Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

I have been thinking that we had more people before PAX, we also had more people before that P2P but there we go.

As the game changes the game looses players, i was thinking keep the current races but go back to unlimited members in alliance but still be able to apply ingame alliance, but the membercount does not show. We could then have alliances such as Xanadu with wings back and also the likes of Fury/Legion etc.

And the old scoring system instead of the whole XP thing, like the days when your planet could be 50 mill score with 30k roids.

They have bought back cluster - etas etc and this is good.

What are your views? please discuss :)

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

the memberbase is in terminal decline, going back to old pa code wont solve the problem - nor will making the game free for that matter.
Its simply a question of time now, imo. How long can it limp on before its decided the humane thing to do is put it down.
The old scoring system i'm in favour of though

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

You're right that switching back to the old code won't solve anything. Making the game free would obviously have some short-term effect, but that would probably be offset over the long-term by lack of financial investment in the game (not that there's a whole lot of that going on at the moment).

What happens next is largely down to Jolt; they can continue to extract a few thousand pounds per round from the players who remain, but their number dwindles with each passing round. The failure to reinvest enough of this money in increasing the playerbase will, eventually, lead to Jolt making nothing at all from PA. The question is whether or not they believe that PA can be rejuvenated in some way. For what it's worth, I think it is possible to increase the number of paying players, enough that the long-term financial stability of the game is guaranteed. Bear in mind that the difference between 1000 and 1500 paying players is quite significant over the course of a year and that only a fairly small increase in the absolute number of players would yield financial benefits. Moderate investment now (in improving the game, the community features and the marketing) might well salvage something before it's too late.

I don't think there's much point in debating specific plans for how to go about this on PD; any ideas I have in that direction have already been given to PA team, and any suggestions for the game I have posted on the Suggestions forum (which is probably where this thread belongs, although I would hope, with my moderator hat on, that the author would make some slightly more detailed suggestions with some explanation of why the ideas have merit).

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

here comes phil and the anti-xp brigade again :rolleyes:

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

There is no magic formula for instantly increasing the number of players. You may get a small growth from certain changes, however there is never going to be a second huge growth period. Nearly every game follows the same growth-maturity-decline, Planetarion had it's growth period years ago.

The important thing is for jolt to take an active interest in Planetarion to keep it well maintained for the remaining players. Ideally I'd expect a jolt employee in charge of things to give occasional announcements on the state of the game, where it's been recently and what they are doing to help improve things.

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

I don't think the past should be relived. Planetarion was great rounds 1-3 as there was basically nothing like this around and so it became popular. But the MMOG community has moved on, but planetarion hasn't; it still remains old-hat even with new races and xp etc.

It all depends on what jolt want to do as Rob said. It currently holds a sort of niche I suppose and will continue to make a profit for a while I suspect. Jolt could just cut planetarion free when it stops making profit if they don't estimate investment will guarantee substantial enough returns.

I don't think the game itself is the important portfolio item. I believe it's the community. I personally think planetarion would benefit if a developmental version of the game was constructed, with innovative ideas (sorry, reverting back to round 2 isn't included) coming from the community and implementation coming from those who are able - not just jolt's mandarins. Ideally this would be open source to improve development time. A old version could be maintained, as could a new and improved version feeding of the developmental version.

Going home now!

DEATH BECOMES US ALL!

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

Threads like this pop up all the time and the answers remain the same on the whole. All i can say for the member base is that gamers move on to the next big thing... ie - why would you want an ps1 when you can have an xbox 360?

Community is the big thing holding PA together imho. I don't even play anymore because i have so many other commitments in the RL. However, i do like to poke my nose through these forums every now and again to see how everyone is getting on.

Change is good, but can Planetarion endure years to come? Only time will tell.

