[Declined] Random Events !!!

[Troglodyte]

PA is far too mathematical. For example, often the outcome of a battle is known well before the event actually occurs. This might be fun for a calculator but life is all about …well …sh!t happens.

My suggestion is simple. Create Random events that can create havoc in this artificial mathematical galaxy. (Random Events such as Meteor Showers, Galactic Storms, Pirate activity etc)

Example, and I STRESS example.

1) Extract the top 500 planets every 24(??) ticks
2) Randomly choose 50 planets out of the top planets
3) Randomly assign events to those planets
4) Execute the damage (i.e a percentage of ships are distroyed etc)
5) watch them bitch and moan.

Chances are that your planet will never undergo a random event. I selected the top planets mainly to try and create a more even galaxy. The game favours the Top players in my opinion way too much. Now if you want to stay at the top, you are going to have be on top of your game.

Explanation of the random events:

- Meteor Shower: Effects mainly buildings and perhaps a small percentage of ships.
- Galactic Storms: Effects Ships and causes a lot of damage to your fleets
- Pirate Activity: Stolen roids and Resources
- (added) Gremlins : Fleets electronics malfunctions, causing them to return to base
(I'm sure ppl can think of a lot more)

[Blixxard]

Originally Posted by Troglodyte

PA is far too mathematical.

Agreed

I would settle for randomly generated Quests. I.e the ones from round 7-9(?) except they are random events and you a set amount of ticks to deal with it.

[Linkie]

Mathematics rules. The whole point of being "good" in PA is to be able to foresee actions and plan.

[mist]

random events make the game even more luck based. this is, imo, a bad thing

-mist

[MegaNova]

Originally Posted by mist

random events make the game even more luck based. this is, imo, a bad thing

-mist

I agree with you.
nr 1 and nr2 are head to head in xp and roids. then about 1 day before the round ends a galaxy shower hits the nr1 and a meteor shower hits the nr2.
Nr1 lost more in score then the nr2.
And thus by a random event just before the end of the round the nr1 looses his position.

[NitinA]

Another 'newbie friendly' suggestion. If you think that the game favors the larger planets too much, then you should *be* one of the larger planets. This game is built on a balance of playing skill, and design. The statistics, ect. are in the design of the game, and the "good players" learn to adapt to them each round, while the playing skill of a player (along with other factors like alliance, galaxy, ect.) help him become one of the larger planets. The game is mathamatical (in a lot of respects) but is not 100% mathamathical.

By doing more random damage to the top planets, you're basically creating a regularly scheduled sabotage function to help newer players.

-NitinA

[Troglodyte]

OK maybe the PA team can help us out here ..
a) Take the average score of all the planets .
b) Take the top planets score and devide it in half.

if the average planets is less than the half of the top players score this will indicate that the game favours the big players, and something should be done to counter this. I dont know what ...my suggestions keep getting slated, so someone else PLEASE make a suggestion.

if the average planets is approx 3/4 of the top planets score this will indicate a very balanced and exiting galaxy. Maybe i'm being naive but i reckon this is what we should strive to achieve.

If the average score is more than half of than the top planets score ..i will then shut my ugly pie hole...(that will make Blixxard extremely happy) :-) :-)

[Troglodyte]

Originally Posted by NitinA

Another 'newbie friendly' suggestion. If you think that the game favors the larger planets too much, then you should *be* one of the larger planets. This game is built on a balance of playing skill, and design.
-NitinA

See I disagree with you there ... this games is built on how much time you can spend online, and how active you are in an alliance. You don’t have to have much skill but just the ability to attack with the alliance. I’m sure the apes in the Indes could master this.

For me I will never be a Top PA player because I can’t spend so much time on PA. As much as I would like to, my situation dictates otherwise. And for this I’m penalized by having a smallish planet that’s an easy target. Do I have any tools in my arsenal to combat this..No …after each attack, I’m left smaller and smaller.. Can I recover …no … am I enjoying myself ….no ..can I do anything about this ….post suggestions on the forums …will it make any God damn difference …No

Most of my suggestions are to try keeping the smaller players in the game, and giving them a fighting chance. The smaller planets are the bass of PA. As soon as there is no support for the newbie’s, there will be a high turnover rate. So I say rather give the support to the Newbies than to the Big players who have being playing for 10 straight rounds in a row.

make it easier for the newbies to become better players ...

