With only the hard-core players left...

[Spinner]

Frankly speaking, I miss the good ole private galaxies. No groups, no partly private, just plain private gals.
Not from any special view or angle, other than to play with those you wish to play with.

Yes, PrivGals makes the game less n00b-friendly.
- See many n00bs around?
Yes, it gives more power to the big alliances.
- Oh, got something to fight for then.
Yes, we will have some strong galaxies on our hands.
- Good, maybe we can get some serious battles going.

I will not provide a lot of options in this poll, on purpose. But please take it.

[SilverSmoke]

oh i thought all hardcore players left

[Blazde]

Is this the same Spinner talking? v2.0 has some bugfixes perhaps?

Yus, bring private gals back... Having major gals with a strong identity, and aligned to a single major powerblock is a much better situation. The way the alliances were all entagled last round made the war very messy. Even back when I was a noob I'd have said this, the awe created by a major private galaxy was matched only by the awe the major alliances. Some of the top20 gals in round 10 were laughable, with such deep splits sometimes their players weren't on talking terms.

But, so the noobs have some chance (and for everybody else's general enjoyment) don't bring back private gals without bringing back (random) clusters.

[SYMM]

Private gals with less than 10 people would be better in my opinion. As everyone knows no alliance will put only its own members into a gal, smallers gals would mean maybe only 2 alliances would have to block to fill gals, rather than the 4+ we have seen in the most recent private-rounds.

Yes, PrivGals makes the game less n00b-friendly.
- See many n00bs around?

I think Jolt would quite like to see some...
If a determined effort was made to recruit new communities rather than single players to the game, then whole gals of people who know each other already could join :|
There must be some clans playing on Jolt servers who'd play together if they got some sort of discount?

[Rember]

I want to vote for private galaxies, including fill-ups.

like back in round 6, when there was the option to open it or not etc. i say make priv galaxies of 5 or something, then fill uit up to 10 with either one other private galaxy or a random galaxy of 5. i don't have thought about this idea yet, just i have to vote 'yes' private gals

[Spinner]

Originally Posted by Blazde

Is this the same Spinner talking? v2.0 has some bugfixes perhaps?

(-:

[Legator]

priv gals suck big time - but well, this discussion is old.

[Spinner]

Originally Posted by Legator

priv gals suck big time - but well, this discussion is old.

Well, the talk may be old, but the setting is not the same anymore.
If private galaxies make the game better for the small community we have, perhaps that is the way to go. All I do is ask the question.

[Rember]

Originally Posted by Spinner

Well, the talk may be old, but the setting is not the same anymore.
If private galaxies make the game better for the small community we have, perhaps that is the way to go. All I do is ask the question.

Legator is just a german Spinner, don't pay too much attention to him. Depending on the number of member we are able to attract to planetarion i think we should do private galaxies.

Maybe i've just got a better idea even, groups of 2 or 3 people, merging into gals of 10 :P (god i like my thoughts)

[Qdeathstar]

well... its good to know that we have decided that we arent going to try to recruit new players... BTW, i voted for prive gals as well...

Perhaps this is a bot-spinner ment to boost player moral....

/me ponders that conspiracy theory

[Qdeathstar]

ps.. if all the active (posts in the last 3 months) forum ppl payed to play PA how many people would that b...

[Spinner]

Originally Posted by Qdeathstar

well... its good to know that we have decided that we arent going to try to recruit new players... BTW, i voted for prive gals as well...
Perhaps this is a bot-spinner ment to boost player moral....
/me ponders that conspiracy theory

I never said we were not going to recruit new players.
In fact, we could perhaps hope to reclaim many of those who left when private galaxies were abandoned (the community was then split down the middle, dont forget that).
And even if it is for just 1 round, I think the community as a whole might enjoy the variation that private galaxies bring, it doesnt have to be forever you know.

As for recruiting new players, well, that is most likely easier for you to do than for us.
We do not have a marketing budget (that I am aware of), and we dont have many strings left to play on. And in such situations, one must do what one can. And therefore, I asked the question in this poll, I dont understand why you have to be so sarcastic about it.

[Qdeathstar]

i wasnt being sarcastic about it... i personally think (as i posted and voted) that bringing back private galaxies is best... and all of the claims that random galaxies would bring new players, have been abandoned... that is accurate isnt it?