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

The fact that the changes PA team make every round just to cancel those changes the next round and implement other changes doesn't really help much. Add to that, that the changes they do implement are half-arsed trying to please everybody and eventually turns out not to please anyone (which reminds me to the legislation of the belgian government) isn't exactly the way to go either.
As said before, the only reason PA survives is because there's a community that was based on the previous rounds that keeps people playing.
In my eyes Jolt gave up on PA long ago and are now just trying to milk it out as long as they can.

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

The old pa code is down the crapper anyho.
I asked spinner about it in r7 or something.

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

I'm sure we could get together a fiver

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

I bet they'd settle for a hand job by Horn.

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

Seriously. They can't be making much after expenses, and they clearly do not care enough to make an investment in it. How much could they possibly want for it? I bet a few current players could team up to buy it rather easily.

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

£10 from each person should be well enough for Jolt to do that, would someone contact him to ask what he thinks?

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

For old PA, go play that "badworded pa clone with the very similar name".
I dont think you'd be any happier tho ;)

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

go back to old pa now plz. :)

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

Cant you klogwearing potsmoker, its gone ffs :p

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

would u want to play frogger in original form, as its no longer very popular ?

would you prefer to play final fantasy in orginal form ?

Looking back over all the fun you had then if fine .. but regenerating it would be next to impossible, it was a different market place, different lifestyles, and quite possibly the one thing that created our camaraderie and community was the probems the creators had, it was brought to us by the people who created it, it became personal, we all saw people who were trying to create and maintain what we could maybe have done but hadnt.
The people for the people, as things went into the commercial sector, expectations changed, what people demand for now, would be sometimes politely suggested, or even hosted from the community.

anyone who started playing in 4 or 5 and beyond would be staring in wonder and asking what the hell is this ********* (insert suitable word)
PA wasnt a great game .. in the sense of the hosting, coding and other stuff, it was great because we could touch the gods that were trying to make it great, its been copied in numerous other forms over the years, but none of thopse have that feeling.

We are the grandads who ask you why you needed £10 for a cinema trip because on our day you could get there and back by bus .. see the film and buy some chips and still have change from £3.50.

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

Bad example. Final fantasy games in original form continue to be fun to play and popular with fans. Hell im half way through ff2 myself, again.

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

The ticker of round 3 when hosted by Barrysworld was like clockwork, FFS.

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

Why did they leave barrysworld btw?
I only vaugly remember why, was it a bandwith issue?
All i remember that the barrysworldhosting period was the smoothest running pa round ever.

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

Well I suspect they had some problems, when BarrysWorld went bankrupt.

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

Cryptic =O

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

PA will never be the same. Whoever posted up there about the spirit etc is right. I had so much fun playing in a small alliance r4-7(ish) and just messing round, making trouble. Then it got out of hand and imploded once everyone decided to block and we all had to pay.

To be honest, coming back after 10 rounds off, i am finding it pretty exciting. The new changes make me feel like a new player again (and my score makes me feel like a chump, but then again, my score always did that). I just did my first Covert Ops and was so pleased that it worked. Joined a new ally, and am regretting nearly every choice i have made in game. I am having a ball. I even got up twice during my sleep, which i promised i wouldn't ever do again. I only signed up to see who was still round.

However I have only seen one person i know that is awake on irc. Which is a shame... and they are saying it is there last round after playing them all.

It's not the fault of the game, it's just that everyone moved on. No new blood came through cause kids these days all have ipods and broadbands.

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

FUTCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!.

I signed up yesterday also.
I even login now and then on irc.

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

Hey Gen1. I saw your name around the boards!!

No doubt i will see you around the irc world... or even land on your planet if i'm lucky.

Re: Maybe we should go back to Old Planetarion?
 

You speak the truth, I just came back after 7+ rounds away, and feel like a complete new comer to the game, I like the introduction of some things, but then I also miss older things, cargo ships, scanning for roids, the HUGE alliance wars that lasted for 2 rounds or more etc etc. But as you say, people moved on, I was 14 when I first started playing pa, now I have a life and family, house etc. Its the way the world goes round, I think maybe the pa team should be looking at getting more completely new people, instead of trying to get the older ones back.