[mist]

i've no objections to trying to keep smaller planets in the game. even those who want activity to be important should be long sighted enoguh to realise that their roids have to come from somewhere.

however, randomly penalising the people who're doing well to dumb them down to the less active's level is not the way to do it.

-mist

[demiGOD]

how bout random events like "oh... gotta go to the mall to buy mom a christmas gift.." or "oh damn! got to go to the toilet to take a dump" or "....hold on, gotta take a shower..." and that ole famous "gtg guys! gtg to work!!!!" - or, "ey guys, ill be in BuMf**k, SoMEwhEre this weekend, can you guys watch my planet?" or how about "AaaaaAArrRRggGh!!! I OVERSLEPT!!!!" or even "hey guys.. ill be out, got a HOT date!!"

are these good ideas, guys? theyre not very mathematical i dont think...

hmmm... oh wait! i think.. these are already in the game......

[DarkHeart]

Chances are that your planet will never undergo a random event

under the list given adn the small commmunity ....chances of being hit by a random event are pretty high...as others have pointed out why would somone pay for an account...dedicate 1000000 hours (hypothetical number) to get #1 spot only to see it fall out of their grasp through an event thay had zero control of

Reverse the iea and it actually works quite well

1) Extract the BOTTOM 500 planets every 24(??) ticks
2) Randomly choose 50 planets out of the BOTTOM planets
3) Randomly assign events to those planets
4) Execute the BONUS (ie.YOUR FIGHTER PATROL HAS FOUND 1million metal)
5) watch them SMILE AND BRAG

CAPITALS=my mods to the original idea

instad of punishing the great players for being great lets ....offer incentives to help the nub players become great?

[Gate]

Originally Posted by Troglodyte

Chances are that your planet will never undergo a random event. I selected the top planets mainly to try and create a more even galaxy. The game favours the Top players in my opinion way too much. Now if you want to stay at the top, you are going to have be on top of your game.

every 24 hours, assuming 1800 ticks, is 75 random events. There's a 1 in 10 chance each time you'll be picked, therefore the expectation is that you'll be hit 7-8 times a round, just for being a better player or better off.

And the whole problem with this is; no matter how on top of your game you are, you'll still suffer. This, again, has nothing to do with skill :/

[Troglodyte]

Originally Posted by DarkHeart

Reverse the iea and it actually works quite well

1) Extract the BOTTOM 500 planets every 24(??) ticks
2) Randomly choose 50 planets out of the BOTTOM planets
3) Randomly assign events to those planets
4) Execute the BONUS (ie.YOUR FIGHTER PATROL HAS FOUND 1million metal)
5) watch them SMILE AND BRAG

CAPITALS=my mods to the original idea

instad of punishing the great players for being great lets ....offer incentives to help the nub players become great?

It achieves the objectives of helping the small planets....
I like IT !

[Troglodyte]

Approved or Declined ?

[jerome]

Declined, random events should never be given enough power to change the course of a round in any shape or form.

Edit - the idea to help the smaller guys isn't that bad as long as it doesn't give them enough power to jump ahead of people who obviously "deserve" it, due to a mere random occurrence.

[flikman]

Originally Posted by NitinA

Another 'newbie friendly' suggestion. If you think that the game favors the larger planets too much, then you should *be* one of the larger planets. This game is built on a balance of playing skill, and design. The statistics, ect. are in the design of the game, and the "good players" learn to adapt to them each round, while the playing skill of a player (along with other factors like alliance, galaxy, ect.) help him become one of the larger planets. The game is mathamatical (in a lot of respects) but is not 100% mathamathical.

By doing more random damage to the top planets, you're basically creating a regularly scheduled sabotage function to help newer players.

-NitinA

Agreed.

