Planetarion Forums

GrandAdm Thrawn · 25 Mar 2009, 14:53

As I understand it PA should be a game where its all about strategy, teamwork and organisation. Now there is obviously one more decisive thing and thats sleep deprivation. Its like "Ha stayed up all nights for 2 months hence I omgwtfpwn all those peeps, that are up to retarted things like sleeping".

In my opinion its wrong to drag people into sleepless nights in order to be successful, therefore I propose change in timespan of ticks. Taking it most peeps are from GB and other parts of Europe I would propose the following change:

6 am to 6 pm gmt when most people work, study and do other things and occasionally check in leave ticks as they are. 6pm to midnight when people spend quite a bit of their time gaming speed it up to 45 minute ticks. And mignight to 6 am when people are assumed to be sleeping slow ticker down to 1.5 hour intervalls. So after all its still 24 ticks a day but adopted to peoples rhytm of life.

So people eventually can get back to a "normal" sleep rhytm without having to take into account large disadvantages in the game. Also this might mean peeps dont slack after 6 weeks due to burnout but keep up activity for the whole round.

Any comments on that, flamings etc. welcome.

Mzyxptlk · 25 Mar 2009, 15:23

I think this is unnecessary. Sure, you won't be top100, but you can play perfectly well while also sleeping from midnight to 8.

Zaejii · 25 Mar 2009, 18:31

that would be wonderful for me considering that i'm in the US and would be up for the 90 minute ticks

please don't implement this.

Gate · 25 Mar 2009, 18:50

It's unfair on people who live in different regions.

I would like to see full eta of prelaunched fleets appearing on jgps though. This means that you can organise def before you go to bed if need be, whilst activity is still rewarded.

Patrikc · 25 Mar 2009, 22:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gate

I would like to see full eta of prelaunched fleets appearing on jgps though. This means that you can organise def before you go to bed if need be, whilst activity is still rewarded.

Would this not give an even greater advantage to those that 'do not sleep'?

Heartless · 25 Mar 2009, 22:41

Simple solution: Allow "account sitting" in a way that every planet can name up to two other people that can sit the account and have limited access to it, i.e. start cons/res and launch fleets only.

And before anybody starts complaining: other browsergames which are actually successful apply this in a very successful way.

Light · 25 Mar 2009, 22:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gate

It's unfair on people who live in different regions.

I would like to see full eta of prelaunched fleets appearing on jgps though. This means that you can organise def before you go to bed if need be, whilst activity is still rewarded.

When i first saw the state of prelaunches, thats what i originally wanted but upon further inspection it just makes it harder for alliances and still pretty hard to get defence before you go to bed.

As all active alliances would do, is prelaunch fake attacks until its time for live launches. Making it impossible for alliances to send defence to prelaunched attacks, just incase they are fake. Also, they could prelaunch one fleet and if you get defence.. they could simply change there fleet.

Prelaunch helps lower the effect of time-zones in regards to attacking but there isnt really a effective way to lower the effect of time-zones for defence.

The only real way to stop time-zones having a huge influence is to higher the attacking ETA's and lower the defending ETA's, to give a greater window to get defence. However, no-one really wants that solution as its hard enough to attack as it is

MrLobster · 25 Mar 2009, 23:53

Show Prelaunched attacks on JGP, but dont show prelaunched defence on JGP.

[B5]Londo · 25 Mar 2009, 23:59

I at some point suggested U should be able to pay for up to 4 hours (pre-aranged 12 hours ahead) protection each night, though this would provide revenue (I would pay a lot methinks!) thus allow pa to be free at point of use it was generally flamed however I still think the principle that if U want defence you have to be on in the middle of the night hardly helps the game retain players. The choice of sleep or being a roid farm is not a good one.
The original suggestion of changed tick times is silly.
The suggestion of PL defence is counter productive imo... as light pointed out I would still have to be on anyway to check it wasnt a deception; even worse I would then have less def to use because some of it has PLed vs an attack that never came!
Therefore I have to agree with Heartless, this would be good, tho for me it would have a flaw in that it would reduce crashes (as several ppl could be called to recall the fleet), since I am living off salvage atm cos have no roids I can only see this as bad!!

