I have to agree with you. When I built my base, I was between 30 and 39. Despite having a small base made of sandstone, people(a couple) still broke into it. My luxury items were like a couple of steel bars and some thick leather. The normal stuff in the north… which I didn’t know at the time.
After the two French buddies had for the first time raided my base, I reinforced my base so well, that they had to use more explosives. So the second time, half of the base was missing. The most valuable thing that they got was a lvl 4 carpenter. It really pissed me off, so I confronted the guy by writing to him what a degenerate he was. He was very polite, and answered that that since it was a PVP server, he could do what he wants.
Okay… so he didn’t care that I was about half his level, or clanless, or that the best material on my base was stonebrick. There was one other guy, who just stole some brimstone, and then killed me. He could had returned and destroyed everything, but he didn’t. And he allowed my to loot my corpse. Relatively nice guy lol.
After that I went to the north, and was hiding in The Pocket. That was well for 3 weeks, I became lvl 60 while being there. And then the Alpha clan on the server discovered the place, and (obviously) they raided the place. The damage was much less severe since it was made of black ice, but still looted… I found out that the couple that raided me had some sort of deal with the alpha clan. Both of the clans were French. So if you’re playing on the most populated EU PVP server on Xbox, and you ain’t French, then tough s h i t, they barely speak English, and they don’t give a s h i t about you…
And that’s why I left PVP. I started to think about it, the only motivation to play PVP, is the opportunity to destroy other people’ stuff(and steal). So it’s basically what gangs do IRL.
So when you’re playing PVP, you’re playing a simulation of an anarchy society. You’re at the mercy of whoever found your base.
PS: the current system is bound to the Alchemist. So the alpha clan have at least one level 4 alch. Everybody who doesn’t have a treaty, will be destroyed if they settle near New Asagarth. That’s what happen at the server I was playing at. Dragonpowder will be half the cost with level 4 alch. So they biggest strongest clan will have (even) more explosives.