Four small things that will make this game great once again.

Before I start, can I just say that my grammar isn't wonderful, but it makes me no less of a person to have an opinion.

From observing this game since round two, and of late noticed a demise in the playability for the 'Not_so_game_freaks' amongst us, I have found the following four points will most definately make a difference to change the game (for the better) for GOOD if they were to be introduced in further rounds.!

1) Totally random galaxies:

I know this is a particular hot subject with certain 'Pa Greats' who have played in private galaxies for several rounds now. Quite a few people who class themselves as top players in top alliances would argue against me here.

But if you cast your mind back to the early days of Planetarion you will remember the goold ol' fun days. When you could meet new people each round and enjoy the sense of community.

The very fact that you were with people who you had not known before made teamplay a lot better, communication greater and the overall fun of the round improved. When galaxies were totally public, powerblocking was (relatively) un-heard of thus making the range and availability of targets more wide for the whole universe. The classic galactic disputes of today were little heard of.

These days, with private galaxies, all the 'good' people are bunched up into their little private galaxies, leaving all the not so good (but equally enthusiastic) people left to struggle in their poor little galaxies... regularly being crushed by the best and never being able to go 'up the ladder' so to speak.

Private galaxies place a huge gap between the good and not so good of the community. Afterall, we are all here to have FUN! How can people have fun when they are struggling with the constant threat of a big one powerblock only galaxy?

2): More realistic travel times:

Travel times have stayed relatively the same for rounds. But I believe for the game to succeed we need to implement shorter travel times. This will make the idea of 'attacking' more fun to those of us who do not have all day to sit in front of a computer screen. At the moment, a person can only realisticly attack once in every twenty four hours. For example: 9 hours travelling to target, 3 hours attacking, 9 hours returning. This is 21 hours in total. If we could reduce the travel time of ships drastically we could take part in say, two or three attacks in twenty four hours using the same fleet. This also means that those who get 'raped' can stand an easier chance of recovering what they have lost.

At the current rate, it will take me two weeks to recover all that I have lost recently due to my planet being mullered. If travel times were less, I could do it in a matter of two or three days (if that)

3):

toning down of Powerblocking:

You either love it or you hate it! To put it quite simply, I do not believe there any benefits to power blocking. It dramatically reduces the competition in the universe, people have a diminished range of targets to choose from (due to powerblock loyalty). The list is endless.

There is no easy way to approach and deal with this problem. But I believe if the major alliances within this game can see that currently there is no future in Planetarion if power blocking continues then they can do something about it. The days when it was 'every alliance for itself' were the best. Now-a-days people are afraid to send ships out in case of 'hitting the wrong powerblock'.

4):

Increase in galaxy size:

This ties in with my first point about random galaxies. The current (10 per galaxy) is not enough to make a galaxy community and team work. people are always looking over their shoulders and things are far too personal. As i say, the reasons for increasing the size of galaxies are more or less what i commented on in my first point. A 25 player galaxy will make less galaxies in the universe, but it will (i believe) stand for a more playable, more enjoyable game.

There are many more points which I COULD list. However I believe that they will not make as much impact as the above points.
If the above were to be taken into account, it is my firm belief that Planetarion will be a stronger community, more playable and most of all MORE FUN (like the good old days).

Alexander (Kan3) Innard.

[Noob]

wouldnt mind seeing it happen, though i very much doubt u will see powerblockin toning down, its happens almost every round now

[Not_RIT]

Originally posted by Mighty Max
Before I start, can I just say that my grammar isn't wonderful, but it makes me no less of a person to have an opinion.

From observing this game since round two, and of late noticed a demise in the playability for the 'Not_so_game_freaks' amongst us, I have found the following four points will most definately make a difference to change the game (for the better) for GOOD if they were to be introduced in further rounds.!

1) Totally random galaxies:

I know this is a particular hot subject with certain 'Pa Greats' who have played in private galaxies for several rounds now. Quite a few people who class themselves as top players in top alliances would argue against me here.

