What does PA Need. Older "Star" players returning , or more new blood.

[Kurashima]

Im coming back here to playing reasonably seriously after a couple of rounds of running scan planets, but ive noted that a lot of the newer players seem to arrive and depart quite quickly , scared off by a group which seems unable to respect the newbies.

If a returning "name" player from say , R3 or R4 were to come back, hed find the game completely different to what it was when he left, and essentially , hed find himself at newbie level.

Is it a problem specific to PA boards that newer players are not encouraged to post their ideas on PD and GD , or is it simply that the quality of newer players isnt good enough?

[Leshy]

To be honest, I think the community has integrated into a point where newbies to the game are basically seen as less than full or possibly intruders. A board such as GD, for example, is not exactly the place to welcome any new player to the game.

Because it's not easy for newer players to integrate into the community, which is rather tight-knit into various groups, there is little which compels them to stay. As a result, there is a high turnover rate, making those that do care for newbies and want to help them out grow weary of basically telling the same thing over and over.

In addition, with the pay to play scheme there is only a very minor inflow of new players. Seeing as it's a minority that actually partakes actively on IRC and the forums, there's proportionally even less newbies around.

[Starbucks]

The Fact its pay toplay doesnt help

the fact the game hasa inherited a large user group for this round does

[Cochese]

P2P, coupled with what could be called a hostile forum "community" on some boards, and a game that simply was NOT designed with user-friendliness in mind are all factors to consider.

It's hard to get started, it can be hard to get anywhere, and it's extremely time consuming. Also, random galaxies have a tendency to end up as wastelands, which is not only frustrating for a new player but quite the opposite of "fun".

I'd have to say, it would only be worse if some of the old players came back. Hell, we'd be better of without some of the current players for that matter.

[oldtown]

And lets not forget the paranoia that runs rampant here. Unfortunately all the players that try whatever they can for an upperhand such as making fake names/accounts and pretending to be noobs to infiltrate another alliance........anyone claiming to be new these days is usually branded a spy........little things like this add to the problems real new players face...

[kyrealean]

i would say a combination of both would be nice. P2P doesnt make it easy for newbies to join as not alot of them are or would be willing to pay for something without at least testing it firstly.

The best chance a new player can get is showing their worth even though they will take a pounding during the round...... the established players will take notice of a player or galaxy that will not give up in the face of adversity(believe me not giving up is probably the hardest thing to do when u are faced with constant incoming) and will begin to respect that galaxy for their determination. They would probably like to figure out why they wont give up and end up conversing with them etc. Next thing u know they end up in someone's alliance and things turn for the better.

Old players that havent really played since Rd3 wouldnt know anything bout how PA is run now, so they essentially would be as a new player imo.

Ofc if they did like i would expect them to do, it wouldnt take them long to relearn the new techniques and patterns that PA runs on now.

Planetarion may have caught some breathing room with Jolt and Simtech intervening. But unless they can figure out a way to attract new players to the game, PA is just on borrowed time.

[Monkeypimp]

I started playing for free in Round 3 and landed with some good people who showed me how the game worked and basicly taught me to play. I played 4 rounds after that. Thats what the game is missing now. Its not free, the gals aren't random and a lot of players aren't friendly to newbies.

[DrunkenViking]

This game certainly need players of my calibre to return to the game
free = more players
every other suggestion = may keep the current players

[Tietäjä]

Shame the 'free' option isn't going to happen. I believe.

[tyriel]

we dont need old "star" players. we cant market the winners of round 1, or HC of past large alliances in a positive way to promote PA outside of PA. can we?

we need the 80k or so real players we had from the peak 180k(?) planets in r4.

planetarion has a niche which when conceived was pretty unique. moving on from something like a MUD to Doom.. to playing PA was kinda a ongoing process.

now PA is competing for market audiences as part of a larger online games base. multiplayer online gaming has developed in general.

Hey,

I didn't read to the end of the thread, I got bored, but...
for what it's worth, I think alliances are to powerful. they are hard for N00bs to get into, and they tend to ignore new blood (frightened of spies). Having got inside one or two of the bigger ones I was shocked to find "newbie bashing" taken to the next level ie galactic newbie bashing, and even alliance level. They make schoolyard bullies look like saints.

This round, I'm independant, I've joined a random gal and hope to get back to fun. Hope there's not too many "alliances" nearby!

