Dynamic galaxy size based on position

[Anonymous Hero]

Maybe something to consider to help weaker galaxies. Take a look at Sandmans listing (I can't give you a link because of: "Could not find phrase 'x_contains_urls'.", but I'm sure you can visit the site yourselves).

All galaxies start with a maximum number of 15 players, after 168 ticks (7 days) or longer if needed, the following limits could be implemented:

Top 10%: 10
11-25%: 13
21-50%: 15
51-75%: 20
76-90%: 25
91-100%: 30

So, the top 10% of galaxies would only get a replacement player if they fall below the 10 player limit. The bottom 10% can get up to 30 players in their galaxy. If a galaxy has more players than the limit then nothing will happen, it only stops them from getting new players or exiles..

Why? Lower galaxies need the help. The high ranking galaxies tend to have nearly all 15 players highly active, the lowest ranking galaxies have fewer dedicated people - by increasing the amount of players in these galaxies it gives them more potential to fight back their way up the ranks.

One huge advantage I can see with this is that if one of the higher ranking galaxies decide to exile a player in their galaxy as they aren't active enough - they won't get a replacement unless they drop rank. It means they have to evaluate if its worth keeping the person even if they're not super active 24/7, or boot them because they really are worthless.

Is it a worthwhile idea?

[Ali]

I can see pro's to this but and obvious con (to me) is that the bad galaxies keep getting [people where bad galaxies are not the place people would want to go or would benefit from going. When the only places getting exiles are the places that are dead it just leads to funnel players in and then kill them so the next player to come arrives after the last one is already gone inactive or quit etc.

I think the solution would be to setup a system to find dead galaxies and disband them in whole to c200 and let them redistribute to the left over galaxies when these do happen to eliminate bad galaxies all together and allow the people to land in anew galaxy on next login

[Thex]

Personally I think its a good idea.

You don't want people constantly exiling to find a good galaxy and hoping to get into the T10. With the present system self exilers know that there is a good chance that they could get a decent galaxy after only 1 or two exiles.

But this doesn't limit a GC's ability to exile an inactive player. People will not be constantly exiling, if they know that there is only a very small chance. This forces them to be a lot more selective in the use of the self exile and working with what they have, I think some people are far to quick to self exile rather than work with the galaxy they have (and in some cases setup themselves with a core buddy pack).

But this also allows a lower ranked galaxy more chance to get a core of good active planets together to provide in gal defence.

Probably need some thinking about as if you have a small galaxy say in the 91% - 100% range you don't want the exile costs mounting to huge amounts because you are constantly exiling people.

[cypher]

so the thing that will happen is a bad galaxy will end up with 20 players or more who will never really play and new players in those gals will get raped regardless as they have 19 low scoring inactive galmates who can't/won't help them.

Top gals will get penalized for being good at PA and they will have the disadvantage of 3 (or more) less planets then the rest and it will make things MUCH harder for them as they simply lack the fleets ingalaxy. while they should get alot of incoming.

I don't see how this really helps anyone. small gals will still get attacked alot even tho they have more players and it doesn't really solve any problem, but you do annoy the people in the top gals and make them less willing to put in the time to play pa longer.

[Appocomaster]

I'm not sure how this would work? even if the idea is sound in theory, what's to stop a galaxy 11th rising to the top 3 over a week with an extra 3 members? You can't constantly move the members around.
The only way I can see this working is if you say "I don't think that exiles should land in the top galaxies". Personally I think that the best route is to have exiles shifted towards the middle (or slightly higher than the middle) depending on relative activities of planet to galaxy, as this at least gives a lot of semi active / fairly active galaxies just above the middle, and so all those lost at the bottom are the really inactive ones, and all those being kicked out of the top still land somewhere fairly nice and can continue playing.

[Anonymous Hero]

Appocomaster: The general idea is that the top 10% of galaxies should never be kicking players in their galaxy anyway. If it was implemented then the top 10% wouldn't be able to just kick a player and get a replacement quickly, they'd have to wait until their rank dropped.

Maybe the numbers are too severe and look evil. How about:

Top 25%: 15
26-50%: 17
51-75%: 20
76-90%: 23
91-100%: 25

Every galaxy gets 15 players as normal, due to the fact that lower ranking galaxies usually have more people being exiled or self exiling - they get a few extra slots to take this into account.

