[Mzyxptlk]

Originally Posted by Jibajav

Being part of a large alliance typically means that you need to be available 24/7 to respond to def calls and be quite active in selecting your targets, etc. Most new players aren't ready to dive in to such a committment and the information and politics can be overwhelming. I would think most would rather test the waters first, as I'm did this round, and not commit to any alliance for a little while.

That depends on which alliance you choose to join. Not every alliance requires 24/7 availability. The best ones do, though.

Originally Posted by Jibajav

I'm not sure what changed since round 30 or so up until now, but finding targets to land on playing solo is all but impossible unless the goal is to get roids off of an inactive planet that is just above the bash limit.

The ratio of inactives to actives has gone down drastically over time. Even back in round 14, far past PA's best days, for every planet in a good alliance (40 or more planets) there used to be 1.5 planets in a small alliance, or in none at all. This has gone down to barely half an unallied planet for every alliance player. It is no surprise that you're unable to find targets to land solo on.

Originally Posted by Jibajav

Now I do enjoy being able to get defense and also to defend. I'm not saying defense should be discouraged. What I am thinking is that there may be too much of an emphasis placed on fleet size that a planet has since there is very little incentive to land with losses. If there was an actual battle, both sides would have losses, but there would be a victor.

The victors would be everyone who didn't fight in the battle. This is why combat is not common in PA. The potential gains are just too small to be worth losing almost anything at all.

Originally Posted by Jibajav

Here is where I was hoping to open discussion on the combat side of the game to shake up the xp and salvage to somehow make attacks more interesting. remember reading on another thread to be able to spend xp on bonuses for your fleets which I thought may be worth pursuing.

I used to dislike this idea, but I've been coming around on the notion that combat should yield better returns. This goes both for defense and offense. Making XP spendable could be a good approach.

Originally Posted by Jibajav

I have also read on the other threads how most are annoyed with the 1-6am waves and how no one attacks during the day. I completely agree that that needs to be looked into, but personally I think the incentives for attacks/defense need to change versus, say, removing pre launch. If people were more inclined to have fleets out all the time, the pre launch issue would dissolve.

I disagree. People could launch attacks at 8 o'clock in the evening, but the odds of getting through when the enemies are all online are just very low. And when you do recall, your fleet returns home when you're asleep, so you can't relaunch immediately. This costs the same 4-8 hours that you would otherwise lose in the evening, and worse, these are the most effective hours to launch attacks.

Originally Posted by Jibajav

Is there something really wrong with such an attack?

It's not illegal or frowned upon, no. But launching afternoon or evening attacks into reasonable active galaxies is pretty much a waste of time, theirs as well as yours, as you discovered this round.

Originally Posted by Jibajav

Other than the changing of the combat results with xp and salvage, I do have a radical idea for a change which will probably not be liked: what if alliances were scrapped and the galaxies were your team? Private galaxies could be formed but be limited in size to 15-20.

Private galaxies are just small alliances under another name. Scrapping the ability of people to choose at least one of the groups of people they play with is a bad idea. Alliances are the only reason this game is still around at all, with the few players that are left.

Even making exiling less effective (which would nerff just 1 of the 2 ways people currently choose their co-players) is a controversial suggestion.



Unfortunately, your post is probably is probably what every newbie would say when they first start playing the game. Or rather, right around the time they quit in disgust.

The game is and always has been very unfriendly to new players. The only reason we didn't notice that in ye olde days is that the influx of new players was so high that it didn't matter if 95% of them got scared away.

It's not that something needs to change. (Almost) everything needs to be changed. We're burdened under almost a decade of almost no development, and what little there was, was undirected. Various owners at various times have failed to live up to their promises to improve the game, for various reasons, and often for no reason at all. We've recently gotten yet another new owner, so we'll see if this is just the status quo again or not.