Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

This is a simple brainstorming exercise.

Think about what Planetarion should be - preferably in the form of just one or two words e.g. community, friends, alliances, wars, sci-fi, etc.

This information will not be used to gauge which factors are most important or anything like that, but simply for ideas.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Politics and intelligence (I mean intelligence as in smart not intelligence as in intel).

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Community and war

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Fun and Community

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

War and politics

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Attacking and defending

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

I agree with JBG on the fact that politics is the sugar of the game. The little world and loyalties keep people interested.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Strategy, Tactics, Politics, War.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

strategy tactics war and community

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Strategy (includes: politics/tactics/intelligence as jbg put it) and Community.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Community, Community, Community.


(Guess I could add Fun and Personal Interaction as well. I'm using the word Personal Interaction rather than politics as I think theres areas of Politics which can be pretty damaging to the game on the alliance front )

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

I agree with actually not stating fun - fun is something an individual gets out of doing things they enjoy - therefore pa would be fun for you if there was lots of community stuff, it would be fun for others if there was lots of strategy etc.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

I don't personally feel that community stuff and strategy are actually mutually exclusive though. As Ive said on more than one occasion there should be elements in this game that let you play at the most basic and less involving level but should offer you the ability to delve deeper for a small advantage. Some of the most successful standalone games allow you to play at the level that suits you, PA seems to force you to play at the level the community decideds.

For example the planet management side of things that people have suggested over and over again for around 16 rounds now is the perfect place to add more strategy in a simerlar way to city management in Civ while being something which if you werent too bothered could have simple pre setups to choose from

Oh and I dont also think fun is so much reliant on game style but the effect of game events. A fun game shouldnt see events in game driving you away from it as often happens now, instead it should spur you on to put more effort in as its fun doing that

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Do you mean something that's basically unrelated to the "wargame" aspect of things (ie it won't make your ships better or given you more advantages or be able to be destroyed by an attacker)?

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

A browser-based civilization-in-space.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

fun. enjoyable, distracting, but fun. something you play with friends (and make new friends doing), to compete, and perhaps win. but fun.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

I guess you could say unrelated to the wargame side but I'm not sure that would be the case.

You see I was thinking things like forms of leadership, taxes, worker duties (an upgrade to engeneering) and even planet happyness. These things would obviously have an effect on war effectivness. Some leadership types would be more agressive, some would be more productive. Taxes would change how much resources you had to spend. Both would effect happyness which would in turn effect effectivness in battle. Worker duties would also allow a much greater control on focus than the current 3 priority system.

Those people whom wanted n easy life could just choose the preset levels which would work well but those wanting a more indepth game could mess around with the settings to gain advantages in some areas and also risk disadvantages

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

I note that only one person has even really hinted at sci-fi stuff...

This is what I came up with - things are not in any weighted in terms of importance:

Sci-fi – future, technology, space ships, aliens, science, believable and consistent universe, good story (war, death, misery, despair)
War – battles, tactics, strategy, intelligence, espionage, sides/teams, human tragedy
Politics – loyalty, tactics, strategy
Friends – playing with current friends, meeting new friends, playing with real life friends
Intelligence – skill (in all areas)

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

I dont think Sci-fi really plays any part in PA apart from the space setting. I think if the sci-fi element was going to be a real part of the game it needed a creative team in place pretty much in place from the start to build up backstories and such like.

Even the races which could be sci-fiesque are little more than a tag and really mean very little from a setting pov

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

SUPPORT PLANETS :)

no seriously tho Community, Tactics and fun

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

I didn't mean sci-fi in the story sence specifically, but rather in its literal definition of fictional science, which as you say provides the setting. If we rmeoved sci-fi entirly we would end up having things called - research 1, research 2, etc.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

politics (same as community, rly) strategy and tactics.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

yep, I agree and being involved in wars

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

War / community

(What shouldn't it be: a place where elitist turds take this game way to serieus. And do anything to win. (exploit/cheat/moving the rules))
Each round this game has a fuked up weak victory, will be another round with less members. Accept it, community is the cause and solution to what PA has become/will be.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

A game where you form friendships through the above. PA's community and its players' friendships developed because of the game, not the other way around. That community may be self-sustaining, but it won't last forever without a great game there to play.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Im quite stunned to see so many Politics:confused:

This game now has 2300 planets.
It also has 20 ally's who can do something with politics. Those have a avarage amount of HC's (3) and a nice amount of officers (8)
How come that so many people say politics as it only counts for 220 people.
(20 * 11)
Counted that officers have something to say about going to war. (Which they usally dont). Which means that what some people count as 1 of the main part of the game counts for 60 people.

And offcourse you can say that War is the mission of a entire alliance. But it isnt more then attacking and defending as HK said earliers.

I think there giving the wrong signal to the PA team, who migth be busy building a alliance politic's page :) .

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Less rules, more fun :)

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Offcourse logic,

Now why are there less and less PA players?

1-2-3- keep thinking.

Politics will happen anyways, there a part of PA. But not the main part. Its the most important factor of the game outside the game mechanic;s and i would like to keep it that way.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

This is a good idea but I'd like to see something more ambitious, adding more strategy to the meta game itself, not just planet management. At the moment the game is all about having the planet with the highest score or being in the alliance with the highest score, this is how you win. This is fine but we could do so much more.

For example adding a capture the flag element to the main rounds. This is something that has been tried before in speed games and to all those unfamiliar with the concept it's that there's basically a limited number of flags in the Universe (could be 1 per galaxy, or 20 for the whole Universe, or whatever...). The aim of the game is to steal the flags off the planets that have them and hold on to the flags for as long as possible. Then at the end of the round the alliance that has held on to the most flags for the longest amount of time wins the capture the flag mini game.

