Well...

[Xerapin]

I'm going to post this here, because this isn't a suggestion about changes, but a discussion about past mechanics.

Now, I played round 1, 2 and 3 of Planetarion, once it went Pay to Play, I stopped playing, I was only 13 at the time - so pay to play wasn't an option and Planetarion was forgotton about... until now.

So I signed back up - albeit very late into the round but its still given me a very valuable insight into the initial gameplay, comments from fellow players and general atmoshphere - which lets face it, isnt a positive one.

Looking around, the game mechanics, at the face of it appear the same, apart from the obvious shock to the system was the several new races. But the fundamentals are the same, you research, which unlocks constructions which allows production of ships. Ships then are launched to capture asteroids and you have intel features that allow for scans. But its how these fundamentals have remained the same, but the mechanics have seriously changed that really do baffle me.

First of all, I have to say I like, but I don't like (yes, wtf I know) the way the new construction and research works. Stage1, through7 for example is neatly hidden away as a sub category of the main group. Its nifty, but I find myself constantly needing to double check what stage I am on and what it gives me - but that could be down to the fact I haven't played in a long time - this is because in the old version buildings where constructed and had their own 'table' with description readily available next to it unlike now where there is limited immediate information - but thats mainly an aesthetics issue.

Secondly, the biggest change has been in the way in which you aquire new asteroids. Now bare in mind this game is apparently a complex strategy game that requires some thought - that process has been almost entirely removed from asteroid (initial) capping. Its a case of throw some numbers in abox, and hit 'accept' Which means the only limitations on discovery is your money values.
Now I find theres several problems with this, in the old verson you required asteroid scans (A-Scans) and once you reached a certain size, you required Wave Amplifiers (wAmps) in sometimes the hundreds! But you had to tactically decide, how many wAmps you would require, in order to then launch a specific amount of A-Scans and pray to the PA Gods that you didn't inherit far to many asteroids! On top of that, you then had to initiate each asteroid in the specific resource you required. This allowed for another tactical dynamic, of saturating your roid stock with uninitiated roids for the incoming attackers to cap, and buffering the damage you might take.

Thirdly, theres fleet ticks, You can apparently now (I haven't checked this yet) only attack for 1tick and Only one tick. Now what was whoever smoking when this was decided (Please, point me to the place, that justifies this) because once again, imo another very critical dynamic has been removed from the game. Three waves allowed a player to tactically send fleets - meaning the defender required some degree of counter-intelligence to know what fleets where incoming, what size and for how long. This allowed for an infinite amount of tactical options for the attacker and a lot of tactical and critical decisions for the defender, raising the strategical decision making of the game infinitely.
On top of this, I've read also that ship 'accuracy' is 100%, it never fails. Well, erm, this really does confuse me - for fleets who statistically attack first they will always have the advantage because the second fleet will already be crippled before they can respond (If I've understood the engine correctly). The only thing I can think of, is allowing for a certain percentage of attacks to be succesful, the calculations that required have put far to much strain on the server, but again, over simplification in my eyes.
Also, queued fleet operations - this should never, ever, ever have been implemented. Allowing this means somebody can launch a fleet in the dead of night, whilst they are sound asleep - to me that is just against the whole concept that the game was built on. If you want to launch a sleeper fleet, then be awake to command that damn fleet direct to your enemy The result of enabling this option, as you are all probably well aware, is that 99% of fleet battles occurr 'off peak' when everybody is fast asleep. And to top it off, if you want defence, you can't defend in your sleep, your mates can't defend you in their sleep - so why should you be able to attack in your sleep? (Note, emphasis on co-ordinated sleep attack of a target is infinitely easier than co-ordinated sleep defence(

But all is not lost, I love construction queues, means I can goto sleep and not have to wake up at 7am to make sure I change the construction! But theres no research Queue?

Governments and Population Distribution offers a very effective dynamic, meaning you can focus on a construction phase, research phase or production phase (or even all round) this feature I like greatly - but population is definately underused. There is so much potential for this some has been mentioned already in the suggestions forum. Some of these could include.

Production/Research/Construction increase per x increase in population.
Taxable income on population sizes. (Or cost to economy).
Capturable Population (Slave colonies?)

Just to name a few.

Galaxies, I am pretty sure these used to be 25 in size, but are now limited to 15? Is this for any particular reason? or because the player base isn't what it used to be? I also see MoC, MoD, GC etc is still well in place, which I like

Finally, am I writing about all of this entirely in vain ? Looking at many of the suggestions, lots are being written but none are being responded too in kind - unless you go back to pre2006 by the looks of it, is this game dead? dieing? or moonlighting?