And thus, with such a positive change in attitude (bravo, spinner :-P) i find myself wondering, as i said, if spinner 2.0 really is a program ;-P. A bot spinner, if you will.

[Qdeathstar]

how bout you make an option so that poeple can either buy 3 credits for 20USD... or 2 credits and 7 dollars for makerting, or 1 credit and 14 dollars for marketing.. liek a donate for marketing.. im sure some people would do that....

[Wandows]

i would like to see them back yes, BUT ONLY with a certain amount of random "free" accounts like we had in the early ages...

Why? very simple.... if we want pa to survive we have to get new players involved in the game. And the only way this is gonna happen is by letting them play along side the "leet experienced" players. Although it might be hard to get that done, since there will most likely be more free accounts then paid.. (i am assuming here that there won't be seperated universes, as that is not really helpful to get new ppl "into" the game imho).

Down-side is that active gals might turn out with inactive newbie's, so it should be relatively easy to exile those planets. And planets that have been exiled alot/are very inactive should be moved to some inactive pa area so they won't bother the ppl who actually want to play.

[Qdeathstar]

free random accounts.. i think that will lead to static-acy (or what ever that special word is) and we will have to reset te round as organized groups bash teh n00b random ones... perhaps you could do that, then make it so the priv gals couldnt attack random gals... but randoms could take a shot at organized ones... based on a specific (higher) score ratio.

[Spinner]

It is virtually impossible to find a very good solution for these "random free accounts" . Yes, we need a better way to get them in, but the last time it was tried to mix them, the top gals used those slots to exile and exile until they got in a few "reps" from an alliance etc..so they turned into fully private gals anyway.

[Blazde]

Here's an idea:

Have private gals BUT rather than the anti-bash rule applying to planets (you can't attack someone <30% of your value), have it by galaxy value (or possibly by both planet and galaxy value). The major advantage being that a talented, active 'noob' stuck in a crappy random inactive galaxy won't get bashed into oblivion by the top planets in active private gals. Instead they'll either be attacked by other top planets in inactive gals, or by middling planets from middling gals, both of which make for a 'fairer' fight (eg. they can be retalled). Furthermore, because the roids aren't flowing to the untouchable private galaxies so quickly, the active players stuck in inactive gals will have some juicy targets left (each other).

Also, wars within clusters become more gal centric. Rather than picking off the soft targets in the cluster's worst galaxies, players will have to plan better raids against galaxies more their own size, probably involving other players in the cluster (if they're to take full advantage of reduced in cluster travel time). Situations where the top 5 galaxies in a cluster all ally with each will only be to the disadvantage of the top ranked gal.

But mainly it's the actives stuck in crappy gals I'm thinking of, always feel guilty roiding them :/, and I was one myself for at least 1 round.

[Stifler]

Originally Posted by SYMM

If a determined effort was made to recruit new communities rather than single players to the game, then whole gals of people who know each other already could join :|

this could be a good idea, try and advertise to other jolt clans to try it and they get offered a discount when they pay for the 'normal' service they use. Would only require advertising on jolts site, but i dont just mean adverts hidden out the way and hard to find as i have noticed before on their site

[Chika]

bring them back. will be some strong gals, but hey, how come I can't play with my friends of choice? but point also has to be taken that any newbies would die, and thus hate the game.

[Legator]

Originally Posted by Spinner

Well, the talk may be old, but the setting is not the same anymore.
If private galaxies make the game better for the small community we have, perhaps that is the way to go. All I do is ask the question.

yea, didnt want to pick on you. i just meant that only doing a game for the hardcore isnt really smart in my opinion.

i think everyone noticed that the "hardcore" shrinks daily. why do they leave <- THAT should be the question. they leave because many think that the game got shite (they dont like pax - i personally see a few good things in it but im not the majority for sure) or another reason for many people to leave pa is that the playerbase is that low. i formyself said if there wont be more than 2500 planets i will not participate in this game anymore and im quite sure there are some more who think similar to this.

making a game for the "hardcore" means to me no more recruiting of new players - which clearly is the dead of every game.

you said on another post that its easier for us to get new players into the game than for the pa-team as you dont have a marketing budget and many strings left.

errrr, im sorry but your talking to us, and we are giving you answers - just that they aint like you want sometimes (no offense in this)

maybe im just to tired and worried of the tryouts to save this game - but i just think this isnt the right way.

if you dont think this is for you than give it out to jolt. but i think anyways they dont have any interest left in this game.

ps.

never seen such a bad marketing. (maybe im just a dreamer who really thinks it can go better for the game while it cant)

so many maybes

[Jackal2112]

The total number of voters AND the percentage of voters voting for Private galaxies suggests we should have private galaxies again Spinneh! btw, welcome back!