I still think that the fundamental flaw in PA is that good players get dumped in a galaxy with 1 or 2 other active players, maybe less. While a 10 man buddy pack of 1up players online 24/7 might be too powerful, its really annoying to be good(ish) at the game and dumped in a shit gal where you cant do anything.

PA should remove planets that don't login every couple of days or something, because they aren't the people playing the game anyway,

[DarkHeart]

Originally Posted by _ryzekiel_

Declined, random events should never be given enough power to change the course of a round in any shape or form.

Edit - the idea to help the smaller guys isn't that bad as long as it doesn't give them enough power to jump ahead of people who obviously "deserve" it, due to a mere random occurrence.

agreed, maybe that could be added to the calc of the bonus?

[Troglodyte]

In an Ideal world you could do both ..

apply the calc at the top and do the bonuses at the bottom, the result will be a higher middle band of players, and imo this is the way to go to create a better, more balanced universe.


c'mon ppl, ADD SOME SPICE to the game. The game needs something random to inject more suspense in to it. For so many rounds it's all been about alliance ...alliance..Alliance…. The big get bigger and the small have to start investing in some lube and to be perfectly honest it’s a bit stale now.

Things in life don’t always go according to plan! Random events may scare ppl but it will definitely add drama to the game!!

I here the argument of planets should not be penalised …and I agree, however it is RANDOM ….it could never happen to you. What do you think will happen if your planet goes through a pirate activity and you lose some roids? You are going to get off your ass and go find some more …here is a prime example of how it can promote activity.


PS. Thought of another Random event that may create a bit of spice.
Gremlins – i.e. attacking fleet electronics malfunction, causing them to return to base

[noah02]

Originally Posted by NitinA

Another 'newbie friendly' suggestion. If you think that the game favors the larger planets too much, then you should *be* one of the larger planets. This game is built on a balance of playing skill, and design. The statistics, ect. are in the design of the game, and the "good players" learn to adapt to them each round, while the playing skill of a player (along with other factors like alliance, galaxy, ect.)

-NitinA

you say its a newbie suggestion then you say something about the big players adapt?
not being funny but if there that good couldnt they adapt to anything they put there mind to ie this idea?
If there that good they could do anything hence i lil bit of whiskey in your tea gives it a lil kick a lil bit of random events will give ye something to think about dont be scared of change just test it first.

[Troglodyte]

i agree, the big players will learn to adapt (That's what makes them good players) ... and will give the rest of us a fighting chance. The only difference now is that the scores wont be so skewed ...checks and balance

[NitinA]

Originally Posted by noah02

you say its a newbie suggestion then you say something about the big players adapt?
not being funny but if there that good couldnt they adapt to anything they put there mind to ie this idea?
If there that good they could do anything hence i lil bit of whiskey in your tea gives it a lil kick a lil bit of random events will give ye something to think about dont be scared of change just test it first.

Nobody is good enough to win by strategy when the game is built upon random chance. The players *are* "good players" right now because the game is built upon using strategy to grow and/or win--and if you remove all elements of strategy and create a game based on random occurances which your strategy can not help, then it becomes possible to win by luck, and not by good playing.

-Nitin

[demiGOD]

Originally Posted by NitinA

Nobody is good enough to win by strategy when the game is built upon random chance. The players *are* "good players" right now because the game is built upon using strategy to grow and/or win--and if you remove all elements of strategy and create a game based on random occurances which your strategy can not help, then it becomes possible to win by luck, and not by good playing.

-Nitin

i agree.. i used to play romance of the 3 kingdoms religiously and it really pissed me off a lot when i "randomly" go through a town riot, uprisings, floods and natural calamities and waste all sorts of play time just recovering from these random events until i just got tired of it and just literally stopped playing it - surely u want to keep Pa players by not pissing them off by these "random" events thats programmed within the game - the reason why Pa is so successful is because they pioneered and started the objective, out-of-the-nutshell tactics and strategy that are supported by statistics and mathematics and nothing more..

