Apologies if a thread like this has been made before - I did have a quick look down the forums for one
Scout's honour!
So, as some of you may know I've quit pa - but still signed up a planet, hoping to have a little inactive fun - as I would have played when I first started pa in r3. A few things have happened:
1. I launched a big attack, forgot about it (got smsed while I was down town eta1
) - I died.
2. been a few nights now where I've got ~4 waves of incs and generally ive lost fleet on the first few waves, managing to send my fleet away for the others.
The result: my planet is now dead. Realistically, most ppl signing up to pa (new non-internet-addicted) would initially play with a similar level of activity - especially if it was integrated with facebook!!! - and like me now, will stop logging in.
Granted, while my #1 up there will have happened in old pa so isn't really a problem associated with pax and the small playerbase, #2 certainly is. I guess everyone reading this knows that small noob galaxies / noob planets are heavily targetted if they have above 200 roids. In my opinion this is the main problem nowadays. In r3/etc, there weere so many planets in the game that the universe was effectively split into two. The elite ppl played amongst themselves, and the noobs played amongst themselves (to quite a high standard imo). Nowadays, due to the playerbase, this isn't an option and you have constant noob-bashing.
So my idea... on signup, allow a "noob signup" giving you a planet with some advantages. Off the top of my head:
- you can queue research/constructions (but suffer a 20% time delay?)
- an option whereby you can choose to automatically recall your attacks if you don't log on when they're sub eta5
- similarly, an option to automatically run your fleet if you get incs and don't log on to notice [yeh, same as prelaunch! except more like a prelaunch with a +infinity option that is always turned on, doesn't need resetting each time. Much easier for new users to use since it has only one direct purpose. Even I've totally forgotten about prelaunching my fleet away].
- fellow 'noobs' attacking you will cap 25% of your roids, but a normal planet will only cap 10%?
Of course there should be some disadvantages in choosing this or everyone would. I'd suggest:
- lower income from roids (atm its 350 from each roid? make it 250? or something)
- you're limitted to 750 roids?
And of course you can upgrade to a normal planet anytime you want (non-reversible). I personally think this would solve a lot of problems that new/inactive players have, and would enable them to have an enjoyable round without copying JBG's lifestyle or suddenly becoming a pa expert overnight.
I also don't think it would be a problem for the average '1337' pa-player. The information that you can only cap 10% should be easily visible somehow.
Considering the vast difference in skills in pa nowadays (you're either an 'expert' thats played since the dawn of time, or a complete noob outcasted by the 1337 community), surely its about time a system like this was brought into the game?
The normal planet shouldnt have any changes made at all (in terms of making pa easier to play).
So ideas? I can't think of a single disadvantage in this idea. I'd also suggest it should be incorporated into alliances somehow too (so alliance limits, say, 70 - but can have up to 20 'noobs' extra). This might get new players more involved in the better parts of the community! Then again, it would just get abused more often than not (eg, inactive asc superstars using it since its still highly playable).
edit: probably 3 levels of difficulty would be better to avoid abuse like this. Expert (need to play this to have any realistic shot at the top50), intermediate (won't be as protected as noobs, but enough so that elite players wanting to be inactive will choose it), and beginner.
edit: flaw #1 with this idea has already been found! Or is it really a flaw
cheating is good man!
(13:51:18) Pommeh: would be awesome for my scan planet!
(13:51:24) Pommeh: just queue all my res con up
(13:51:27) Pommeh: never have to login!
(13:51:34) Pommeh: ace++ way to hide IP <3
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