From Jolt Questions thread

[Smudge]

I originally posted the below in the Jolt Questions thread on PA Discussion, but thought I should post it here as well

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Wakey, your points of the two classes of players is a good one, both with the reasons stated. Some ways of resolving this are listed below

Idea 1) Bot Planets. This will probably be the least popular and most flamed, but it would satisfy the big players who wants roids and a challange

Idea 2) 2 Universes. This would mean clusters 1 -> 299 would be for new players and 300 + for the big alliances. This would mean that there would be no "alliance bashing" of new planets , and the new planets a chance to play the game without being bashed

Idea 3) Quests. We had them a couple of rounds back, and they followed the "ideal" path for a tech tree. Why were they removed is an interesting question

Idea 4) Mixture of all 3. Thou hard to implement, it would be worth it.

Note - added this post in suggestions forum as well.

[mist]

bot planets were thought about, as you're probably aware. however there are a lot of problems with them. firstly, there's the unpopularity aspect, but there's also the question of what you want bots to do. do they just sit there and initiate roids, or do they actually take part in the game? if the latter, will the game be finished up to a point where bots can be made to interact with it in time for the bots to be coded?

the two universes idea, frankly, sucks. firstly it divides players up, so that they simply get the impression of a smaller game - when everyone's crying out for more players. also, what's to stop the alliances turning up in the newbie universe? given that people were upgrading freebie planets so that they could roid them last time this was tried, i'd say it's a real problem

quests, should come back i agree. imo they should be more integral to the game than before, with some of the later quests unlocking functionality - this way the game could be simple for newbies and develop in to a more complex game as people progress. however, integrating quests might be quite tricky, as they were tied in to a lot of parts of the game. coding time appears to be at a premium, so i woud't be holding my breath

-mist

[Smudge]

I agree with the point of the Bot Planets - they would both need to defend and attack, but as you say coding would be a bitch. Two universes sucks, but its an avenue which could me explored. Quests, i have found no opposistion to.

[wakey]

Basically what mist said. What I would actually find intresting would be if perhaps mists idea of quests being more integral was made so acheiving the quests was a sub aspect of the game, much like quest are done in MMORPG's. The quests wouldnt have to be carried out but it would be another way of winning the game and in turn would bring you some small bonus to the actual game. The big players would obviously be better suited for leaving the quests as they advantage wouldnt be enough to justify the time taken for to complete them BUT the bonus would be helpful for smaller players PLUS the person with the most quest points would also be the winner as well as the person with the most conventional points and quest points would be designed in a way where it didnt require you to have alot of ships, roids resources to acheieve them thus its something the lower players can strive for

Perhaps as part of quests is where bot planets would be best made use of. They would be planets there specific quests, they would be setup exactly right for that quest and would only be attackable WHEN you accept the quest

[Precursors]

Bots is awesome idea!
I haven't given it a try but the offline version of PA has bots doesn't it? why not dump the bot actions into html coding each tick, then you have some action going on
You can create the fully packed universe atmosphere that way too

[wakey]

offline PA has bots because its single player

And as ive said in the past I'm not keen on bots in general, making them inteligent enough to make them take part in the game is going to be hard and just having them there to add roids to the game doesnt seem to acheive much, after all its not the loss of roids which is a problem lower down in the game, its the loss of ships from bashing. Roids can simply be regained fairly easierly anyway, its ships that are the problem for alot of people because once you lose your ships you risk getting stuck in a 'bashing loop'

Bot planets if used need done so for specific reasons not these very general uses which imho are just a way of helping the gap between top and bottom get wider

[Dark-Strider]

Quests should def come back as they were a real help to new players.