[Knight Theamion]

old star players are easily integrated, look at ********** for instance where an alliance constisting mostly out of bored pa players from legion/fury/xanadu pretty much owned the universe and still does due to our dedication while the game work entirely different.

About playing seriously this round, just get your ass in a nice galaxy and be active, the rest you will pick up soon enough.

[whoop]

more new players.

we do not need more egos in this game.

-whoop

[whoop]

Originally posted by Bert
Having got inside one or two of the bigger ones I was shocked to find "newbie bashing" taken to the next level ie galactic newbie bashing, and even alliance level. They make schoolyard bullies look like saints.[/b]

I find that statement hard to believe, and I suspect possibly the alliances you joined were small to middling, rather than large.

A major alliance such as Fury typically attacks so as to secure as many top ranked planets and galaxies as possible.

"bashing" is a complete and utter waste of time.

-whoop

[Knight Theamion]

Originally posted by whoop
I find that statement hard to believe, and I suspect possibly the alliances you joined were small to middling, rather than large.

A major alliance such as Fury typically attacks so as to secure as many top ranked planets and galaxies as possible.

"bashing" is a complete and utter waste of time.

-whoop

actually, we did pound on our allies till they were 28 mill 200 roids etc.

[Teh_Necro]

Lets face it, those who mock newbies, for being "new" are insecure, pa obssesed fk tards.

Go Newbies!

--I find that statement hard to believe, and I suspect possibly the alliances you joined were small to middling, rather than large

Hard to believe or not, not too many top 100s are in "small to middling". I won't "name names" but by end of round when everyone "tagged up" Broadway had less stars!

Yes, it happens. And I'm not proud of it.

[jleedham]

well i think that really we just need both,

both add sunmming more to the game in there own unique way, the game cant really survive with only one or the other of these parts so..

Jsar

[HobbieRogue4]

'frag'

[Kurashima]

Originally posted by whoop
more new players.

we do not need more egos in this game.

-whoop

No , i think thats EXACTLY what the game needs. Right now, what the game has is reasonably faceless powerblock alliances. All well and good, but there are no characters to come on and profess their greatness on the boards and then BE ABLE TO BACK IT UP SOLELY ON THEIR OWN ABILITY!

Everyone remembers "The Jonka Manouever". When was the last time a PA player did something so good that it forever went down in the history of PA ? When was the last time someone set themselves up as a target, and fought through that , survived and prospered?

I remember 4 or 5 rounds where the first thing people thought was "Wheres Sid. We need to find him and destroy him". No matter how much ive criticised Sid in the past, he made the game interesting in that he survived every round, Even when he was hammered , he still fought back to a respectable finish.

PA has no "Heroes and Villiains" anymore. Just alliance powerblocks. We need more characters , more egos , something which really brings these boards alive, and in doing so sets the game on fire.

[Kurashima]

Originally posted by HobbieRogue4
'frag'

Hed be worth bringing back just so everyone can start making "Pedo" jokes again.

[Zh|l]

Originally posted by Kurashima
No , i think thats EXACTLY what the game needs. Right now, what the game has is reasonably faceless powerblock alliances. All well and good, but there are no characters to come on and profess their greatness on the boards and then BE ABLE TO BACK IT UP SOLELY ON THEIR OWN ABILITY!

Everyone remembers "The Jonka Manouever". When was the last time a PA player did something so good that it forever went down in the history of PA ? When was the last time someone set themselves up as a target, and fought through that , survived and prospered?

I remember 4 or 5 rounds where the first thing people thought was "Wheres Sid. We need to find him and destroy him". No matter how much ive criticised Sid in the past, he made the game interesting in that he survived every round, Even when he was hammered , he still fought back to a respectable finish.

PA has no "Heroes and Villiains" anymore. Just alliance powerblocks. We need more characters , more egos , something which really brings these boards alive, and in doing so sets the game on fire.

There are, but it requires a knowledge of the last few rounds to know where people came from. I honestly doubt you'll get someone like Sid again - the community simply would laugh at someone trying to be like him

[Heartshunter]

The 'old' times are always better then the 'new' times.

In a few rounds people will say again, 'oh the good old times of r6/7/8/9'.

*shrug*


There are still plenty of newbies, I've seen them, but its not like they get stimulated to use IRC or the forums because of those !@#!@$%@$% private galaxies.

on a sidenote, ever noticed the flames when a newish person posts?

