[AdmV0rl0n]

PA has stayed a bit static for quite some time. I've suggested some changes above, but how about some others that build upon things in game.

1. Government, Population, Factories, Power, Resources
Some of the aspects in game seem to have only a modicum of effect in game. Its a bit like they were put in as an additional 'thing' but don't really serve a serious purpose.

Government.
This has a bit of an effect. But what if it become heavier? What if the population changed this, depending on how their planet was suffering in game. What if they could eject you and force you into exile? What if you were doing well and this resulted in better mining, ship production, facilities work or otherwise.

Population.
Its in the game but seems meaningless. Should the population play a larger part? What if population weight was more heavily involved, and affected what players did more. Larger fleets, more people needed. Right now, the game has a low percentage control of population. Unleash this and make it so a whole populace could be thrown into the game in a variety of ways. Make it more a part of the game than it is.

What if your fleets are planetside, and you can apply those crew on other work while in port.

Factories:
Same as above. Make the population mean something if it is going to be in the game. Perhaps you can build more factories, or get more from the factories.

Power and Fuel.
I've grown to detest scanners. I call them 'support planets' because that is what they are. Change the game so that scans require not just resource, but also power. And each planet can only product X amount of power per tick. Additional power would have to come from creative play (stealing it from other players, or having it supplied from alliance HQ - as two examples.)

The game has had 3 resources forever. In each round the game should be modular. And by that I mean that each round, the 'creators' should look to expand the game in one particular way. In the past this led to additional 'races'. The modular approach should mean that the 'creators' add additional blocks to the game on every single round. This initially might seem like a lot of work. And it is as the game currently stands. However, what is already in game should be stabilised and standardised. A ship and its figures should not have to change every single round. That is change simply for the sake of change. Instead, please bring more to the game. Additional ships each round. Additional resources. An additional type of weapon, additional scans, or a new type of vessel, or strategy, or a new race. One new thing, every single round. In addition to this building block, things that are not good, don't work, or are basically peripheral to the game, get rid of them.

2
Races.
The game moved from being single race, and simple ship arrays, to more complex fleets, and additional races. No galaxy in the universe would maintain this utterly clinical racial divide. So, within the above changes regarding government, allow any new planet within any galaxy to have a percentage of some kind of multiple races and the percentage would be tallied by their galaxy or cluster.

Why? Because if you have (and this is an example) 25% terran and 75% Cath population, this should open an ability to produce an amount of cath and terran goods, products, weapons or whatever. Thus, a simple example, one out of every 4 factories created would be capable of making a Cath type of ship. Earlier on I stated that populations might take up a bigger role in the game. Thus, taking this one step further, you could allow immigration shipping in gal, and this would allow rulers to trade population of various races. Naturally, these ships might be expensive, slow moving, or only able to carry limited numbers, or other things. So, an additional type of factory might be needed for immigration vessels.

This opens up another angle. If you had boarding parties, or shanghai tactics, you might steal people from other planets, ships or fleets. These would get allocated into population and under slave labour might create additional factories, ships and designs.

Potentially, this could be pot luck, with for example some terrans taken as slaves, what you may get depends on the numbers you hold. It may take 20 ticks for them to come out with a factory and that factory might be limited to a single terran vessel. It might open the door for unexpected results if the creators allow some pot luck to occur.

Anyway, you could simply keep the same clinically static races. But what are they in game for anyway? That is the question? Right now, they are here for a few reasons. 1. Tactics, and making each one behave differently. 2. Ship types and function. But from where I sit, they brought that to the game. But now what? They have all been around for a long time. Now its time to take their talents and start a slow mix so that long term, you end up with a game that is actually more like the original game, with everyone being equal - but a vastly wider choice.

3. Alliances and Rules.
Originally alliances were player created, and not part of the in game tools. AT these times, the players made alliances and all the tools and it was the hayday of the game. Slowly the creators took all that away, and produced an effective and good alliance system, but undermined that by placing number limits and endless rules. Cant do this, Can't do that. Can't use bots, Can't have support planets. Can't play with friends or housemates or workmates, and all the time numbers dropped and dropped and dropped.

So, throw all that away for a time, and be bold. Be prepared to rethink some of these long held ideas and game theories. Open alliances up in two areas. One get rid of the damn number limit. You know what brings prestige, size and honour - the biggest baddest alliances in the galaxy had it. And its never going to be matched because of limits. I'm not saying elimimate it forever. I'm saying try having a no alliance limit round. Try a round where the rules are suspended and the players can try anything they can come up with to win. Include some prizes for really arcane stuff that gets found, or for the alliance the comes up with the best bots. And at the end you may find interesting results, things that you actually want to go back to banning, but also, perhaps you'll stretch the envelope so that each round and the rules of each round differ. Allow a round where players can create support planets, or can play with their housemates from the same IPs.

Going back to alliances, you allowed alliances a structure, and you have ranks. So, extend it further. Allow a 5th fleet slot that players can place spare ships in and allow battle commanders to use these. The player could only add or remove vessels from that fleet while it is at base, and at all other times, the BC/BC's own and control it. Allow the player to keep any good things that come of it (resources, slavage, roids). The best alliances and BCs will win battles and have contests, and have use and resources of their players/alliance members. For the first time in games, allow alliances to directly control and wield power, and also add an element of attack and defense that until now never existed.

In addition, ban vacation mode. If a player needs to take a break, make it so that he parks his fleet in a BC slot and requests that his alliance try to defend him. Vacation mode is rubbish anyway. People end up in 200.x.x. and its a pointless affair.

Perhaps instead of vacation mode you could do invasion mode, and the population would be put to building shield generators and and steal fields. The heavy requirements of invasion mode would man that aside from the BC fleet, the planet would be in lockdown, and resources would be heavily used (so they only grow slowly when in this mode) and attack on the planet would be heavily blunted. But the planet does not move, it stays in play and in gal. No more vacation mode.

Again, if you must have alliances, then so be it, But build on the basic idea every round. Alliances hold resources. So make it that every officer in an alliance holds a portion of the treasury of an alliance. And if those planets get attacked, the budget or funding might be hit. Make the game so that alliances don't just have various resources, but make it that they are in play, in game, every tick. And make it that fat greedly, or wealthy alliances have a tough time in some ways in regard to this.

In galaxies, again, there are gal funds. Make it so the officers hold a portion each of the funds and if hit, they may be lost. This increases the angle where players might have to join defense to help.

Funds.
Change all the restriction on funds, and make them a bank. Allow all players to put away a % of their per tick resources into banks. Allow alliances or galaxies to actually keep the interest, and allow the players to draw on their total sums invested, perhaps with interest applied. The larger the contribution from each player, perhaps the larger the sum they might get back in return. Perhaps players would invest, and later on use the money on ships or roids.

Roids.
Roids exist in space and vaccum and things happen. Especially to large numbers of roids. They might collide, be damaged or be destroyed. Players who have a number of roids above a certain size should start to lose a low and rising percentage due to natural wastage, and these should be used creatively. For example, they might end up in the smallest players roids in gal, or they might end up as additional captures during an attack.

Mass drivers.
Mass drivers are orbital battleships. They take roids (and these might be different types for different purposes, for example, an E roid might make 10 anti FI shots. An C roid might make 5 anti middle sized ship shots, and a M roid might make a 3 shot anti CR and BS shot) and can convert them into planetary defenses. Obviously, you'd want to control the rate this is done, and balance it with cost, and resources.