Planetarion Forums - View Single Post - Planetarion: Some Thoughts and Suggestions

jerome · 3 Jan 2008, 12:42

This here is a thread I've just written in the past half hour or so, condensing some thoughts I've had regarding Planetarion over the past round (think of it as simplistic alternative thread to Jester's far more enigmatic thread here: http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=193999) referring to the just mentioned thread of jester's as well as discussions I've had over the past couple of years with many names and thoughtful faces throughout the world of Planetarion. However this isn't in depth at all, as I've just wanted to get most of it out for discussion, if not the solutions at least the Observations. I've tried to keep everything as simple as possible as well.

Alliances Mechanics-

For all calling out for a drop in the membersize there's some key parts you're ignoring: the real issue with alliances right now is the lack of competent / willing HC's and officers for the alliances there are right now, let alone for even more to emerge. If you cut down alliances to their elite core, do you expect one of the lesser members (the fat off the meat) to brew together themselves and make themselves competitive? I don't think that's the key to make the main target of planetarion more accessible to compete in for more of it's memberbase. But I'll get further onto that in the section below related to rankings.

Scoring/Ranking-

The amount of players playing in planetarion that are genuinely competing for the #1 aim of the game which at one point or another ended up being #1 alliance is near enough next to insignificant now. I suspect the game of going for the #1 alliance with alliances how they are is developing to be rather stale. This is inexplicably tied in with "selfish" players of whom there are a plenty of these days, more noticeable perhaps than in the so-called golden days due to the proportion of a useful players to self-minded ones. With this in mind, perhaps the key would be in an alteration of a planet ranking system.

The issue I'm trying to get that is there is too many different targets for players to independantly go for without enough players to support a competition in each field. Perhaps it is time to condense the game into having maybe only certain targets? Alliances v Galaxies/BG's have always existed but now maybe the time to pull it into the main field of contention? I refer to Rob's suggested idea (too lazy to look for thread right now) but basically allow private galaxies. Except people in private galaxies cannot join a tag. There's a wide range of possibilities you can expand upon from this one such being:

Say a private galaxy of 20, and the gal score is multiplied by 2.5 and it competes versus alliance tags of upto 75? (maybe 20x2 and 50?) This is something I just popped out of my head, basically I find the idea of playing with friends interesting and I hate planetarion forcing me to do otherwise.

With regards to scoring system I think small but ultimately needed changes such as the all res and all prod being counted into value / score is quite needed. Little touches there.

Ship Stats-

R21-23, R24-25 The stats have barely changed and this is entirely unacceptable in my opinion. Planetarion is bland enough without having to play the same scenario more or less twice, surely? My views on stats are well documented by now I can't really say anything more on it because everything I have to suggest is too radical for a PAteam that's too lazy to even create a new set of bland linear stats in between rounds, let alone something innovative.

PATeam/MHTeam/Jolt-

We've all got to accept that Planetarion is basically dead, every round people post with hope of things we could do to revive the memberbase and find a golden duck that lays eggs to a few thousand new players. But let's face it, it isn't going to happen. Planetarion has minimal effort put into it by the people that own the game and I don't think the game deserves any new players to be honest. There have been a ridiculous amount of opportunities for ample marketing possibilities with the boom of myspace, facebook and christ knows how many other sites; possibilities of partnership with all different kinds of internet vehicles and instead absolutely NOTHING has been done except those god ****ing forsaken MPOGD voting sprees once a year or whatever it is that does **** all at all, in reality.

With regards to MH team I'm pretty confused with things. Why is there an alliance memberlist if support planets aren't illegal? Mind you I don't think they should be ILlegal at all. As far as cheating / rules goes I suppose it's pretty obvious PA is tighter than a baby's buttocks when it comes to even the littlest of things and frankly, it's infuriating. The babysitting jobs of MH isn't what they should be doing: NOT A SINGLE PERSON IS GOING TO GET CORRUPTED BY SWEARING OR PICTURES OF TITTIES. Stop pretending or upholding a fake sense of pathetic morality it honestly disgusts and repulses me. Sure, actual full blown abuse against a player (unless it's alki or arc, or such people who deserve it) there's a line people shouldn't cross I suppose. But the more or less "internet police" line of pushing away the few players you have by being uptight over meaningless things is pretty annoying guys.

In an overall view of what the MH do or have done in the past few rounds there seems to be a total lack of focus and obvious nepotism in the mix and it's not helping anything. PA needs a lot more liberality to do with it.

In what I'm sure is a controversial opinion / option of extending the scope to planetarion is that I would consider allowing account sharing and farming. Multi-ing is still a no, but PA is about 4 years behind with the lack of account sitting abilities to pretty much any vague form of a worthwhile online text game (that requires regular activity at least): Stop making masochism a required element of personality to play. With regards to farming, that's probably too much liberty for most of our forum posters but I think it'd actually make the game somewhat more interesting if you take the above idea about rankings(all v gal_) into it.

I've gotten bored of typing now, so I'm going to stop. I'll probably not add more of my own thoughts for a while (if ever) but I'll reply to any discussion.

edit: I meant support planets should NOT be illegal (which they aren't) but what is the point of a memberlimit to alliances then if it isn't!