I would *Love* too see this game re-established to its former glory!

Peace,
Xeno.

[Mzyxptlk]

Though this mostly seems like a "I don't like change" rant, which can mostly be answered by pointing out that needless complication is pointless, I'll answer 2 of your concerns directly.

Originally Posted by Xerapin

Galaxies, I am pretty sure these used to be 25 in size, but are now limited to 15? Is this for any particular reason? or because the player base isn't what it used to be?

Exactly.

Originally Posted by Xerapin

Finally, am I writing about all of this entirely in vain ? Looking at many of the suggestions, lots are being written but none are being responded too in kind - unless you go back to pre2006 by the looks of it, is this game dead? dieing? or moonlighting

It's been withering ever since p2p I guess. It's not dead or dying, but the game definitely isn't growing either, and I would be surprised if we'd still have the same number of players in 5 rounds as we do now.

As for suggestions, PA Team have developed a habit to ignore almost anything the community throws at them, with the exception of bug fixes and interface changes. There is no long term vision, and most things they do introduce require at least 3 rounds before they're balanced reasonably well; most of the time, a feature starts out way too strong, then it gets nerfed so it becomes utterly useless, and after that they get it about right.

[Xerapin]

Though this mostly seems like a "I don't like change" rant, which can mostly be answered by pointing out that needless complication is pointless, I'll answer 2 of your concerns directly.

Hardly, Change is what makes a game refreshing - as you might notice I have pointed out some of the changes that I do like and that I think have added to the game.

At the end of the day, this is a game that is text based and requires varying degree's of tactical integrity to play, ever since r3, it seems that most of that tactical integrity has been chipped away and (at least to me) the game has been over simplified - but again, thats my opinion. I posted this here to hear what other people thought and to see if that opinion was similar to other players.

[Zirikk]

Originally Posted by Xerapin

At the end of the day, this is a game that is text based and requires varying degree's of tactical integrity to play, ever since r3, it seems that most of that tactical integrity has been chipped away and (at least to me) the game has been over simplified - but again, thats my opinion. I posted this here to hear what other people thought and to see if that opinion was similar to other players.

Wasn't r3 the round where you only needed to build huge amounts of spiders and warfrigs and launch everynight at a planet half your size? I might remember wrong.

[Mzyxptlk]

Originally Posted by Xerapin

At the end of the day, this is a game that is text based and requires varying degree's of tactical integrity to play, ever since r3, it seems that most of that tactical integrity has been chipped away and (at least to me) the game has been over simplified - but again, thats my opinion. I posted this here to hear what other people thought and to see if that opinion was similar to other players.

If anything, the changes since PAX have diversified the game; there is now no longer 1 path with some minor deviations, there are many, and choices you make early on in the game have huge consequences later on.

You are however not alone in the "back to the good old days" sentiment.

[Xerapin]

Originally Posted by Zirikk

Wasn't r3 the round where you only needed to build huge amounts of spiders and warfrigs and launch everynight at a planet half your size? I might remember wrong.

Not far off wrong tbh. But at least you had to be up at 3-4am to launch those fleets!

[Mzyxptlk]

How does "your entire life needs to revolve around this game if you want to perform decently" make a good game requirement?

[Xerapin]

Hardly, set your alarm for 4am, launch fleet, go back to bed. Hell, even goto bed an hour earlier and wake an hour earlier to get it launched. Personally (though I get the feeling this is far from a concensus ) that being able to remotely launch the game gives it to much of a mechanical 'afk' game (albeit, most of the game is spent afk).

[Mzyxptlk]

You do realise that for the vast majority of people "setting an alarm for 4am so I can turn on the computer and click a few buttons" is not an acceptable mode of playing?

[Xerapin]

And thank you for leading me into the next point...

When I restarted playing, I got told 'oh and make sure you check in about 5am for incoming gal attacks'

Tell me, if an attacking force can co-ordinate precisely betwen dozens of members to attack a single target, while they ar all snuck up in bed. Why does the defence have to rely on making sure they are up at 5am to defend, but not the attackers?

So for you to say, 'oh well, logging in at 5am for most players is unnacceptable mode of playing' well, from what ive seen/read it seems its quite apparently the norm anyway because you need to defend at that time because this feature allows players to snooze and attack simultaneously.

[Mzyxptlk]

Except that you don't need to defend every night. If you do a 1am JGP on yourself you can say with near-certainty if you're getting incs that night. This is one of the reasons why PA is a more attack-oriented game these days, simply because everyone launches at night, and most people don't get up to see if anyone needs defence.