MrLobster · 26 Mar 2009, 02:27

Regions play a part in all online games, more so with PA due to the higher volume of european players, and the lack of americans.

Light · 26 Mar 2009, 02:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by [B5]Londo

I at some point suggested U should be able to pay for up to 4 hours (pre-aranged 12 hours ahead) protection each night, though this would provide revenue (I would pay a lot methinks!) thus allow pa to be free at point of use it was generally flamed however I still think the principle that if U want defence you have to be on in the middle of the night hardly helps the game retain players. The choice of sleep or being a roid farm is not a good one.

Then the main problem with this is how do you land on an active galaxy which can be online each night? Galaxys would just have set times for each planet to when they cant be attacked during the night, so that if an attack on the galaxy came at 4am, afew planets couldnt be hit and therefore have there fleets available for defence.

Cochese · 26 Mar 2009, 02:57

This is a major issue with having a persistent universe.

I've seen a lot of different ideas on how to "fix" this in the (nearly) ten years I've played, but have yet to see one decent solution.

I will be putting most of my effort over the next few months into this, and various ways to address the issue.

It simply cannot be "fixed" without drastically changing the nature of Planetarion...but perhaps we can sort something out to remove the need for getting up in the middle of the ****ing night to click a couple buttons.

GrandAdm Thrawn · 26 Mar 2009, 04:10

Originally Posted by Gate
I would like to see full eta of prelaunched fleets appearing on jgps though. This means that you can organise def before you go to bed if need be, whilst activity is still rewarded.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Patrikc

Would this not give an even greater advantage to those that 'do not sleep'?

I agree. People who sleep more prelaunch more so they would even be worse off with that idea.

The-One · 26 Mar 2009, 04:56

I'd be quite interested if something was done about this. I'd certainly start playing again (i suddenly remembered PA tonight for some reason). I remember playing a lot as a kid when the rounds were free. and also 2 paid rounds after a long break.

I agree with the OP that sleep deprivation is an essential factor in how well you do in the game. I was good enough to be invited into several alliances, the price i paid was sleepless nights.

i played less as i grew up, but the sleep deprivation was a major factor in stopping. funny to see this is still a complaint 29 rounds later

GReaper · 26 Mar 2009, 15:39

I think you just need to make daytime attacking more viable instead of concentrating on trying to get rid of overnight attacks.

It's an issue which could do with more thought instead of dismissing it until someone else comes along and posts a new thread in the suggestions forum. Usually this idea comes along in the form of "remove prelaunches", as that's what some people consider to be one of the causes of overnight attacks.

Kargool · 26 Mar 2009, 16:15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Heartless

Simple solution: Allow "account sitting" in a way that every planet can name up to two other people that can sit the account and have limited access to it, i.e. start cons/res and launch fleets only.

And before anybody starts complaining: other browsergames which are actually successful apply this in a very successful way.

I actually am warming more and more up to this idea. However should have even further limitations as in: Launching attackfleets only for the sitters.

M0RPH3US · 26 Mar 2009, 16:27

implement a 6(7/8?)h sleepmode (once every 24h), where u get half ressources, are not attackable and cannot (pre)launch fleets on attack or defence or recieve any more incs or defence fleets (your fleets must be home to go into sleepmode)

think that would probably be the best idea, if it needs to be changed at all, as like some of you said allready, its a big part of what PA is.

the question remains how you would handle allready prelaunched attack fleets against your planet

suggestion A: recall prelaunched attack fleets
downside: ppl will use the sleepmode to avoid incs more then planning to sleep, aka americans use it in their evenings, cause 10 prelaunched fleets are just too much
suggestion B: let prelaunched fleets go through and cap roids, while your basefleet doesnt take part in the battle
downside: ppl will loose roids, but there is no big change to then how it is now, cause if you dont get up you get roided, just you can sleep peacefully without having to fear to loose your fleet, on the other hand, no galmate/alliance mate is able to cover you, as your in sleepmode
suggestion C: prelaunched fleets go through, but you can decide if your fleets are home/not (checkbox when going into sleepmode) and can also decide if you want to be able to recieve defence while in sleepmode (therefore you get no ressources while your in sleepmode, can still not launch fleet, nor is your res/con ticking anymore)
downsides: you may be loosing your fleet, while you get no ressources, but you are able to recieve defence, so your galmates/alliancemates could safe you, while no other fleets can be prelaunched at you)
would a galmate cover you with his fleet while your not able to send defence to him? i somehow doubt that

however i think prelaunch would be abused heavily, just to force planets into sleepmode early (so they come out early, maybe before they actually wake up) or have a lot of planets in sleepmode, while you plan to hit the alliance massively, and they simply dont have defence available at that time.