[Kal]

the results of polls like this are on the whole pointless as only the "hardcore" are likely to reply etc.

I personally likke the fact that random galaxies make things difficult for power blocks, and like the fact that random galaxies gives u the opportunities to meet new people you would never meet otherwise.

I personally like the private packs idea with a say 3 groups of 3 people in a gal

[Jackal2112]

Originally Posted by Spinner

It is virtually impossible to find a very good solution for these "random free accounts" . Yes, we need a better way to get them in, but the last time it was tried to mix them, the top gals used those slots to exile and exile until they got in a few "reps" from an alliance etc..so they turned into fully private gals anyway.

This is the way it will always happen. It is hard to find a balance. If you make random galaxies to strict, it isn't a lot of fun for those who end up with 7 inactives and can't do sh*t about it. If you give to much power to the 'privateers', they will abuse this power to build stronghold galaxies with their friends. It's the way of PA i'm afraid. I have been pondering on ways to go around this problem, but I can't seem to find any real solutions. One idea I have about this is to mark 5 planets as private 'seats' and 5 as random 'seats' in every galaxy. The idea is that people who paid can only be exiled onto private 'seats' in a galaxy and randoms only to those random 'seats'. That way you will at least always have galaxies with 5 private players and 5 randoms.. Ofcourse there will still be some power playing but less imo.

[Jackal2112]

Originally Posted by KalVirtus

the results of polls like this are on the whole pointless as only the "hardcore" are likely to reply etc.

I personally likke the fact that random galaxies make things difficult for power blocks, and like the fact that random galaxies gives u the opportunities to meet new people you would never meet otherwise.

I personally like the private packs idea with a say 3 groups of 3 people in a gal

I have been hating random rounds since I have end up in totally sh*t galaxies every round, which doesn't make playing a lot of fun. Most you meet is inactives, retards and multies liek that. Rooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrr

[Legator]

Originally Posted by KalVirtus

the results of polls like this are on the whole pointless as only the "hardcore" are likely to reply etc.

I personally likke the fact that random galaxies make things difficult for power blocks, and like the fact that random galaxies gives u the opportunities to meet new people you would never meet otherwise.

I personally like the private packs idea with a say 3 groups of 3 people in a gal

i underline your random part tho i dislike the 3 groups of 3 people part.....well, maybe some kind of compromise needed.....

[The_Fish]

I (and many others) say this every round, make semi private galaxies, where you have to be in the same alliance to be in the same group, and merging these groups of 3 to make 9 priv, leaving the other 6 open for random.

I'm not going to say it after this, I'm sick of being ignored, not even given a reason why not.

[SYMM]

15 is far too big for a gal in the current sized universe, but otherwise spot on.
I personally think having less than 10 (6/7) in a gal would be best (so 2*3 + 0/1?)

[Spinner]

Originally Posted by The_Fish

I (and many others) say this every round, make semi private galaxies, where you have to be in the same alliance to be in the same group, and merging these groups of 3 to make 9 priv, leaving the other 6 open for random.

I'm not going to say it after this, I'm sick of being ignored, not even given a reason why not.

Which means we would have to deny people changing alliance, to avoid dummy alliances for the purpose of signups...nah..there would be ways around it.
People tend to use external alliance setup more than the internal one, so to think this would help at all, is possibly optimistic.
It is HARD to find a perfect solution for this, I dont belive there is one.

It is an interesting setup to select alliance before you end up in the right galaxy, a little bit like predefined sides. A good clean race-war would be fun too, putting all terrans in one quadrant, all cathaar in one, etc. And then to have rankings show the status between the races. And deny attacking yoru own race ofc, etc. I am clearly wandering off here now...

[Legator]

Originally Posted by Spinner

It is an interesting setup to select alliance before you end up in the right galaxy, a little bit like predefined sides. A good clean race-war would be fun too, putting all terrans in one quadrant, all cathaar in one, etc. And then to have rankings show the status between the races. And deny attacking yoru own race ofc, etc. I am clearly wandering off here now...

do you mean with this race-thingy that the alliances looking like now would be useless ? and those races would be allied ? (ziks with ziks?)