[BigP]

Nah, better to have 15 player buddy packs

[Appocomaster]

Originally Posted by Anonymous Hero

Appocomaster: The general idea is that the top
10% of galaxies should never be kicking players in their galaxy anyway.
If it was implemented then the top 10% wouldn't be able to just kick a player and get a replacement quickly, they'd have to wait until their rank dropped.

Originally Posted by Top Gal This Round From EORC Log

[17:25:31] <[17-9]Bazza> We had prolly the best BP in the uni with a good mix of ally's
[17:25:45] <[17-9]crusie> and best randoms *cough*
[17:25:48] <Appocomaster> lol
[17:25:57] <[17-9]Bazza> After taking control of the gal from tick 1 we set about exiling anyone not on irc within 24 hours & ones unpaid.
[17:26:06] <Appocomaster> were there many in that category then?
[17:26:17] <[17-9]Bazza> quite a few
[17:26:19] <Appocomaster> a lot of people have had issues with the galaxy and exile system this round
[17:26:33] <[17-9]crusie> can't complain about that tho
[17:26:47] <[17-9]Bazza> After we got the gal we wanted it was a case of keeping the activity high, reporting all incs promptly & cross deffing ingal.

ahem? They kick players until they become top galaxy. Then they don't kick any more.
All this does is force exiles lower and lower down the universe as the game goes on, as far as I can see? (assuming the limit for top x galaxies is higher than the average number of starting planets)

The bottom 20-40 galaxies have really bad activity anyway. If anyone doesn't believe me, I'm willing to move someone's planet there next round so they can see
10000000 * ~0 = 0. However many planets you stick in the bottom galaxies, they just vegetate. They won't be competitive. More and more people will give up and stop playing. The top 1/3 are generally pretty active, the next 1/3 are less active but ok, the bottom 1/3 oftne aren't very active

[Pilatus]

Originally Posted by Ali

I think the solution would be to setup a system to find dead galaxies and disband them in whole to c200 and let them redistribute to the left over galaxies when these do happen to eliminate bad galaxies all together and allow the people to land in anew galaxy on next login

I like this solution much better then the original one here. Would be nice to give ppl in dead galaxy a new chance to have fun during a round. After all not all players are aware of the exile option, and some ppl feel bad about leaving some of their galm8's.

[robban1]

didnt we have a second suffle for those unlucky ones some round ago?

[Ultimate Newbie]

Once again Cypher, i find your arguments most interesting. Please dont be personally offended by this reply, but i do have this urge to point this out...

Originally Posted by cypher

so the thing that will happen is a bad galaxy will end up with 20 players or more who will never really play and new players in those gals will get raped regardless as they have 19 low scoring inactive galmates who can't/won't help them.

Then...

Top gals will get penalized for being good at PA and they will have the disadvantage of 3 (or more) less planets then the rest and it will make things MUCH harder for them as they simply lack the fleets ingalaxy. while they should get alot of incoming.

You say in the first paragraph that having more players in those galaxies wont help them one iota as they will be inactive as hell and not provide any help at all. Then in the second paragraph you said that top galaxies will be punished for not having as many people in them as everyone else as they will have fewer in-gal fleets with which to defend themselves. I ask, if a player is useless in a bottom ranked galaxy, why would they possibly be useful in a top ranked galaxy?



I am inclinded to agree with the original principle outlined by Anonymous Hero - that the galaxies in the worst position should be given as much help as is reasonable in order to improve their round and thus playing experience. However, being in Support for as long as i have, one of the most frequent complaints is that players are exiling from one atrocious galaxy to another, costing them a packetload to do so. I just wonder whether a galaxy system that makes it more likely for exiling players to land in a larger galaxy (in terms of people), which is as dead as a doorknob, is really an improvement on the current situation.

There is another thread around (which i cant seem to find unfortunately) that suggested filling up same sized galaxies from roughly the middle ranked galaxies and move outward (both up and down) filling places as you went. That way, most exiling players would land in average galaxies - people in terrible galaxies who self exile are likely to improve their standing and get out of the doldrums, and people who are towards the top and are trying to farm a top 10 gal spot are far more likely to fall to a worse position (the rough universal average). I rather like the system, but there is probably something fundamentally wrong with it (though i dont see it as of yet).

[Appocomaster]

That was my exile thread here: http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=188926

[Ultimate Newbie]

hurrah, thank you. I couldnt remember what it was called after over a month in the real world .