Update on the 1st of May
 

Hello PA Players,

I thought I would post an update about my general thoughts and what I've been doing, I'll try and make these fairly regular as many people have suggested this. The Dear ZPeti thread also gave me stuff to think about so I think I should share my views about it.

My approach right now to Planetarion is to set a general direction for the website, but not really make choices about the mechanics of the game. I am not spending that much time on PA, this is true, but I do read the forums every day and communicate with Appoco.

My long term goal for Planetarion is to create a brand new space based game, however this would take a lot of money+time, designing, building etc, not to mention PA is fairly successful anyway, so this is far far away. This is a very distant goal, we are talking years. So many more rounds until then.
I also think most current players would quit if this happened, and I don't want that at all.

Right now, I do believe that PA Team are doing a good job, and I don't want to really tell them what to do, as I would just be making mistakes. What I can do is look at the game from an outsider's perspective and suggest a few changes, like the new design, and a better IRC chat system etc.

I can clearly see that the current situation is not sustainable in the long run (doing constant patching, small updates, losing players every round), but for now it works for a lot of people.

-----

Now, I read the forums every day, but yes I do not post and I am not on IRC regularly. As someone said in the Dear Zpeti post, I am taking more of a manage role here.

I run another game, and I have recently also acquired a game toplist, which will be fantastic for marketing Planetarion next round (30.000 uniques per day). So in this way what I am doing right now will help PA.
I have been working on that for the past 1-2 weeks.

So my day is quite full, and to be honest I don't want to take an extremely hands on approach. As I said, I would only make mistakes, and it would only cause conflict with PATeam who are much better qualified for doing the mechanics changes.

---

I understand some people want me to be really involved, while some people will like my approach.
All I can say is my approach will be the way it is now, and I think this round is looking fairly successful, and hosting is working, design is much better. I can't please everyone though.

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

Facebook?

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

iPhone (preferably an app)/mobile interface?

On that point actually, don't think full interface should be replicated, just bits of it. The web interface as it is is waaaaay too crowded.

Mobile should just fulfill basic functions and rethink management of fleets. Old PA had a WAP interface that was poor but manageable for tasks and tech at the time. I've had a bit of a think about it and have something in mind. Might elaborate a bit more after the weekend.

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

Maybe you should have a look at reimplementing this thread Pete

http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=185751

As a lot of the forums seems to be full of peoples ideas, fan art, forum and portal designs, logo designs etc and needs to be managed a little bit more. This thread was put together to manage suggestions from the community but has fallen into disrepair. Maybe you could tidy it up and have someone manage it a bit better.

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

Read this and this.

an iPhone app was a suggestion brought up by the community, and largely opposed by the community for implementation costs.

facebook was something zPeti mentioned in his forum debut and has since gone quiet about (asides from 'it might happen in some undetermined timescale').

Can we keep the guy focused on his original promises without weighing him down with bad community ideas please?

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

Fine then on the app part. Do you have a particular objection to mobile interface as a whole? And yes I'm aware he's mentioned it in creators hour etc.

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

Thanks for the updates zPeti, I admit that I had hoped you would play a more active role, because the way I see it, the PA team needs a few fresh pair of eyes to look at things (Not that the ones that are there are not good enough, just not able to be creative enough), and that is what to be expected after several years of being run on the same tracks. However, I am glad you see the need for regular updates from the owners to say more about what you are working on, whats going on, and what plans are ahead. If you could make it a bi weekly or monthly update, im sure many will look at it with great interest.

There are three types of PA players in my book.

The ones that have played it for lots of round, and now are more playing it out of habit than pleasure.

The ones that plays it because they love the game, and want to be as much involved at possible.

And then there are the casual players that come now and then, play a few rounds, then disappear.

That last group there is the one group you really need to get expanded and increased.

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

hi zpeti :)

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

Iphone app ? Would be awesome but may not worth. But what you can do easily is a skin friendly to mobile browsers.

In rest please forget about ground breaking changed and features.

All PA needs for userbase to sky rocket is improved interface (current skin is on the right track but needs serios work put into) + advertise.

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

This is one thing which bothers me a bit.

I'm just slightly concerned that Pete is standing in the background making fairly broad decisions whilst the same people are still working on the game doing similar things. Sort of reminds me of Jolt/OMAC pushing what they want regarding the game, whilst leaving the actual game itself to PA Team.

Are we actually going to see any significant gameplay changes which will make the game a better place? I don't want to see constant tweaking of the game with formulas being fiddled around with just for the hell of it, I want to see new features which work well and aren't rushed together with the least amount of effort possible.

I'll wait and see what happens with round 32.

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

zPeti: Signup a planet and try to play it, you dont need to play it active.. Just see what its like for a new player, so you can see what the features and problems are. Its something the PA Team nor anyone on these forums can do, say for definate what its like for a new player and how things look.

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

text only skin and opera mini work fine for me , the only thing i cant access on m phone is the universe trade link on the mining page

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

is that because the link doesn't work or something else?

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

I believe Kal has made two of such threads with some valuable observations, isn't it?

--> check these!
http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=197716
http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=197750

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

Text only skin (and default skin) wont load on my phones at all. All the text just piles together and u cant do anything. The only working skins for my phones are the Terran/Cath/Xan ones, which have those huge graphics, and slow things down. But at least it works.

However I can't Read any messages, there is no link to click to open the message.

A working graphic light skin for phones would be awesome.

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

If Opera Mini works on your phone, then PA works on your phone.

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

It doesn't. Sadly American phones pretty much stink, Verizon (80m users) doesnt allow installation of other software on their devices (except smart phones). That's why the actual skin matters.

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

So Opera Mini doesn't work on your phone?

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

Something else , there is on link to click on

Re: Update on the 1st of May
 

Not even inoffensive Java apps?