More options for Alliance Forums.
 

Basically I mean pretty simple things, why not add a few different features to the alliance forums specifically:

- the ability to add different access other than all members, member with view/edit, members with view/create or whatever, it doesnt even make sense because that option isnt even under alliance access, or those exact words arent; into the groups we setup within the alliance. make it a checkbox so that we can select multiple groups to view certain threads. this could make spreading news about new developments easier to maintain and read for all officers/hc or whoever once they login, especially with the subscribe feature.

- the ability to add multiple question'd polls. one use ND could use is we always have an end of round little ceremony thing where we vote on different people, we could just make the poll right there. i know there is a poll function, but add some depth to it perhaps?

Re: More options for Alliance Forums.
 

I agree. And tbfh, the entire ingame communication needs to be reworked. If this game wants to survive... it needs to get rid of IRC and the growing NEED for 3rd party software to make alliances and such function.

A good place to start would be the forums like you said... What would make most sense, would be to allow alliances to roll over from round to round just like users do. So forums remain intact round in and round out.

Re: More options for Alliance Forums.
 

or even an ability to create different forums with access levels set so that there can be a bc forum and an hc forum, or ones you can setup rights too

Re: More options for Alliance Forums.
 

There is absolutely no 'reliance' upon IRC for the game to function. PA is a requirement for IRC to function. There are very few people who play PA and log on to IRC to better their ability to play PA, they log on to IRC for the community aspect and play PA so there's a constant upon which they can all relate to.

Take away IRC and you kill PA overnight.

Re: More options for Alliance Forums.
 

Irrespective of whether they should, they can't "take away" IRC. What are they going to do, beat us with sticks any time we connect to NetGamers? in any case, the way to fix IRC's weakness (lack of ease of use) has been clear for years: an ingame IRC client. As far as I know, this is a widely accepted fact.

So widely accepted that it actually already exists! It's been a while since I last looked at the Com Unit, but as far as I remember, it functions adequately and is reasonably well integrated with the ingame alliance and galaxy toolset.

I realise that isn't exactly a ringing endorsement, but it doesn't need to be: the ingame IRC client doesn't need to be as good as or better than stand-alone IRC clients, it's just not PA's core business. All the ingame IRC client needs to do is to allow people to connect to NetGamers (check), join the channels that are useful to people who just started playing, #mygalaxy, #myalliance and #planetarion (check, check, check) and finally, to make this a fairly simple process (check). If players choose to, they can move to a stand-alone client, but this is neither a requirement to play PA on a high level, nor to participate in the community.


None of that has anything to do with DZ's suggestions, though. There is a good reason why alliances should indeed be multi-round entities: they already are, and it's the one thing that makes them fundamentally different from galaxies.

As for access control: there's a well-tested and widely accepted model that's been in use in *nix operating systems for decades: allow users to be in multiple groups, instead of in just one. It's powerful enough to accomplish all the things you want, while remaining extremely straightforward at its core.

Re: More options for Alliance Forums.
 

I somewhat agree with this... but 110% of all alliances in the past 30 rounds that were remotely decent REQUIRED irc activity.

My suggestion was to find an alternative that is much more adaptable and accessible. Something like the comunit... but obviously a bit more advanced...

I realize that while typing this, this is extremely beyond PA's reach in terms of coding and leadership... why bother...

Re: More options for Alliance Forums.
 

I use the Com Unit. It gets the job done and I'm not sure what more I would want it to do.

Re: More options for Alliance Forums.
 

Whilst certainly it is impossible for PA to remove IRC itself, I'd hoped that my words wouldn't be confused for suggestions that PATeam could, in fact, beat us with sticks (or "shut down every IRC network and client") but instead:

-Take away the Comm Unit
-Offer no official support for netgamers
-Have no official presence on netgamers
-Make no reference to IRC, thereby stemming the already weak ebb of new players joining the established IRC-based community.

None of which would make for any improvements to the way the community currently functions.

I did like Abort's idea though of Alliances being consistent over rounds, and DZ's suggestions for the ingame forums could improve communications.

I just think making suggestions on the PA forums for PA isn't a worthwhile venture, as none of the changes made to PA over the past... 3 or 4 years, say... have come from the community.

I think the last thing that was picked up from the community was the ability to do galaxy scans system for scanners, and that's been around for many many rounds now. Can anyone think of anything more recent? (That's not a rhetorical question btw).

Re: More options for Alliance Forums.
 

Why do we even bother suggesting stuff?? its like the galaxy def page, that has been asked for for ages now in multiple suggestion threads and touted by large amounts of influential ppl within the game, yet still it doesnt exist - supposedly its hard to implement but surely they made the alliance def page and taht works - i cant imagine it would be too hard to take the code and fiddle with it a bit and make the gal def page the same.

I think we all have to come to the conclusion that they just dont want to do anything for the game/. Cin is the only paid member of the pa team and all he does it fix minor bugs and write new security protocols which the community has ways around within 30 mins...

Jagex have obviously told Appco and co not to bother with any ingame improvement because as has been stated in multiple threads also they only want the url so they can use it to refer ppl to other Jagex games.