[Troglodyte]

Originally Posted by NitinA

Nobody is good enough to win by strategy when the game is built upon random chance. The players *are* "good players" right now because the game is built upon using strategy to grow and/or win--and if you remove all elements of strategy and create a game based on random occurances which your strategy can not help, then it becomes possible to win by luck, and not by good playing.

-Nitin

Very true ..excecpt the game is NOT built on random chance ..it is still all about strategy ... 99% of the time is based on strategy and 1% on random factors.

Ok here's another idea ...you can pay Insurance Tax per tick. If you have insurance then you can claim back some of the damages. This will add a more strategic element to it. Now its the players choice if they wish to mitigate the risk by paying some taxes, OR be daring and pray to the gods that they smile favourably on your lil planet.

[mist]

either, the insurance is worth it - in which case there's no point having the random events as everyone will get it, or it's not, in which case it's still just as luck based.

this idea *still* sucks

-mist

[noah02]

Could we build churches as a construction then hehe

[noah02]

Originally Posted by mist

either, the insurance is worth it - in which case there's no point having the random events as everyone will get it, or it's not, in which case it's still just as luck based.

this idea *still* sucks

-mist

i know the idea sucks but i was putting up a lil defence for the idea because know ones added any kind of feedback apart from slating it.
But I wanna build a church it would be funny

[demiGOD]

Originally Posted by noah02

Could we build churches as a construction then hehe

yea, more churches, less random events BWEHhehhe!

[mist]

Originally Posted by noah02

i know the idea sucks but i was putting up a lil defence for the idea because know ones added any kind of feedback apart from slating it.
But I wanna build a church it would be funny

the fact that every post slates is is probably a testament to just how crap the idea is...

[Troglodyte]

oh F#4@3-it ...not worth the effort anymore !

[Kal]

I liek random events myself, but their purpose should not be to punnish thoose that do well at the game, the prupose should be to add some fun.

[fizzyxl]

Maths is core of PA, and it makes it worth making some attacks and not others when you can calculate. afterall how pissy would it be (complete hypothesis with no facts behind it) if you built a huge fleet and your making an attack you should JUST win with good results, ie a few less ships and the whole balance switches. and a "meteor" hits a bunch of ships!!

however if they happened at home base and only caused minor things to change.
ideas:
elecrical storm :- x number of ships loose targetting and cannot be launched for x ticks
temporal riff :- x number of ships vanish from your fleet for x ticks (therefor immune to incomings)
jumpgate failier :- ships travel x ticks slower to planets outside their gal for x ticks
power grid fail :- all engeneering construction production scanning down for x ticks (doesnt effect fleets)

IE no permenant damage of destroying ships which can tip the balance in the long long run.

[Alessio]

I dont think many of us could afford such an event, especially when a couple big alliances are at war with eachother... I dont like the idea at all...

but if im gonna be forced to see some random stuff soonish.. let it be random (temporary) bonusses instead of penalties... like faster research.. temporary more resources per roid.. or something with teh ships altho I can't think of anything.... edit: or give peeps some temporary PDS edit2: or that (for a short amount of time) attacks to ur planet 1 tick slower arrive

[arbondigo]

Originally Posted by fizzyxl

IE no permenant damage of destroying ships which can tip the balance in the long long run.

That what i'd go with if this random events was implemented. I don't like the idea myself anyway, and i'm not going to repeat what others have said in this thread by saying why.

[Alessio]

I think every1 wubs a bonus!!! makes peeps happy instead of sad

[Envious]

The "it could never happen to you" argument is flawed, as an event that happens only to few players is much worse in tipping the balance than an event or many events that happen to most players on a regular basis.

It's also not much use talking about "big" and "small" planets, as those players all started from the same point initially, it's not like they were given different planets and that must be levelled. If you want to give people who invest less time a better chance, focus your proposals on activity, not size of a planet.
One such option could be that certain actions (attacks, scans etc.) can only be done a limited number in a set time period, like 2 attack launches per day. (I'm only using that as an example for a change that would to a certain extent level out activity, in no way i support such an idea!). As it is, your idea does not only change the game too much in the wrong direction, it also fails in achieving the end you set yourself.