But if you cast your mind back to the early days of Planetarion you will remember the goold ol' fun days. When you could meet new people each round and enjoy the sense of community.

The very fact that you were with people who you had not known before made teamplay a lot better, communication greater and the overall fun of the round improved. When galaxies were totally public, powerblocking was (relatively) un-heard of thus making the range and availability of targets more wide for the whole universe. The classic galactic disputes of today were little heard of.

These days, with private galaxies, all the 'good' people are bunched up into their little private galaxies, leaving all the not so good (but equally enthusiastic) people left to struggle in their poor little galaxies... regularly being crushed by the best and never being able to go 'up the ladder' so to speak.

Private galaxies place a huge gap between the good and not so good of the community. Afterall, we are all here to have FUN! How can people have fun when they are struggling with the constant threat of a big one powerblock only galaxy?

It may have been more fun then, but the conditions were also different, many people did not know one another, alliances were not as well organised nor big and people were a lot less dedicated to the game. It was proven last round that random galaxies do not work and are nasty! A better idea is to have a 'mini' galaxy of 3 - 5 people which is then shuffled and mixed with others, I do believe it was Sid whom suggested this first.

2): More realistic travel times:

Travel times have stayed relatively the same for rounds. But I believe for the game to succeed we need to implement shorter travel times. This will make the idea of 'attacking' more fun to those of us who do not have all day to sit in front of a computer screen. At the moment, a person can only realisticly attack once in every twenty four hours. For example: 9 hours travelling to target, 3 hours attacking, 9 hours returning. This is 21 hours in total. If we could reduce the travel time of ships drastically we could take part in say, two or three attacks in twenty four hours using the same fleet. This also means that those who get 'raped' can stand an easier chance of recovering what they have lost.

At the current rate, it will take me two weeks to recover all that I have lost recently due to my planet being mullered. If travel times were less, I could do it in a matter of two or three days (if that)

As it stands attacks are nigh on impossible to stop unless you get in P/C defence. Eta 8 DE's renders all FR defence useless, coupled with the mass in P rapings most defence calls are now ETA 5/6 if anything overburn defence should be bought back (assuming R10 will not be 100% different)

3):

toning down of Powerblocking:

You either love it or you hate it! To put it quite simply, I do not believe there any benefits to power blocking. It dramatically reduces the competition in the universe, people have a diminished range of targets to choose from (due to powerblock loyalty). The list is endless.

There is no easy way to approach and deal with this problem. But I believe if the major alliances within this game can see that currently there is no future in Planetarion if power blocking continues then they can do something about it. The days when it was 'every alliance for itself' were the best. Now-a-days people are afraid to send ships out in case of 'hitting the wrong powerblock'.

There will always be power blocks because quite simply people do not have the balls, resources nor members to go it alone. At the very least we will see groups of 3 alliances forming to fill galaxies. Perhaps the bigger alliances need to take heed and ally with smaller ones instead of just making one big ownage block. But I quite agree its not much fun when 70% of the universe is allied (as happend with nar/weet).

4):

Increase in galaxy size:

This ties in with my first point about random galaxies. The current (10 per galaxy) is not enough to make a galaxy community and team work. people are always looking over their shoulders and things are far too personal. As i say, the reasons for increasing the size of galaxies are more or less what i commented on in my first point. A 25 player galaxy will make less galaxies in the universe, but it will (i believe) stand for a more playable, more enjoyable game.

There are many more points which I COULD list. However I believe that they will not make as much impact as the above points.
If the above were to be taken into account, it is my firm belief that Planetarion will be a stronger community, more playable and most of all MORE FUN (like the good old days).

Alexander (Kan3) Innard.