3 Jan 2008, 12:42	#1
jerome . Join Date: Mar 2004 Posts: 3,382	Planetarion: Some Thoughts and Suggestions This here is a thread I've just written in the past half hour or so, condensing some thoughts I've had regarding Planetarion over the past round (think of it as simplistic alternative thread to Jester's far more enigmatic thread here: http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=193999) referring to the just mentioned thread of jester's as well as discussions I've had over the past couple of years with many names and thoughtful faces throughout the world of Planetarion. However this isn't in depth at all, as I've just wanted to get most of it out for discussion, if not the solutions at least the Observations. I've tried to keep everything as simple as possible as well. Alliances Mechanics- For all calling out for a drop in the membersize there's some key parts you're ignoring: the real issue with alliances right now is the lack of competent / willing HC's and officers for the alliances there are right now, let alone for even more to emerge. If you cut down alliances to their elite core, do you expect one of the lesser members (the fat off the meat) to brew together themselves and make themselves competitive? I don't think that's the key to make the main target of planetarion more accessible to compete in for more of it's memberbase. But I'll get further onto that in the section below related to rankings. Scoring/Ranking- The amount of players playing in planetarion that are genuinely competing for the #1 aim of the game which at one point or another ended up being #1 alliance is near enough next to insignificant now. I suspect the game of going for the #1 alliance with alliances how they are is developing to be rather stale. This is inexplicably tied in with "selfish" players of whom there are a plenty of these days, more noticeable perhaps than in the so-called golden days due to the proportion of a useful players to self-minded ones. With this in mind, perhaps the key would be in an alteration of a planet ranking system. The issue I'm trying to get that is there is too many different targets for players to independantly go for without enough players to support a competition in each field. Perhaps it is time to condense the game into having maybe only certain targets? Alliances v Galaxies/BG's have always existed but now maybe the time to pull it into the main field of contention? I refer to Rob's suggested idea (too lazy to look for thread right now) but basically allow private galaxies. Except people in private galaxies cannot join a tag. There's a wide range of possibilities you can expand upon from this one such being: Say a private galaxy of 20, and the gal score is multiplied by 2.5 and it competes versus alliance tags of upto 75? (maybe 20x2 and 50?) This is something I just popped out of my head, basically I find the idea of playing with friends interesting and I hate planetarion forcing me to do otherwise. With regards to scoring system I think small but ultimately needed changes such as the all res and all prod being counted into value / score is quite needed. Little touches there. Ship Stats- R21-23, R24-25 The stats have barely changed and this is entirely unacceptable in my opinion. Planetarion is bland enough without having to play the same scenario more or less twice, surely? My views on stats are well documented by now I can't really say anything more on it because everything I have to suggest is too radical for a PAteam that's too lazy to even create a new set of bland linear stats in between rounds, let alone something innovative. PATeam/MHTeam/Jolt- We've all got to accept that Planetarion is basically dead, every round people post with hope of things we could do to revive the memberbase and find a golden duck that lays eggs to a few thousand new players. But let's face it, it isn't going to happen. Planetarion has minimal effort put into it by the people that own the game and I don't think the game deserves any new players to be honest. There have been a ridiculous amount of opportunities for ample marketing possibilities with the boom of myspace, facebook and christ knows how many other sites; possibilities of partnership with all different kinds of internet vehicles and instead absolutely NOTHING has been done except those god **ing forsaken MPOGD voting sprees once a year or whatever it is that does ** all at all, in reality. With regards to MH team I'm pretty confused with things. Why is there an alliance memberlist if support planets aren't illegal? Mind you I don't think they should be ILlegal at all. As far as cheating / rules goes I suppose it's pretty obvious PA is tighter than a baby's buttocks when it comes to even the littlest of things and frankly, it's infuriating. The babysitting jobs of MH isn't what they should be doing: NOT A SINGLE PERSON IS GOING TO GET CORRUPTED BY SWEARING OR PICTURES OF TITTIES. Stop pretending or upholding a fake sense of pathetic morality it honestly disgusts and repulses me. Sure, actual full blown abuse against a player (unless it's alki or arc, or such people who deserve it) there's a line people shouldn't cross I suppose. But the more or less "internet police" line of pushing away the few players you have by being uptight over meaningless things is pretty annoying guys. In an overall view of what the MH do or have done in the past few rounds there seems to be a total lack of focus and obvious nepotism in the mix and it's not helping anything. PA needs a lot more liberality to do with it. In what I'm sure is a controversial opinion / option of extending the scope to planetarion is that I would consider allowing account sharing and farming. Multi-ing is still a no, but PA is about 4 years behind with the lack of account sitting abilities to pretty much any vague form of a worthwhile online text game (that requires regular activity at least): Stop making masochism a required element of personality to play. With regards to farming, that's probably too much liberty for most of our forum posters but I think it'd actually make the game somewhat more interesting if you take the above idea about rankings(all v gal_) into it. I've gotten bored of typing now, so I'm going to stop. I'll probably not add more of my own thoughts for a while (if ever) but I'll reply to any discussion. edit: I meant support planets should NOT be illegal (which they aren't) but what is the point of a memberlimit to alliances then if it isn't! Last edited by jerome; 3 Jan 2008 at 12:49.