[Delver]

I'm very much in favour of an analysis as suggested, speaking as an 'average Joe' of the game, returning last round after years of absence.

I think the overall target should be to find ways of increasing the player-base, without sacrificing the elements of strategy, co-operation within galaxies and alliances and the community in general. As long as those elements remain, I'm willing to consider all changes which can increase the number of players again.

There is, imho, two key factors one should look into. The first one is guidance for players who have never played this game before and players who have been away for long. It could be as easy as rewriting and recoding the manual. In its current state, it is hard to get an overview of the key elements of the game. The system with basically the same keywords as the in-game menu is useful when you've come inside the game, but i guess it's confusing for people who haven't logged in for the first time yet. The manual does not encourage new players to sign up to this game. And why can't you get it printed out in one piece ? (note: possibly just my lack of skills)

The second element is that all features of the game ('cept com-unit) should be easily accessible with browsers found in phones/pdas. If that's the case, I think there's a large potential for growth. Not only because such phones are getting very common, but also because a tick-based strategy-game which can be played on phones would be considered new and interesting for a lot of people (note:this a guess based on my own interests - could be dead wrong :P ). I currently access the game from both pc and phone, but there are certain features which need considerable adjustment. One is in-game messages, which are rather improtant when you cannot get onto irc. The 'curtain'-thing for reading these took me quite some time to by-pass on phone. It similarly took me ages to work out how to move ships between fleets with my phone.

If an analysis is started, I will certainly contribute by responding to your survey about the game in it's current state. I would also like to receive a chance to express views on revisions/changes before they are implemented.