[Cooling]

Originally Posted by Light

Putting an axe through everything does not make a interesting, tactical, strategic or newb friendly game.

I disagree with many of the points you have made, including this one. I will deal with them, as ever, in order.

Originally Posted by Light

wow there, slow down.. lets analysis this abit.

Some of the features people want to improve are current shit? thats the point, people are offering suggestions to fix them. However, lets go through them..

Covert-Operations, in its essence is a way for a player to attack, damage, annoy another player instantly; It can also be used to gain intelligence. In its current form, its pretty crap as it doesnt offer any real advantages or incentives but that does not mean the whole idea is crap. Players need something to do during ticks or else you create one of the most bland games ever where the only method of play is to send a fleet out every 24hours.

Population, It allows planet development which again ties into something to do between ticks. In its current form, yes its completly crap as it isnt even properly implemented. Again, this does not mean that the whole idea is crap and will always be crap, if its a balance system where the user is given choices on area's to develop and prioritise then its a much better way of doing things.

Governments, I dislike choosing a government at tick 0, but its purpose is to allow players to specialise there planets which means different strategys can be invented and the player can tailor their government to their strategy.

The three things you listed, all have a purpose or at least an intended purpose. The suggestions people give about these area's of the game tend to try to make them fit that purpose as they currently dont.

You have listed three features that I have described as "irrelevant bolt on shit". I maintain they are, despite your protestations to the contrary. To take your last point first; yes they may have a purpose, but they are poorly implemented (as you accept) and are unlikely to be improved upon to any great extent. At the same time, these so-called features add a great deal of unnecessary complexity to the game, offer little or nothing by way of strategic depth to the game, and serve no useful purpose. Let's look at a few:

Covert Operations is a feature that you somewhat charitably suggest is "pretty crap". Yes it is a way to attack, damage and annoy another player instantly. But do other players really want to be annoyed? No. Is that fun? No. Do they want to be annoyed by what are, essentially random, somewhat trivial, and relatively easily immunisable 'attacks'? No. Are they really attacks at all? No. Do they contribute to the overall metagame of attacking other players for asteroids? No. Covert Operations is nothing more than a poorly implemented, non-integrated, farcical minigame. It's not worth improving. It doesn't add anything and never will add anything to the game. If players wanted something to do between ticks, they'd be better off playing Solitare.

Population, I agree, is "crap" and "not properly implemented". But let's imagine some magical fairy land where it is implemented. What would it add? Something to do between ticks? Develop my planet? Well that's great, but this game isn't sim planet or farmville. It's a war game. Wars are conducted by co-operative alliances of players, who control fleets of ships. Adding a ridiculous planetary development / population system is bound up in this retarded desire to add more shit for no reason at all. Players are not crying out for such a pointless add on. Nor are new players leaving in droves because the population feature isn't properly implemented. Let's face it, it never was implemented, it doesn't need to be implemented; stop flogging a dead horse.

Governments other than being an artificial, one-off, locked in detriment / reward system, add very little in the way of strategic depth to the game. People would get on just fine specialising their fleet without the government system. It's a choice made once in a round, it can't be changed, and has little, if any effect on a players overall enjoyment of the game. Players barely think about it after they've chosen it, and i'll bet you a thousand clams that nobody has ever said "**** it was great fun playing democracy this round".

Originally Posted by Light

Again, most suggestions arnt adding more irrelevant bolt on shit but instead fixing the current system. Ive listed the purpose of the previous three things you listed but lets go.

Most suggestions do involve adding more pointless irrelevant bolt on shit. Piecemeal fixes to poorly implemented, half baked, and non-integrated features do not contribute to the game. They only **** it up further.

Originally Posted by Light

Production Sliders? I presume you mean shipwrights in the population section? It is pretty redundant at the moment but could easily be expanded to reward activity and to offer more choice.

Ingame alliance limits came about to stop some alliances recruiting to win. It is up to debate weither the alliance limits helps or hinders the development of the game but i'd argue that most people are happy with the 100 member limit at the moment.

Scanners, Scanning is broke in the game at the moment but whats your alternative?

Construction, Research? Most things in the research tree provide a purpose and i'd guess that all of them are currently researched by afew people in the game.

For once, i agree with you on races but the PA Team will not delete them now they are coded in. Thats why people suggest ways to make races work or at least make the choice be a informed choice for new players.

Production Sliders Why on earth should they be kept? Why not just get rid of it and make the game easier to understand? What does it add at present? Random production speed, only rarely, if ever, useful when under attack. What a fantastic feature. The game would die on its arse if we didn't have that one.

Ingame Alliance Limits aren't objected to because, as Mz has already explained, it has **** all effect given the current playerbase size. I don't really think its something that has any relevance to the current game. If it is an irrelevant limit, why on earth would you keep it?

Scanning has been broken for a long time. I would suggest removing amps and distorters. Make the scan tech tree shorter or remove it altogether. Allow new players to play the game without having to wait 400+ ticks to get scans of their own. Stop penalising new players needlessly for not joining an alliance to get access to a scanner. They'll probably become disillusioned with losing their whole fleet landing blind on a planet long before ever doing so. I've never understood the purpose behind restricting such a fundamental component of the game.

Research needs a branching tech tree, perhaps with unique bonuses or differing shiptypes. You could, if you so choose, amalgamate the government system, races, and the tech tree into one concept. That would be a lot more interesting and fun than the current system of linear research options for completely unrelated gameplay mechanics (covops, scans, ships, asteroids).

Races I am glad you agree with me, because if there is one thing I would change about the current game, above all the other things, it would be the elimination of races. Contrary to your assertion, there is no reason why they can't be coded out or removed entirely. The game didn't need to be completely overhauled when they made the completely retarded decision to introduce the Etradies race.

Originally Posted by Light

What exactly are we left with? A game where players scan for asteroids then attack each other for the next 7weeks with little diversity or strategy. You've suggested making one of the most bland and boring games ever. People like choice, as long as its an informed choice and balanced choice. People like being able to try new things, new strategys and different tactics. People like being able to customise their game to match their playstyle or strategy.
People dont like being forced into one path with one strategy and one outcome.

The choices players are offered by the game mechanics you have listed are either completely illusory or totally unnecessary. People don't like choice for the sake of choice. More choices does not lead to more fun. The fun people derive from planetarion doesn't come from the myriad of ****ing incomprehensible choices the game offers. It comes from the co-operative metagame that the fundamental game mechanic delivers. What I have endeavoured to point out are the bland, boring, pointless, and downright retarded aspects of this game.

Planetarion doesn't need to be a dozen games in one; it doesn't need ****ed up features that don't add anything. It just needs to deliver a simple, enjoyable, interesting and fun game. That game involves attacking players to steal their asteroids. Suggest some features that improve upon, and add a degree of choice in that part of the game. It won't be bland, and it won't be boring, because if you've played this game for any length of time, you'll know that most of the fun is derived from interacting with other people and attacking or defending people with the fleet you have built.

I don't think the game needs a plethora of other irrelevant shit that doesn't relate in any way to the core game. I've listed a few examples. I am sure there are many more. But you won't fix a broken game by ****ing it up further with an endless array of pointless crap and peicemeal fixes to broken features that are totally without redemption and are only persisted with 'because they are there' in the vain hope that (when hell freezes over) this game gets a halfway competent developer and a true design direction.