I do believe a system of two randomly shuffled 'mini-private' galaxies and one totally 'mini-random' thus giving a total of 15 would be suitable. To increase the size of the universe I also suggest letting randoms have free accounts with no caps or limitations on. The only requirment is that they enter their credit card number and it is one acount per credit card number, and if they are found to have cheated with conclusive proof then they are billed for the account(s).

these are all great points and well put. for this game to grow stronger the so called "greats" are going to have to get used to change otherwise they will eventually be playing only with themselves. i agree with almost everything that has been said but i think totally random gals will not sit well with regular players and some solution has to be found to make everybody happy. maybe making private gals smaller could be an option. (its a toughie) shorter travel times is a great idea and should be employed for the next round,and powerblocks HAVE to be seriously limited or it will just kill the game stone dead. many players already think this round is over because of them and are leaving, and less players is bad news for everybody. :-(

[Scouse]

Originally posted by Not_RIT
It was proven last round that random galaxies do not work and are nasty!

That is so incredible incorrect. Last round showed just how good random galaxies are. Not the opposite. Whereas this round has highlighted, once again, how totally **** private galaxies are.

Your opinion probably depends on how good your private galaxy was last round, but the benefits were there to see.



The people against private galaxies are those that want to do well without putting in the effort.

Planetarion won't ever be successful with private galaxies, if Jolt want to make some money and make this game decent again they need to consider totally random or mainly random.

[hAl]

Random gals need to be 20 or 25 people.
Less is useless and wil keep power to alliances. With 25 people in a gal a gal itself can be a nice community. With less it is boring.

hAl

[CharlieB]

Having only read part of this thread i'll just comment on the private galaxies.

Everyone has the own opinion, but let me ask you this all the friends you now play with where did you meet them? Two options here either in an alliance or in an old galaxy. ie an old random galaxy.

We would be no where without randoms, but i can see the game losing lots of players with private galaxies.

My suggestion would be to split the two. Having private within random. As a suggestion

Have 5 private groups making up a galaxy or less. On current gal levels, of ten in a galaxy you could have 5 two people groups. To make the ten. This means that your with a friend, and have at least one person active. My suggestion would be maybe 3 or 4 sets of two and the remaining spaces filled with single people who went totally random. This way you can assume you have a higher chance of having active people if you go totally random.

Flame away all you private galaxy lovers.


Long live the random universe.

[Not_RIT]

Originally posted by Scouse
That is so incredible incorrect. Last round showed just how good random galaxies are. Not the opposite. Whereas this round has highlighted, once again, how totally **** private galaxies are.

Your opinion probably depends on how good your private galaxy was last round, but the benefits were there to see.



The people against private galaxies are those that want to do well without putting in the effort.

Planetarion won't ever be successful with private galaxies, if Jolt want to make some money and make this game decent again they need to consider totally random or mainly random.

I put in lots of effort but always seem to end up dead heh
I just dont like random much :/

[Koyochi]

shorter travel times -> even more bashing for the people that cant be online that much , because the timeframe in wich they could get defence is shorter too ?


I would suggest a lot longer travel times.. etas from 16 to 24 , wich could give players about 8 ticks to react on attacks, so more chance that the un1337 can defend themselve too. Ofcourse, to compensate that, you need more fleetslots, and maybe some other tweakings as the amount of attack-oppurtunities shouldn't be lowered for sure.

[Cicada]

just DELETING CHEATERS will work for me

Originally posted by CharlieB
Having only read part of this thread i'll just comment on the private galaxies.

Everyone has the own opinion, but let me ask you this all the friends you now play with where did you meet them? Two options here either in an alliance or in an old galaxy. ie an old random galaxy.

We would be no where without randoms, but i can see the game losing lots of players with private galaxies.

My suggestion would be to split the two. Having private within random. As a suggestion

Have 5 private groups making up a galaxy or less. On current gal levels, of ten in a galaxy you could have 5 two people groups. To make the ten. This means that your with a friend, and have at least one person active. My suggestion would be maybe 3 or 4 sets of two and the remaining spaces filled with single people who went totally random. This way you can assume you have a higher chance of having active people if you go totally random.

Flame away all you private galaxy lovers.