SO GIVE UP PPL - GO BACK IN YOUR HOLES AND STOP SUGGESTING STUFF - ITS NOT WORTH YOUR TIME EVEN TYPING IT

Re: More options for Alliance Forums.
 

I don't know why "we" bother making suggestions. Personally, I enjoy talking about ways to improve the game, even if they aren't implemented. I'm not actually playing any more, after all.

As for what you think is "obvious", I doubt you have any more knowledge about what's going on behind the scenes than I or anyone else does. Don't jump to conclusions just because you're frustrated.

Now. if you have anything to say that's actually on-topic, I'm sure we'd all be glad to hear it.

Re: More options for Alliance Forums.
 

I'm glad that you're an experienced coder with fundamental knowledge of the Planetarion code and the database structure. Thank god you're around to tell me how easy things are t odo.

"they" = ?
Cin's undertaken pretty fundamental reworking of the game to move it towards a state where we can take the game forward. We've had some fairly major changes that don't make a lot of difference to you, but give us a stronger position to create user profiles, history views, etc.

The suggestion that Jagex need referrals from Planetarion's website is, quite frankly, laughable. They get more page hits in a day than we do in a year. Jagex have never, ever indicated that they do not want us to work on improving the game. They've always been looking positively at improving the game.
I have to hold up my hands and admit that I've not spent a lot of time recently on Planetarion, mainly due to working 45-50 hour weeks most weeks for the last months away from home and trying unsuccessfully to hold a long distance relationship together at the same time. I apologise that I have not spent more time on the game. I hope that I'll have a bit more free time in the near future.


I do not know what to say to this whilst keeping the reply at an acceptable level, so I will make no further comment.

Re: More options for Alliance Forums.
 

appoco, i am amazed you spend anytime on this game when you get virtually no credit, no love from the community and no money. personally, i appreciate all your efforts and just wish jagex would give you a job so you can spend more time on PA (and maybe on a new relationship?).

Re: More options for Alliance Forums.
 

Appocomaster - regarding the galaxy def page - not im not an experienced coder - but someone made the allaince def page so its not an impossible task to convert the galaxy def page to look like it surely. Cin is a paid coder and its something the vast majority of the playerbase it calling out for. Why cant you just stop him changing stuff that no one who pays to play this game sees and instead get him to code something that us the paying customer wants?? is that too much to ask really?

There is so many suggestions all throughout this forum and a marked lack of response from any of the pa team on them - infact your reply to my flaming is probably the longest thing any of your team have ever written in here.

Now i know your a volunteer so my rant wasnt aimed at directly at you per say it was more aimed at your paid member of staff that seems to code stuff no one wants or particularly needs to improve their 7 weeks of gameplay

Re: More options for Alliance Forums.
 

i think you mean "per se" rather than "per say" kaiba, its Latin.

Re: More options for Alliance Forums.
 

These are not 'fairly major changes' at all. These are changes that could fairly be described as 'tinkering with shit nobody gives a **** about'. As for the alleged 'fundamental reworking of the game' well, we'll believe it when we see it. As you haven't seen fit to give any details, haven't sought to engage with the playerbase and haven't sought to explain how this will result in any tangible benefits to anyone, then you'll forgive us for assuming that this is more of the same bullshit that we've been hearing over the past two years from you and your team.

Great. But you haven't. And you're not likely to. You don't have the money, direction, experience, resources, or time to make any improvement to this (quite frankly, completely ****ed) game. Jagex has not seen fit to give you any of those things. They probably never will.

This is understandable. I honestly don't think its your responsibility. You're only a caretaker (or undertaker) for the corpse of a game that died a long time ago.

People like Mz and I are sad about the state the game is in. We'd like to see it revived and given the attention it deserves. But we're realistic in thinking this is unlikely to ever happen. You should be too.

Re: More options for Alliance Forums.
 

I appreciate the effort made by Appo & paid staff, who clearly will never satisfy everyone all the time.

If money is being taken out of the system and not invested in the improvement of the game, then I appreciate the frustration, and certain changes like the galaxy defense page sound easy & great but...

1) Ultimately this is a business, so taking money out of it is the point. (Investing a lot is risky, so why rush in when you have volunteers
foc)

2) The lack of announcements are understandable, because broken commitments to the community, do more damage than random improvements.

3) Keeping peoples details after sign up, so they don't have to sign up a fresh each time is quite fundamental and more important than the gradual game play improvements imo.

I think this game is old, so in some ways the team are playing catch up with new games designed more recently, and I imagine have been putting off these sort of changes for many rounds for various reasons.

In my vision / dreams:
A) you have core player base details saved each round, and email them each round etc
B) you strengthen community in game by using these details / history / friends link accounts
C) Improve playability for beginners who don't use IRC & not addicted (Galaxy defense page & Easy way to invite friends to your galaxy & easy way to attack & auto join 'cluster/training' alliance)
D) Advertise to grow player base once player numbers are growing naturally

Fingers crossed, Rhubarb

PS. I find it funny that we criticize so fearlessly when we admit we don't have details of any long term plans or the ongoing efforts, are we simply hoping for a response which gives those details.