red sites as a small attacking group, as we can't be sure who's drain rate will be higher before we get there and if we would even be able to kill any enemies before the site is fully drained.
Many players left the game after they lost the hope of ever holding sites again, so it's good that we are thinking of ways to award attackers for their struggle. But I just feel like we are moving in a direction that removes a lot of the game's charm and fun. The rewards are useful and important, but they aren't the fun part.
i see where you're coming from, but i do also think you're viewing things through rose tinted glasses.
that is to say, war was fun before all these updates, but also it was exhausting. there were days, weeks even, when maps were red
all day and sometimes into the night. 2016-2017 in particular for me personally stands out. there were times when the server would flip every day and night. it was just too much. at some point, that stops being fun, and it starts becoming a job or a chore. being an attacker sucked hard after a while because you just couldn't do anything. you could turn sites red as many times as you wanted but at the end of the day any site you claimed just got immediately retaken. while the war may have been more fun, it was also a million times more frustrating, because it was more likely that you would come out of it with just about nothing. similarly on the defender side, you could be busy at work or school and get 50 messages to come defend maps because everyone else is
also at work or school and now kos are running rampant. as someone who led a small clan and had a full time job during those times, it was a nightmare.
something that occurs to me often is that it seems that a good portion of the playerbase are young adults - specifically early 20s/late teens, when you don't have a whole of responsibilities and a lot of energy. it also seems to me that for a lot of people, this is their main (or maybe only) game. if i had to guess, that is probably where some of the complaints are coming from as well. while i wasn't fond of the combat phases at first, as i've become more active on ds again i've come to appreciate that i can reliably predict when war will be. i'm nearly 30 and have other games to play and so these short bursts of war throughout the day are more enjoyable for me personally. if i had to worry about my clan's buildings 24/7 when i want to do other things i would probably get extremely burnt out on the game. someone who mostly plays ds probably wants a lot more action than i do, and that is totally ok.
to each their own.
there is a lot that still needs to be done with the game in terms of updates for endgame, but my main feelings right now are that the rework to the combat phases and buildings makes it overall more fair for everyone to get a shot at rex. i do believe there are still things that need to be changed however! something that i've thought about is maybe during combat phases, when you take a site, the protection phase is only temporary. maybe 10 minutes or so? before it can be attacked again. and then at the end of the combat phase, whoever has the site, has it for the protection phase. just an idea off the top of my head though.
we as a community need to make our voices heard to the devs. even if you disagree with someone, it's important that we all give our thoughts and ideas. complaining without offering any solutions or ideas just doesn't help anyone. yes, you don't like it, and we know
why you don't like it, but what would you change? what would you like to see from the game, short-term or long-term? what do you think would revive the servers and make people want to play and make war?
... Something feels off...