[KoeN]

plz also bring back the old gameplay because ehm....pax wasn't that much of a succes aswell :P

[Jackal2112]

I guess that's an opinion KoeN, and I have to disagree with you

[TheACE]

I Want Them Back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[AllFather|away]

Originally Posted by SilverSmoke

oh i thought all hardcore players left

Depends on how you define hardcore players.

If you mean noskilled peons on a rampage killing newer noskilled peons, then there are still hardcore players left.

[dabult]

I recently said in another thread how thought that private gals would lead to stagnation etc etc....and then i thought it through a bit..


Bring back private gals PLEASE.
Private gals isn't newbie-friendly? No perhaps it isnt...but there arent that many newbies around anyway. I would also say that private gals probably bring back more old players than random brings new ones.

[Helix]

Gals need to be semi private, 10 private 5 random...this allows for noobies and the leftovers to get into a gal and actually have a chance to do something good.

[FernandeZ]

i agree

[Nitros]

put this poll on the portal

alot more ppl check there and will vote.
there are alot of ppl who dont bother checking these forums

[schryenm]

Hehe,

First time in god how long i check in on the forum & the same question is asked once again.
Kinda reminds me of a soap

As to priv gals question, priv gals worked in R4, cos there were about 150k real players. Ïn a small universe they only lead to a round that get´s boring within a week.

Cheers

[Rocklobster[Dok]]

Originally Posted by Spinner

A good clean race-war would be fun too, putting all terrans in one quadrant, all cathaar in one, etc. And then to have rankings show the status between the races. And deny attacking yoru own race ofc, etc. I am clearly wandering off here now...

how about no?

and get me my pegasus and wyverns back

[Tactitus]

Private galaxies aren't very newbie friendly and lead to other problems (pre-round alliance blocking being the most obvious). Of course there aren't many newbies around anymore, but I would hate to see PA give up on trying to lure them in. :/

The problem with random galaxies is that it's more of a crap shoot and everyone gets really fed up with inactive galaxy mates.

Maybe semi-private groups/packs would be a viable solution. I dunno.

I think random galaxies would work a lot better IF PA can fix the exile problems and aggressively delete (or auto-exile or whatever) inactive accounts.

[dabult]

Originally Posted by Tactitus

I think random galaxies would work a lot better IF PA can fix the exile problems and aggressively delete (or auto-exile or whatever) inactive accounts.

They claim it got fixed late in pax..not sure..


That other part though, is an extremly vital thing...it is sooooo ****ing frustrating to never get inactive planets deleted. No wonder people quit.

[Uthor]

Gals need to be semi private, 10 private 5 random...this allows for noobies and the leftovers to get into a gal and actually have a chance to do something good.

I agree with Helix, number of members per gal can be adjusted but good idea.

[Pilatus]

Semi private gals sounds good to me too. And i also like the idea of having atleast 15 planets in the gal, were 5 of'em are random. By having 5 slots in each gal for random planets, i think that there would atleast be a chance that n00bs could like this game. But if there should be slots for random players, i don't think gal's should be able close the random slots.

Don't seem to me like random gals attracts more new players anyway. Having a gal together with some friends and get bashed often, is probably more appealing to new players then having a gal together with strangers and get bashed often

[Nitros]

yeah the 15 player gal sounds nice

and put this poll on the portal damnit!!

[wakey]

Proper private galaxies can not seriously be a valid suggestion if we want the game to survive. PA NEEDS more players, PA ISNT going to get new members unless things are done to make the game more competative and easier to get involved in. As long as you have the ability to put together a fortress galaxy you have lost much of the compitition and the ease to get involved from the game, it simply become a game of "have a place in a big alliance lined up or be bashed to peices in a matter of days"

Now I see some people are suggesting Semi Private galaxies of thinsg like 10 private 5 random ect. This doesnt really solve the problemfor most. Sure if your lucky enough to land in a galaxy of a top alliance as a new random player but for most thats not going to happen and you still have the problem before. Your just handing too much power to the big alliances which isnt that good for the game (although apprently PATeam seem to think alliances arent an issue)

Thats not to say that random galaxies are perfect, they are full of their own problems such as inactives and luck. The inactives can be sorted with some thinking to allow for an exile system that lets inactives be voted out easierly and cheaply but which doesnt allow someone to decide to be exiled to try for a better galaxy without there being penalties to the planet and galaxy so that its not abused, Obviously the luck aspect cant really be sorted but imho the 'luck' distribution is alot fairer than the "who you know" one.