[djcomplex]

we definately need new blood coming into the game, while i am not opposed to some of the old skool pa players returning the fact of the matter is if they did they would disappear into one of the major alliances and so wouldnt have a direct "social" impact on the game.

things do seem to be heading in the right direction and its nice to see some new(bie) alliances forming aswell as new players posting on the boards.

all we need to do now is sit back and wait for the creators to f*ck things up...

Originally posted by Kurashima

If a returning "name" player from say , R3 or R4 were to come back, hed find the game completely different to what it was when he left, and essentially , hed find himself at newbie level.

Its strange for me to read that post. I started in round 2 and stuck with the galaxy I was in, through strategy and planning we grew to be big enough to challenge any of the alliances and stand some chance of surviving. We where the ones who invented the "leg up" method where you create one super player at a time, and of course got accused of being cheats for it.

After a while we quit because the game grew stale, and we couldnt take the random changes in mid round, and the server problems. But as for you assertation that we would find the game totaly changed, all I can say is that a few extra graphics don't change anything.

"Not Found
The requested URL /wave.fcg was not found on this server.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Apache/1.3.27 Server at main Port 80
"

[Kurashima]

Originally posted by Kenny Hawkes
Its strange for me to read that post. I started in round 2 and stuck with the galaxy I was in, through strategy and planning we grew to be big enough to challenge any of the alliances and stand some chance of surviving. We where the ones who invented the "leg up" method where you create one super player at a time, and of course got accused of being cheats for it.

After a while we quit because the game grew stale, and we couldnt take the random changes in mid round, and the server problems. But as for you assertation that we would find the game totaly changed, all I can say is that a few extra graphics don't change anything.
"

Youre right , they dont.

However a ton of new ship types , races , alliances , stats , and the like certainly do. There is no "Super Player" legup tactic as such now unless youre alliance farming. There is no "Throw in hundreds of FR Class and cap like a mofo" tactic anymore. There is , in short , no specific guaranteed tactic that will win you the round. The game grows stale only when a round runs for too long, and the fact that , at the start of the round that the creators wont announce when the round ends (Which they should do) does cause a lot of people to become bored.

The creators only ever realise this when players start quitting. Great for the bandwidth costs, but decidedly unfortunate when you start the next round and those same players wont buy accounts because they see a similar pattern forming.

BTW , which gal in Round 2 were you in? Because i can only think of one or two gals which could claim to have "Created" the legup tactic, and i was in one of them.

[Scouse]

Originally posted by Heartshunter
on a sidenote, ever noticed the flames when a newish person posts?

Shut up newbie.

[Kurashima]

Originally posted by Scouse
Shut up newbie.

Shouldnt you be out stealing hubcaps and offering to watch peoples cars?

[Heartshunter]

Originally posted by Scouse
Shut up newbie.

Typical.

[Knight Theamion]

Originally posted by Bert
--I find that statement hard to believe, and I suspect possibly the alliances you joined were small to middling, rather than large

Hard to believe or not, not too many top 100s are in "small to middling". I won't "name names" but by end of round when everyone "tagged up" Broadway had less stars!

Yes, it happens. And I'm not proud of it.

what you saw is people playing the game exploiting every weak spot it has. Which means that once you killed someone, on accident or purpose you might as well do a second or 3rd wave over him.

[Theamion, behave. -Leshy]

[Raging.Retard]

Originally posted by Kurashima
If a returning "name" player from say , R3 or R4 were to come back, hed find the game completely different to what it was when he left, and essentially , hed find himself at newbie level.

I had a look at the game. It appears to have changed about ------->.<-------- that much since I stopped playing inr rnd 5.

[CryWolf]

Originally posted by HobbieRogue4
'frag'

frag is currently occupied playing hattrick or whatever tis called ;-)

I checked out the game again a few rounds ago after playing r1-r4. The game seemed to have lost a lot of the things that I thought were good and gained a lot things that I didn't like about the game.

[jleedham]

have to agree the reason that u dont see n00bs on the forums is coz in general they get flamed no matter what they say, even if one of them came up with the most interesting and important thread in the history of PA, if they where a n00b they would end up like a BBQ'd cumberland sausage. really what is needed is a n00b forum purley for them with mayB the support of one or two of the vet players who are willing to help this part of the community in a constructive way with out putting them of the boards forever, could then train and toughen them up to be ready for the cut throat, soul destroying world that is the PA forums.

