Enhancement of exile system

[SpookyVince]

Right, first thing I want to apologise if someone suggested this idea or a similar one before. I've looked around a bit and didn't find it anywhere.

There has been a lot of discussions about exiles, being too expensive or not enough, why exile or why not, exile tokens, etc, etc.

I've been confronted myself more than before with exiling this round: people wanting me to exile them (I was GC at first) at the cost of the gal fund, people self-exiling for no or little reason, and myself exiling because of all this mess.

I've come up with a few ideas that could improve the way this exile thing is handled, and that also could improve the political life of a galaxy.

1. Self-exile: I think one good way to limit the self-exiles without making them too expensive is to simply set the cost of a self-exile to a fixed percentage of your own value, for example 5% (or any other value that you would think more suitable). It is a prohibitive cost, so, it can make you think twice before exiling, but at the same time, if you exile several times, the cost doesn't become amazingly high as it can be with the current formula.
2. Exile votes: presently, only ministers can vote on exiles, and only the GC can initiate an exile. I have several suggestions here:
   • all ministers could initiate an exile, and all the members of the galaxy could vote on it (excluding the one being exiled). I think it doesn't require much more efforts from PA coders to implement that one, pretty much the same as ministers vote now. If at least 50% of the galaxy votes yes, then the exile is validated. There could be a limit of time too: if after 24 hours, or any other suitable value, someone has not voted, that planet is excluded from the count of votes. It would then also be useful to have a minimum number of votes to activate an exile (like 25% or 33% of the galaxy members for example).
   • creating a 5th minister, an exile minister (can't think of a pretty name, but why not Minister of Justice), who would be responsible for monitoring activity in the gal & deciding who is candidate for exile or not. For example, he would be the only one to be able to manage the wanted/unwanted thing in politics page. I thought of Justice because it would in a certain way be a punishment for inactive players, thus in a certain way bringing some 'justice' in the gal, as to who can stay, who cannot... This MoJ would control exiles with the other ministers, and the GC.
   • A combination of both previous suggestions, where the MoJ decides about exiles, posts them, and waits for votes. This has the advantage to create more "political live" in the galaxy, as the normal planets are involved also in the decisions about their galaxy.
3. Maybe introduce a limit of exiles in time: for example, not more than one exile per 24 hours, since 24 hours anyway is the minimum time someone has to be in a gal before he can be exiled, or increase that value to 48 hours. That too can limit the number of exiles: some BP's are pretty hardcore exilers in the beginning of the game, and can thus very easily and very quickly create a very strong galaxy without much effort. This can potentially give a better chance too to small & newly registered players to show their gal that they can do something.

Also, a bit apart from exiles, but linked to politics, I think it would be nice to have a vote count for the GC. Currently you only know that the GC is this or that person, but no one can know how many votes he had. It could be nice to have a vote counter under (above if you prefer ) the 'Vote for GC' combo.

I hope I brought some nice ideas here. I know it was long to read, but hopefully I could bring my 2 cents contribution to the evolution of PA.

Thanks for reading!

[Monroe]

Spooky, nice well thought out post, we need more of this style of posting on this forum. Several areas of critisism for you to think about. Firsly a fixed percentage has been used in the past, what happens is you get a small 'spy' that hops around the universe stealing def details, by increasing the exile cost every time you exile it helps eliminate gal 'jumpers. Secondly while having the whole gal vote isn't a bad idea in an active gal, in an inactive gal getting even 4 people active enough to vote can be very difficult. Also the 24 wait period also causes havoc because it makes it even harder to exile. I don't think I would support a 5th minster, but removing the MoW and making a minister of Justace instead makes a lot more sense, MoW has been a pointless position for a long time, and your minister of Justace idea would be a good replacement imo.

[LukeyLove]

Out of interest, what if any does the Wanted/Unwanted tab do? At first i expected it to exile any 'unwanted' candidates out after a set period of time.. but after testing with our lastest ingal freebie, we discovered this not to be the case. Does it have a purpose? Or is it just there to fill up the politics page?

[K-W]

Originally Posted by LukeyLove

Out of interest, what if any does the Wanted/Unwanted tab do? At first i expected it to exile any 'unwanted' candidates out after a set period of time.. but after testing with our lastest ingal freebie, we discovered this not to be the case. Does it have a purpose? Or is it just there to fill up the politics page?

Planets set on not wanted will time out of the galaxy after a certain number of ticks without logging in.

[SpookyVince]

Originally Posted by Monroe

Spooky, nice well thought out post, we need more of this style of posting on this forum.

Thanks very much

Originally Posted by Monroe

Several areas of critisism for you to think about. Firsly a fixed percentage has been used in the past, what happens is you get a small 'spy' that hops around the universe stealing def details, by increasing the exile cost every time you exile it helps eliminate gal 'jumpers.

That's true, you have a good point here. What about a linear progression of the exile cost then, rather than an exponential one?

Currently: (value/10)*(times self exiled+2)^2
Why not:

• (value/10)*(times self exiled+x) where x can be for instance a proportion of your value too?
• or (value/10)*(times self exiled*x) where x can be discussed (between 1.5 & 3 maybe?)

Because our value normally increases with the game going, that keeps increasing the cost too, but limits it to amounts not amazingly high.

Originally Posted by Monroe

Secondly while having the whole gal vote isn't a bad idea in an active gal, in an inactive gal getting even 4 people active enough to vote can be very difficult. Also the 24 wait period also causes havoc because it makes it even harder to exile.

I have lived this problem... It happened that I had to change ministers several times, and mail them when they're online (the *) to ask for a vote... And because the wanted/unwanted is a bit long in my taste, it is really hard sometimes. On the other hand, when you are in such an inactive galaxy, you may as well choose to self-exile instead, as it is unlikely that the game can become interesting for you anytime soon, hence the proposed reduction of the self-exile cost...

It is a point of discussions, and tbh I doubt that the perfect solution exists. I'm just trying to bring new ideas, and maybe that will trigger something in a brilliant mind that will offer a much better idea still.

Originally Posted by Monroe

I don't think I would support a 5th minster, but removing the MoW and making a minister of Justace instead makes a lot more sense, MoW has been a pointless position for a long time, and your minister of Justace idea would be a good replacement imo.

Indeed. I thought one day too that the MoW could be replaced by a Minister of Foreign Affairs, while the MoC would be a Minister of Internal Affairs, but this rearrangement could be done in many ways. For instance, managing wars & incomings could be the job of a MoFA while communication in gal & exiles could be a MoIA. Also, the currently MoD could be a Minister of Economy, and he could be too the one responsible for exiles, if one day a galaxy tax exists, just like in alliances now (good feature btw ). There are many solutions...

[Makhil]

I understand why the price goes up with every new exile, but could it be that once you arrive in a gal, the set cost goes down for every tick you stay in (like 1% per tick) ?
That would still prevent people from self exiling non stop while giving a chance of quitting a poor galaxy at some point.

[The Real Arfy]

Originally Posted by Makhil

I understand why the price goes up with every new exile, but could it be that once you arrive in a gal, the set cost goes down for every tick you stay in (like 1% per tick) ?
That would still prevent people from self exiling non stop while giving a chance of quitting a poor galaxy at some point.

Best suggestion in a while - well played.