Another idea I've come up with in the past is introducing the concept of wonders (more Civ inspiration). I detailed it here:

http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=186037

An advantage of adding mini games like this is that it gives something to those people who wish to compete for something more than just simple score while at the same allows those people who don't like the concept to just ignore it.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

What on earth are you talking about?

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Politics are secondary to what PA should be.

Politics arnt the main, as the game should be attacking and deffending your mates (community part).

its idiotic that people say politics, cause that will only get you less and less players.

Think of it this way: What will happen if PA improofs the politics part. (more or less players?) LESS!
What will happen if PA changes the attack/deffing system, (where as everything is in perfect balance) MORE.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Take away politics and you'll kill PA. Watching the politics spill out have always been one of the most interesting things about the game. Without politics there'd be no AD either (not that it isn't close to shit anyway (little activity etc)).

Edit: You can't take away politics anyway ;)

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Politics is the metagame that makes it interesting and gives it a community feel. People aren't saying work on improving politics. The only thing you have to do is lift as many restrictions as possible on political decisions. Politics is choosing who to attack and defend.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Surely i dont have to tell you that politics is forming the biggest block, and bumrush the opponent and there smaller block.
Yes thats truelly fantastisc, wonderful, great, ace, super, about this game.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

i don't know how you can have a war game without politics involved (edit: i mean, with great emphasis on involvement of politics)

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Politics is any choice regarding who to attack and who not to attack. What are you not getting about this?

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

@ nadar offcourse you cant take it away. But thats what i said in a earlier post and also: Politics will happen anyways, there a part of PA. But not the main part. Its the most important factor of the game outside the game mechanic;s and i would like to keep it that way."

@JBG who most off all fails to read all posts. "But it isnt more then attacking and defending as HK said earliers."

i remain with my view about the 220 you influence with politics, and the 2300 players.

i also made clear, you cant remove politics, but there a part outside of the game mechanics. (as ally's where in the early rounds) PA excisted before politics.

To make my final point: they ask what should planetarion be: You awnser: " some people on Irc who discuss who they should destroy by bringing way more ships" (and yes thats the way 99% of the nr 1 ally battles have been concluded. i dont care about 2 ally's who did fougth fair 1 on 1 for the nr 10 spot.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

That's mindless. You're trying to write the higher parts of the game out of existence because they're second order activities. Just because they don't show on the screen doesn't mean they're not important.

This is worse. 220 people might control politics to a greater extent but politics involves every active player. And I sincerely hope you're not designing a game for the inactive players.

Politics started once the third planet signed up in round one. I'm not saying bring politics ingame. I've been a proponent of removing it out of the game. They're not involved in game mechanics no. But that's not what this thread is about. Equally community is not involved in game mechanics but that word has occurred more often than politics. Neither are wars, and that word has cropped up almost as much.

This is gibberish. Planetarion is an interacting multiplayer game. Players interacting means politics. Trying to write a game without consideration for the political aspects of it is daft.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

pa is all about who you know, not who you are (more or less) :)

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Competition.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Just to point out - this thread is not about what the most important part of PA is, its about what things should be in PA.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

No artificial limits is great in theory but it requires the players to have a a sense of fairplay about them which is something the majority of this game seems to lack. The game started off largely limitless but as players continually decided to act like selfish bastards to the detriment of the game as a whole limits have had to be placed and need placed to keep a sense of order.

As long as the masses want to play in a way that lack honour, employs unerhand tactic, push their luck with what is acceptable, bash ect ect the game would simply struggle to survive if we were to revert to the kind of situation we saw in r1

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Planetarion should have pictures of the ships. Oh and dynamic pictures underneath battle reports.

(dynamic in the sense that they change depending on the outcome of the battle report)

Very superficial I know, but I like pretty things.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Community.

ALL for ONE and ONE for ALL. (irc/community-wise)

doesnt count Ingame ofc:)

p.s. nice thread by the way.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Politics, war and fun.

edit : not neccesiarly in that order

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

Planetarions main must is to be fun in all aspects...once the game is fun for all, the playerbase will increase.

The problem atm is that a lot of the current players have been here for countless rounds, and as these players get older they drift away to the void that is real life. Now as planetarion atm doesnt have the clout to compete with games like runescape in the graphics sense...something needs to be introduced to draw the next generation of players in. All things commented on atm are parts that define planetarion for each of the current generation of players such as politics..intel...war, but what do the newer players joining the game percieve to be the more interesting aspects of the game?

Would it not be an idea to advertise this thread on the ingame overview and ask for feedback from all in the game..not just those of us who regularly peruse the forums?

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

I think you are playing the wrong game. Fairplay and war are not good bedfellows.

Planetarion should go back to being a war game.

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

what does everyone mean by 'fun' by the way

Re: Brainstorming - what should Planetarion be?
 

1) Its only recently largely down to the introduction of Guerrilla Tactics where war has become bad bedfellows. However traditionally war has been something filled with honour, where abiding by the accepted rules and practices are considered the right thing to do and those people going against them were a discrace to their family, friends and their unit/squadron

Even in todays world most western countries undertake war with a whole host of rules which they will abide by and we are generally disgusted at soldiers whom commit dishounerable acts by going against the rules.

So all in all Fairplay has been a steady bedfellow of war for thousands of years

2) A more accurate description is "A war game of PA's old nature and a none shrinking playerbase are not good bedfellows". A game that requires so much time invested in it but which can at any time in round screw you over completly putting all your effort to waste isnt one that promotes a growing community. And neither is a a game that basically Guarentees your screwed over without spending 15hour plus playing, have the right alliance and the right galaxy

The lack of players effects everyone in this game and its not going to be reversed by making it more hardcore again. It needs the balance found where the games bot only accessable and rewarding to everyone nd where the community treats everyone with respect no matter their experiance level.