Long live the random universe.

That is one of the most sensible suggestions I have heard for ages.

[H1TMANish]

Originally posted by Mighty Max
3):

toning down of Powerblocking:

You either love it or you hate it! To put it quite simply, I do not believe there any benefits to power blocking. It dramatically reduces the competition in the universe, people have a diminished range of targets to choose from (due to powerblock loyalty). The list is endless.

There is no easy way to approach and deal with this problem. But I believe if the major alliances within this game can see that currently there is no future in Planetarion if power blocking continues then they can do something about it. The days when it was 'every alliance for itself' were the best. Now-a-days people are afraid to send ships out in case of 'hitting the wrong powerblock'.

powerblocks are a part of the game now, it wont stop. they will just have to be accepted.

[Turin]

Having skim read alot of this thread....

(after taking in everything Alex said at the top)

all i can say is that this game is going downhill because as was made note of by someone else further up the thread "they don't have the balls"

The fact is (the way it looks to me) is that powerblocking is simply there because the players don't know how to play on their own.

They need the support of half the universe behind them to get anywhere. Unlike the good old days, (sadly I never played rnd 1) but have a good friend who did. It sounds like the stuff of legends, but he beat down his own galaxy, roided anyone in cluster who gave him trouble, and finished in the top 100, with "more cruisers than you (meaning me) had ships last round (meaning round 8)."

To me this game is (while being addictive) is all about fun, and the community. At its present state the community isn't big enough for the style of play these people wish to use. They want to "win", which i guess is fair play to them, but when its 70% vs the rag tag rest, what are you really winning?

Someone else made the point that "they will end up playing by themselves" which i don't think they will, their either gonna kill the game off completely, or their gonna leave complaining all the way that "there aren't any decent targets left," slightly ironic?
yeah i think so too.

Personally i equate them to big kids (with big egos to boot) who throw a paddy if they dont get what they want (i'm talking about rollbacks, and gal policy)

totally random makes it harder for them, thats why its disliked so much, because they don't want to be associated with "jo public" planetarion player because their "superior" just because they have more planets to call upon.

i think a serious overhaul of this game is needed, personally id kick out anyone who wanted to form a powerblock, but thats more of a radical personal preference

[tyriel]

i dont see a random universe alone addressing the power blocking or co-operation between alliances. The alliance politics continued in round 8 much as i've observed them for prior rounds - what changed was the ability to decimate the enemy. The enemy sharing galaxies with your team made for the fun.

Random rounds and replacing the current loyalty towards alliances with a higher loyalty to galaxy and cluster would work. The problem there is unlike the early rounds we have a rabid loyalty to alliances and friends already in place, and a large amount of politcal history to overcome.

[Azaghal]

Originally posted by hAl
Random gals need to be 20 or 25 people.
Less is useless and wil keep power to alliances. With 25 people in a gal a gal itself can be a nice community. With less it is boring.

hAl

However, larger random galaxies make them harder to organise (thus easier to destroy). I'm in favour of having random galaxies same size (or less) as private galaxies but give them advantage in different aspects (longer defence etas or so).

But since I quit 2 rounds ago this is perhaps an outdated view...

[_o0o_]

Originally posted by Mighty Max
if they were to be introduced in further rounds.!

Originally posted by Tactitus
Not to worry though, just keep repeating the PA mantra:

Everything will be fixed in R10.
Everything will be fixed in R10.
Everything will be fixed in R10!

[whoop]

Originally posted by Mighty Max

1) Totally random galaxies:

I agree, but there is a vocal minority that cannot play outside their cushy galaxies, and they squal like a bunch of pigs every time this is brought up.

2): More realistic travel times:

Couldn't disagree more. This will only help the people who are online 24/7, and hurt the "noobs" who are the lifeblood of PA, by scanning for and initing roids for the rest of us to steal.

How many of them will keep playing if they don't login for 2 days and got attacked 9 times ?

