So, essentially, if an athlete told you "I have lost competitions, and it really sucks, but I also win a lot", you would immediately accuse him of being a hypocrite?
Thinking that failure sucks isn't hypocritical, any more than thinking success is sweet. Both are extremely common, entirely normal, and very healthy responses. What
is hypocritical is to take part in a game, and then complain about "unfairness" and "bullying" when you're bested fair and square.
The person fully knows I have no means to defend or retaliate and has said they will continue after I said I would retaliate against one of their a guild members closer to my position but its mainly because I'm easy pickings.
Did you try carrying through on your threat?
As for us all on the same level field. There is over 8 mill difference between us. They are at 10,844,923 with me at 2,485,103 and my progression has stopped. They are at the top of hood with me near the bottom.
The difference between top and bottom of the neighborhood can be significant, but not to the extent you describe.
Defending is a lot easier than attacking; the defender suffers no troop attrition. That's important, because my guess would be that this guy attacks a lot of targets every day. You have access to same-age troops. You can gain higher age troops as rewards (my defensive army has several higher age troops). You have access to Watchfires. You can build defensive buildings. Change your army's composition unpredictably between attacks, so that an attacking army that would win against one composition would loose against the other, and you will be able to inflict some losses on him.
Most importantly, though: This is
one guy. He can loot only one production per day. If you run 8 hour productions in 4 buildings, collecting twice in a day, you'll keep 7/8 of what you produce. Collect only once a day, and you'll still keep 3/4. Collect once a day with half the buildings, and you'll still keep 50%, in spite of using minimum space and being inactive to a near-comatose level.
Being plundered is
annoying, even
extremely annoying. If it's worse than
extremely annoying to you, then you're either too sensitive to engage in competitive activity, or you're very bad at this game.
My collection time changes because I,m a shift worker but they just keep looking in and if left for a second my goods are gone. My city is now on lock down. FOE are the one,s losing because I am no longer purchasing diamonds to assist my progression. I assume they are using some form of hack that looks for maturing goods and then take it when it ready.
That would be a
script, not a
hack. In spite of InnoGames' protestations, it's perfectly possible. Bad scripts will leave some signs they can use to identify them, especially if they're given special scrutiny, so you may try to raise the issue with support. If he uses a script that checks as frequently as you suggest, that would be one of those signs. Most likely, though, he's simply a very active player, cycling through the defeated cities several times a day.
If he does use a script, though, the plus side is that he probably uses it to attack, as well. That means he has no advantage over the AI that's running your defense, and he has no way of retreating to prevent heavy losses.
I would have thought that making friends and trading was also a major part of the game which I have strived to do without the help and need of a guild.
It is indeed a major part of the game, as expressed through the feature of
guilds. To "strive to do it" without a guild is... well... ahem...
unusual.
The person attacking has no production to trade.
Oh, but he does. It's very likely that he's trading
your production; he certainly has it to trade, if he wishes. If you carry through on your threat, and plunder his guildmate, there's every chance you can trade back your own goods.
