[Cannon_Fodder]

Originally Posted by Squidly

Heh... but does having a tiny fleet, attacking only marginally larger planets and winning make for a decent game?

In an RPG, this is the equivelant of a level 2 player being the top ranked because he managed to consistently exploit a flaw in a number of level 5-7 characters... Despite the fact that all of the level 50-60 guys/gals are much more powerful/talented than the level 2 person.

Random thoughts however :/

Yes it does for people who don't/can't spend their entire life on the game.

If they are so much more powerful, they'd have a decent fleet comp.
If they are so much more talented, they'd have realised the best strategy.

Originally Posted by Shyne

Good post Arfy.

Please consider this round as a grand finale to the XP rounds of late, with the new XP formulae bringing in serious changes.

Broadly, the 'abuse' of the XP system will not be rewarded as previously, and players will be encouraged to hold onto their planet, and to defend.

This can only be a good thing.

Squidly also highlights a good example of how ridiculous the XP system has become.

XP rounds of late?
Ignoring the fact that there are/were always idiots whining about xp part way through the round, this is the first round where someone who isnt dedicating all their spare time to this game to do well. If the change was serious, it would be like getting rid of xp, or reducing its effect to 1/10th of what it is.

I hate people who use the term 'abuse of xp'. How are they mis-using xp? Even you get xp when you land your attacks, its no different to what 'xp-whores' get, except they get more of it because they attack well. I'm sure you'll be happy if the PAteam go over board making the game much more defensive so it's like 'old' PA, because you'll be in the minority.

Originally Posted by Squidly

That's debateable... and my analogy still stands.

You prefer then that a player who can keep their roids and benefit from the resources from them and have the most powerful fleet in the game should lose to some person with:

100 wyvern, 50 leviathan
150 harpy
75 barghest, 75 ziz

Correct?

That powerful fleet sucks balls then. A one mill value planet from any race could stop that.

Originally Posted by ComradeRob

Another way of phrasing that question is:

Should a person who has the backup of 54 other people working hard, running def at 4am, scanning and JGPing his targets for him, running his raids for him etc. be able to beat someone who never receives def from anyone, and gets all of his roids from solo attacks, the overwhelming majority of which he scans and JGPs himself?

I'm not having a go at you, just using your quote. (which I agree with your reasoning that xp players can have it harder, although I do scan for JBG from time to time)
It is not a black and white situation, not every xp player is above every value player or vice versa. Unless the stats are really messed up (and before you say it, they aren't.) then if you are getting say, BS incs, you should have a fleet composition that will stop those incs, OR, since you might be in a nice big alliance, get some def.

Originally Posted by Troll

The stats were public, but just because the stats are public does not mean that everyone has the same grasp of how they work. If Jester had any experience making stats for a game prior to this then it does not show at all. If I was him I would be ashamed for firstly making such unbalanced stats, and secondly partaking in an alliance that may of cost this game players. Personally I don’t care as this does not affect me or DLR in any way shape or form. I just am worried about the damage jester has done to this game. Perhaps only 50 serious players will leave and not come back? In a game that is already struggling for a member base that’s 50 on top of however many just are naturally giving up.

As per the Ascendancy players that are taking pot shots at DLR, you clearly have no idea what you’re talking about. DLR are not true XP whores. Will built fleets with value. We did not crash our fleets on purpose to gain XP or to lower our value. We played with the intension of fighting big battles with big planets and picking off fleets with massive fleet catches. Kind of like a special ops group. None of this materialized except for a brief battle with Jerome and the first attack on 10:4. Other than that no matter what our avg is or was no matter how high we got in the standings I can assure you DLR was never satisfied or happy. I would not play this round again even if it was for free, and I think a majority of this community agrees with that. I can only feel sorry for the MO’s and DC’s of the large alliances that dedicated so much of there time to this round and to there membership. The sleepless nights and missed moments of there real life dedicated to a game that was predetermined from the word go. I am afraid that we will lose some of these people and everyone one that we lose is worth 10 regular players.

I’ve made stats for games far more complicated than Planetarion and they are still used by the respective communities today. One game still uses my altered stats close to 5 years after there initial introduction. Why? Because I strived for balance. Jester CLEARLY did not strive for balance and if anyone claims that just because the stats are public that, that is a balance onto it’s self is clearly inexperienced. When you create stats you can not alter the game engine so you must be aware of the limitations of the engine and work with the stats to compliment and enhance. Instead all these stats do was exploit a flaw in the engine. A flaw that not everyone knew about but Jester clearly did. A flaw that the avg person playing would never know about because they don’t know clearly how the game engine works. Jester did, DLR did. DLR did not exploit the engine. DLR exploited the stats in terms of getting the best roiding fleets, which we do everyround. We didn’t even alter our core game play, attack, Attack, Attack. Ascendancy exploited the stats the engine and the community. I am not bitter about this but I am aware of it.

In the end Ascendancy is the best alliance ever created for a single round. It manipulated with the best of them. It used deceit and misdirection. It won by the means set before it by one of it’s own members. They are the winners of this round. They are cocky and arrogant and they have a right to be because no one saw this coming. It was a master stroke, and I can’t help but admit that I am impressed. However I am unimpressed that a group of players would harm the game so explicitly. To which I say congratulations for winning the round and to helping destroy the game and community you so illy profess to love and care about.

I can't believe how much bull one person can say in one post. ComradeRob answered this correctly and in depth.