3): toning down of Powerblocking:

the people running the game can do absolutely nothing to prevent this. the only thing they can do is make it unprofitable/boring to powerblock to discourage it.

4): Increase in galaxy size:

The problem is there are not enough planets. Its easy to have 7200 25 person galaxies when you have 180k planets, but when you have 4k planets, you're talking about 160 galaxies total, which is a totally different story.

All this is nothing new and has been discussed 12987398217 times here before.

-whoop

[whoop]

Originally posted by Not_RIT
A better idea is to have a 'mini' galaxy of 3 - 5 people which is then shuffled and mixed with others, I do believe it was Sid whom suggested this first.

No.

I suggested it before Sid, and I thought I was the first, but then someone showed me a thread where it was suggested before me.

Board history is now gone forever, so we won't know who it was but I can assure you it was neither Sid nor me.

-whoop

[Fungi]

Why not throw everyone into ONE MASSIVE universe, give everyone their own planet, and basically 'every man for himself'.

Scrap galaxies.

[Not_RIT]

Originally posted by Fungi
Why not throw everyone into ONE MASSIVE universe, give everyone their own planet, and basically 'every man for himself'.

Scrap galaxies.

I quite agree with this!

Thank you all for your replies. I understand that there are always going to be people for and against changes, but I would like to thank people for expressing their opinions too.

I believe that if the team of creators were to take into account such opinions as those expressed in this thread and many others that the game could be a better one for everybody.

[gzambo]

Originally posted by Fungi
Why not throw everyone into ONE MASSIVE universe, give everyone their own planet, and basically 'every man for himself'.

Scrap galaxies.

would certainly be intresting alright though i believe someone else suggested on another thread that listed alliance members could benefit from reduced eta travel times for defence (almost like an alliance based overburn without the extra cost) so if the alliance membership was limited then this could help remove the power from the blocks,
another suggestion would be to increase the salvage allowing anyone thats been bashed a chance to rebuild quicker

[Lerxst]

Originally posted by Fungi
Why not throw everyone into ONE MASSIVE universe, give everyone their own planet, and basically 'every man for himself'.

Scrap galaxies.

Yes - why not. Defend either with smaller ships (new shiptypes - defships?) or hired and more expensive special defenses. Would be more fun as they won't be strongholds and clusterwars which combined can make a 6-hour nap your doom...

[Chef!]

Originally posted by Fungi
Why not throw everyone into ONE MASSIVE universe, give everyone their own planet, and basically 'every man for himself'.

Scrap galaxies.

hehe...

spinner could just install deto on the servers

[Confraria]

2 small things: make it FREE and make it RANDOM. its the only way to get new players. otherwise we'll have 5k players/farmers/bots for the rest of PA's life.

[-CP-]

Originally posted by Cicada
just DELETING CHEATERS will work for me

And you have the job.. It doesn't pay much (actually nothing) but if there is anyway I could give you the c and e for scans I would.. Now if we could get some sort of system to get new players in this could actually work

[karx11erx]

Countering powerblocking would be easy if there could be more than 2 fleets on a planet, each being hostile towards the other.

Currently, all attackers are combined into one attacking fleet, whether they knowingly sent their ships so they arrived at the same time or not. Same goes true for the defenders.

If you could have an arbitrary numbers of fighting fleets, you'd have gone a long way towards solving the alliance problem.

For your fleets to be eligible for merging with another players fleet, you must either be in the same gal or same alliance.

At this point, some alliance handling must come in. Alliance would need to register with PA. Only registered alliance members can combine their fleets, and you can only be a member of one alliance at a time.

Only fleets that either are in a registered alliance or from the same galaxy will be combined into one fleet for purposes of resolving a battle tick.

That would mean if alliances A and B attack a planet from alliance C, there would be three fleets fighting each other, and not A+B vs. C.

I am not saying that this is the perfect idea, but it might be a good base for getting to a working solution.

The big backdraw is that there would be quite some coding required to do all this, and I think it is rather unlikely that it will happen.