One of the biggest things people probally hate about random galaxies is probally the lack of friendly faces around them, we all like to have someone we know and can rely on around us and its why I've always supported the private packs system (been championing it since r4). While Private and semi private galaxies have the problem of giving a group overriding power in each of their galaxies this isnt as much of an issue in private packs, if you only join up with a friend or two and then the rest of the galaxy is made up of other packs and randoms then you dont immediatly have an alliance advantage, yes you might end up with one if luck is on your side but you arent guarenteed it. This means we get the chance to ahve some friends around, we get to mix with a whole bunch of new people AND we reduce the effect of fortress galaxies

ps. someone mentioned it should be private galaxies but with clusters back, I dont quite see how this really helps, the amount of protection these give the smaller players is fairly limited, ESPECIALLY in a private universe. If you end up with alliance mates in the cluster you might have a chance of getting more defence but this is normally something which is more likly for the larger players rather than the small

[wakey]

Oh and could I just add that the idea that there are only hard core players left is a false one. Yes the none hard core players are now much rarer due to many having quit due to the nature of game in recent rounds which has made it impossible for them to get anything out of the game BUT theres still a fairly significant percentage of players who arent hard core.

The problem this game really does have is that everyone is too focussed on pleasing the hard core players that make up the majority of the playerbase even though their numbers are also on the decline because as I've said in the past the number of hard core players is proportional to the number of the smaller players. The fewer smaller, none hardcore players there is the less enjoyable the game is for the hard core players so they also quit.. Instead of looking how to please the current hardcore players the whole design process has to be changed to looking out to design a good enjoyable game thats easy to get into, if that results in many of the hardcore players quitting then sadly that has to be considered acceptable if it means the player numbers start to increase because its now fun and worth playing for more people than it currently is. However i'm sure alot of the hardcore players would love a game that went back to basics of being fun and easy to get into just as much as the newbies ect

[Mistwraith]

Personally i liked private galaxies.. its certainly more fun when you have someone you actually know with you in your galaxy.
I think thats the crux of the matter.. but wholey private galaxies did do alot of damage, so i cant say i'm in favour of those back.. partially priv galaxies tho would be cool.

How about a compromise that goes along this line.. with 2 shuffles

when you sign up you can get max 4 people in a galaxy which is private, then at some earlier point those private galaxies closed and get shuffled together into galaxies which have 12 people, then if the result of a private galaxy is less than 12, when the random peoples galaxies get shuffled into the situation ( 4's again) they can get shuffled into the galaxies with the groups of 4 alliances.

I'm no coder so i dont know how horrendous this will be to implement so flame me if u wish on how dumb an idea it is, but the result would be, based on the odds of an allied 4 getting into a gal with another allied 4 getting into a gal with another allied 4 should be slim, although possible.

This way should enable any randoms and unallied to be taken into and given the help of the alliances already in there.

Oh and define a hardcore player, do u mean someone whos been here forever or someone who gives the round 110% ?

so flame away

[wakey]

The problem with your comprimise here is either a) your groups are too big or b) your galaxy is too small.

It doesnt have a great chance of producing a varied galaxy when each group makes up 33.3% of the galaxy and would leave it fairly open to have one alliance with majority control of a galaxy due to the distrubution of players as it is atm. An increase to either 15 or 20 planets or reduction of groups to 3 (or even better both) would allow galaxies to potentially be more mixed.

Also when it comes to the way of assiging randoms i'm not totally sure that this is the best way. IMHO it would be much better to just put randoms into groups before the shuffle and then treat them just like a private group so that the distribution is alot fairer rather than just dumping them with galaxies who have groups who coculdnt fill their quota.

As for definition of hardcore players, mine is players who take PA as more than a game where its less about fun for them and more about winning

[Qdeathstar]

:-/ Yet Another Galaxy size quest..

How bout we fix this problem the easy way. No Galaxies, no planets, no clusters... just asteroids.. and how many you own. And, OFC, your coords fluctuate..

Pure Brilliance :-/.