[Conall]

Random events happen in real life so why not in game as well. In RL military, sports and business organizations are forced to deal with random unknown events. Part of what makes RL organizations good is their ability to plan contingencies and react to what unforeseen events have occurred. On the flip side unforeseen events are not always a negative, in fact many are positives. Even more so what may be seen as a negative for one group is a positive for another.

[Alessio]

Originally Posted by Conall

Random events happen in real life so why not in game as well. In RL military, sports and business organizations are forced to deal with random unknown events. Part of what makes RL organizations good is their ability to plan contingencies and react to what unforeseen events have occurred. On the flip side unforeseen events are not always a negative, in fact many are positives. Even more so what may be seen as a negative for one group is a positive for another.

Maybe we should add a "going to the toilet button" to.. that u have to press once a day... just like in RL.. so that peeps are forced to make strategic disicions that put em out of busness for 1 tick..

And only get resources payed out 8 ticks a day

just like in RL... or maybe we should just all buy the Sims2



Edit: sorry I had to post it

[mist]

Originally Posted by Conall

Random events happen in real life so why not in game as well. In RL military, sports and business organizations are forced to deal with random unknown events. Part of what makes RL organizations good is their ability to plan contingencies and react to what unforeseen events have occurred. On the flip side unforeseen events are not always a negative, in fact many are positives. Even more so what may be seen as a negative for one group is a positive for another.

so, it should take longer than a round to get to a planet in the same solar system as you, let alone galaxy?

please don't use realism as an argument, it's stupid.

[Tyroka]

Originally Posted by mist

so, it should take longer than a round to get to a planet in the same solar system as you, let alone galaxy?

please don't use realism as an argument, it's stupid.

well, practically u could see it as a (heavily) speeded up reality... getting to a planet in same solar-system takes 5 ticks = hours (normal round) instead of 5 years (or whatever it takes).
Besides this is a sci-fi game and most would guess travel-time to other planets will be reduced in future (if evolution goes well) but most wouldn't guess that random events will stop occuring. However this game can't in all aspects be reflected in a future RL

back to topic...
I dislike the idea of negative random effects, but positive random effects for the less active isn't a bad idea (not affecting the top300-500).

[Troglodyte]

There will always be players who like realism in a game and there will always be players who don’t. Unfortunately I can only assume that the people who are bothered with the suggestion forums are mainly experienced players so of course they are not going to agree with it because they have the most to lose. The dilemma here is to keep the Noobs + intermediate players with a sense of competition and keep them in the round for as long as possible.

The real question is where does the PA team want to take the game, and what course of action would be best for the overall players. Not an easy question. For me personally i would like to see a more COMPETITIVE universe and i think this is one of the ways to ensure this.

[Alessio]

It doesnt change the game very much so it doenst really get more competitive.. it only annoys peeps a little bit if ur hit by some negative crappy random thingy.. but doenst really change a thing..

I see these random thingys as a pesky fly buzzing around ur head..

[arbondigo]

Originally Posted by Troglodyte

The dilemma here is to keep the Noobs + intermediate players with a sense of competition and keep them in the round for as long as possible.

Ask for help. The more experienced players usually always help the newer players in their gal. Everyone was a newb once, and some still argue they are . If you listen to the advice given to you then you become a better player. You don't need random events to make it more competitive. Activity is the main difference between being successful or not as successful, getting to know how the stats work, what ships to build (you don't need every single ship that a race has), what to attack/defend with, and perhaps most importantly (seeing as this is a war game), an alliance which you can rely on and gal mates who will report your incoming when you sleep.

Originally Posted by Troglodyte

The real question is where does the PA team want to take the game, and what course of action would be best for the overall players. Not an easy question. For me personally i would like to see a more COMPETITIVE universe and i think this is one of the ways to ensure this.

Random events don't make the universe more competitive. Newbs asking for help and learning how to play the game will make it more competitive in the long run.

[Kal]

i'm going to decline the orginal ideas here, but quests and random events will be discussed further, but will not appear in the form asked for in the first post here