suggestion B would be my favourite i think

the hardcore players certainly wouldnt use that feature often, and the big alliances certainly wouldnt like to see 60% of their members beeing unavailable to send defence or attacks.
maybe a result would be a change of the so called peak time, from 5 gmt to like 9 gmt
but then another question comes up: if you rather want to arrange defence in the early morning/late night or while your heading to work/school or are at work/school.

i personally dont think there should be done anything about it, and the original suggestion of this thread sure will just have negative effects for everyone not european (or with a diffrent work-shift-plan like 90% of the population)
however implementing suggestion B, could be an option for the so called nubs/part time players, while i dont think the top100 would use it. we would probably see alot of early prelaunching of ppl hoping the guy they attack goes to sleepmode = free roids, and if he doesnt, they just change the prelaunch to someone else, who will go to sleepmode

leave it as it is, thats PA

Edit: regarding the suggestion of the account sitting (if at all, it should only be def fleets sending and definately not attack fleets), however we got enough ppl sharing accounts with each other (remote PC thingy), i dunno if encouraging and getting ppl used to the benefit of loggin into someones account is the right direction.

Gate · 27 Mar 2009, 07:02

Quote:

Originally Posted by GrandAdm Thrawn

I agree. People who sleep more prelaunch more so they would even be worse off with that idea.

If a galaxy/ally is truly non-sleeping, then they will see prelaunches on jgps and be around to organise defence for them anyway.

Seeing full eta on jgps allows 'sleepers' to defend whilst they sleep (although it does give the advantage to those ppl willing to prelaunch and then get online to change targets).

I'm not sure whether it would mostly favour sleepers or non-sleepers, and tbh it might just encourage more daytime raids anyway.

[JungleMuffin] · 28 Mar 2009, 21:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by Mzyxptlk

I think this is unnecessary. Sure, you won't be top100, but you can play perfectly well while also sleeping from midnight to 8.

Yeah, sucks when i cbf waking up for TP...... :P

Meanwhile, back at the thread:

Seriously tho, this is twice today ive heard some ignorant european say something like this. How about you small worlded, self important dimwits wake up and realise the world isnt flat.

Its PA, not a commando night attack, you dont need to wake up for anything. If youre so against waking up at 3 am, how about you build a strong relationship with your galaxy, so some of the watchmen can work with your alliance for def, or, failing that wake up at 6 in the morning when all the incs are ETA 5, and cross defend

?.

I know.... lets give all Ukers a resource bonus, Vikings an attack bonus and Australians/Americans one of those jump around the screen every 5 seconds that you have to click otherwise you get banned buttons. Itd definately go well with your suggestion.

NO FOAD!

Look what you did, you made me break my be nice on the forums rule. Feel proud, yours is the first suggestion ive never seen a positive.

Edit: BTW i LOVE that idea on showing PL ETA on JGP's. It adds a totally new (ish) aspect to the game, ie defsoak, which dedicated players can play around with, and use against the lazy people, while giving other people an ability to defend within an alliance.

Membrivio · 29 Mar 2009, 01:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by [JungleMuffin]

Seriously tho, this is twice today ive heard some ignorant european say something like this. How about you small worlded, self important dimwits wake up and realise the world isnt flat.

Many Europeans do realise, now don't be so generalising.

(yes I edited this part, I first thought you were American ^^)

I agree with Thrawn it is too much a game of sleep deprivation. I don't agree with his solution due to several already mentioned factors. I like Heartless suggestion, although I am a bit of a control freak

And mz is right too: you can play nicely while sleeping. However, the outcome should be based on skill and activity, in a balanced manner. At this very moment you just need some basic knowledge (and sense) and sleep deprivation. I have no own suggestion, as I am sleep deprived :P (due to thesis writing, not the game heh)