Would also really be an idea to have a dedicated IRC chan with the same purpose and also with the same sort of vet support as well. idealy set as the defualt chan on the com unit or summing so those new players would automatically end up in this helpfull enviroment, would also i think be usefull to have one of the "Quests" being to use the com-unit!

just my 2 cents worth

Jsar

[Kurashima]

Originally posted by DamnYo
I checked out the game again a few rounds ago after playing r1-r4. The game seemed to have lost a lot of the things that I thought were good and gained a lot things that I didn't like about the game.

I still have an MS Paint drawing by you from R3. God alone knows why.

[Kurashima]

Originally posted by CryWolf
frag is currently occupied playing hattrick or whatever tis called ;-)

As is Torz , and numerous other Current and Former PA Players.

There were some comments there directed at EGO.
OK, target up......I'VE GOT ONE /me ducks reflexively (ish)
So what. the flames were also quite small.

point still stands, big alliances suck for n... NO, They are new players...be polite. Quote, Nox, Elysium and others gal bashed N00bs in round 6. Logs are available;

I'll get kicked at this rate

Originally posted by Kurashima
I still have an MS Paint drawing by you from R3. God alone knows why.

On my other computer I think I still have some of those fake news scans I made that I was feeding IPC in mIRC to make them think there was no defence at there target(can't remember who it was right now).

[Kileman]

Big players from R3-4 wouldnt be able to compete on the same level as they had in the past. The game has become somewhat more 'professional' since then, and theres no room for big whining fkers that quit when the second they lose a roid

Most of the big r3 players had never experienced defeat, they were always big, always powerful. But in these days in order to do well, you need to be one versatile mother fker that can take anything thrown at them, round after round.
________
LAMBORGHINI ATHON SPECIFICATIONS

[Scouse]

Originally posted by Kileman
Big players from R3-4 wouldnt be able to compete on the same level as they had in the past. The game has become somewhat more 'professional' since then, and theres no room for big whining fkers that quit when the second they lose a roid

Most of the big r3 players had never experienced defeat, they were always big, always powerful. But in these days in order to do well, you need to be one versatile mother fker that can take anything thrown at them, round after round.

Exactly.

[-o|DarkJedi|o-]

more players..

either are good.

[Tis]

Originally posted by Kurashima
Hed be worth bringing back just so everyone can start making "Pedo" jokes again.

Curious, did the "Get Mista Laid" campaign ever come to fruition?

[Zh|l]

Originally posted by Tis
Curious, did the "Get Mista Laid" campaign ever come to fruition?

Nearly, Mista did have a girlfriend in r7 but he never got laid. He was in my galaxy and we asked him that question every day he actually turned up (which wasnt many :P)

[Jonka]

Originally posted by Kurashima
No , i think thats EXACTLY what the game needs. Right now, what the game has is reasonably faceless powerblock alliances. All well and good, but there are no characters to come on and profess their greatness on the boards and then BE ABLE TO BACK IT UP SOLELY ON THEIR OWN ABILITY!

Everyone remembers "The Jonka Manouever". When was the last time a PA player did something so good that it forever went down in the history of PA ? When was the last time someone set themselves up as a target, and fought through that , survived and prospered?

I remember 4 or 5 rounds where the first thing people thought was "Wheres Sid. We need to find him and destroy him". No matter how much ive criticised Sid in the past, he made the game interesting in that he survived every round, Even when he was hammered , he still fought back to a respectable finish.

PA has no "Heroes and Villiains" anymore. Just alliance powerblocks. We need more characters , more egos , something which really brings these boards alive, and in doing so sets the game on fire.

None of us old fools will be able to stay away for long... see you in r20

[lokken]

Originally posted by Zh|l
Nearly, Mista did have a girlfriend in r7 but he never got laid. He was in my galaxy and we asked him that question every day he actually turned up (which wasnt many :P)

He was close

But GOD SAID NO.

[ribs]

Originally posted by Jonka
None of us old fools will be able to stay away for long... see you in r20

stay out of this newb

[BLACK_OPPS]

Originally posted by ribs
stay out of this newb

lol lo Ribs m8

[MadeMan]

Why do we want newbies? they wreck the game.. hehe


No, they can come, i'll eat them as i eat babies..