[Declined] Delete the Races !! (Pointless)

[Troglodyte]

The races add no real value to the game. This is only going to result to an Unbalanced galaxy, and there are far better suggestions out there that could take priority.

Take it out ...no need for it !!

Thoughts?

[Orion Treet]

Right.... go back to rd 1-5...... Takes a lot of the tactical aspect out of the game with no races, so imo races add a lot, and make the game more diverse and fun to play.

[mist]

removing races entirely would be a mistake, however i think a significant change in them would be a good thing

-mist

[Blixxard]

Troglodyte. Quit posting crap suggestions.

[Cochese]

You could quite easily remove the races in favor of a more complex tech tree, with exclusive choices essentially replacing an established race.

ie., do you choose to research EMP weapons, Subversion (stealing!), Cloaking, or (insert whatever Terran is supposed to be) and progress through the ships from there.

Sort of an expanded Science/War type thing.

(I would personally take it a step further and allow tech choices for each ship class, but that's just me)

[Kloopy]

Cochese, I've always been for that sort of idea. But as people point out to me each time, making lots of options in the tech tree for ships, alters the way combat will work. This, in essence, means that the combat engine needs to be recoded. It'll almost certainly bring new problems into the balance of how many ticks one can attack or defend, which means fleet movement and missions pages need to be recoded.

This isn't an extensive list, I just want to illustrate the point that despite making (in my eyes) a better game, implmenting the changes you suggest would mean that the game becomes something entirely new. There is just not the time to do this.

[Gerbie]

How about giving everybody a free pick from the current stats (or similar stats), but then only a limitted amount of different ships per class. At least it would not by like now where you more or less have wasted your money if you take terran and it turns out to be the worst race by far.

[demiGOD]

Originally Posted by Cochese

ie., do you choose to research EMP weapons, Subversion (stealing!), Cloaking, or (insert whatever Terran is supposed to be) and progress through the ships from there.

-a bunch of big, hairy, fairly dumb, muscular beasts that can throw a football like NFL players who went to class in school at the most 8 times their whole entire lives

[demiGOD]

Originally Posted by Troglodyte

The races add no real value to the game. This is only going to result to an Unbalanced galaxy, and there are far better suggestions out there that could take priority.

Take it out ...no need for it !!

Thoughts?

Zeus have mercy no! the differentiation by races is imperative for the prerequisite strategy and styles of the players.. its like saying "make everybody caucasian because we don't need mexican food" - c'mon man..

[Cayl]

If the almighty "Balance" is to take precedence over all other considerations, then may i suggest the following:

1) Everyone starts with 1 asteroid.
2) Everyone gets to build one type of ship.
3) This ship has 1 armor and does 1 damage.
4) If at the end of the day you have 0 asteroids, then you find a new one.
5) If at the end of the day you have more than 1 asteroid, then the excess are depleted, and you are set back to 1.

That would be a good start... there would still be some imbalances creeping in, but once we removed skill and activity as factors entirely we should have a perfectly balanced game.

[mist]

Originally Posted by Kloopy

Cochese, I've always been for that sort of idea

[Chika]

An idea, make one race, with the capability of all of the current races, and make everyone cloaked. That way you can play the round any way you want to play it, and all aspect are stressed: Skill, alliance, luck.

[Troglodyte]

Originally Posted by Blixxard

Troglodyte. Quit posting crap suggestions.

It’s this kind of Naivety which causes people to become despondent and stop posting suggestions. I’m not sitting on the backseat trying to disregard every suggestion, and yes some suggestions might be bad, but from bad suggestions could result in several better ones. People with creativity can analyse a suggestion whether it’s bad or good and see the bigger picture and through this process can create a better PA for all.

I would report you but you are already a PA member …go Figure :P

[Blixxard]

Originally Posted by Troglodyte

It’s this kind of Naivety which causes people to become despondent and stop posting suggestions.

you wonder why?
http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=182291
http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=182294

Originally Posted by Troglodyte

People with creativity can analyse a suggestion whether it’s bad or good and see the bigger picture and through this process can create a better PA for all.

I am creative. Deleting the races isn't going to help nor is giving out credits for the simplest of tasks. In fact nor is nuking your planet.

Think about suggestions before you post.

[Troglodyte]

Blixxard , You miss the whole point of suggestions, it sparks off other ideas!!!

Previous posts:
-Nuke attacking fleets, what does this achieve?
a) Stops ppl sending millions of fleets against small planets. 100k vs. 2k. Where's the fun in that for the smaller player. It may be a bad idea but maybe someone can see that the game favors the bigger players way too much. Maybe by having this in place will cause the galaxy to be more even in my opinion more playable. Got a better way of making a more balanced gal? …then please tell the community.

b) Win a PA account. What does this achieve ….more freebee players online, more activity… a more competitive gal… are these not a worthy goals?… if you have a better suggestion then please be my guest.

c) Attack and Defence strategies (Generals). Introduce a random element. Think of how much fun it would be if just now and then, you were able to repulse a force that was 10 times your size …just once maybe. That will keep the smaller planets much happier and give them something to talk about. There is NO Fun being attacked again and again …and again …and again... I would become despondent wouldn’t you …its human nature.

d) Not being able to attack the same planet for a time period.
This will eradicate cheating (roid farms) as well as protect a poor planet from being repeatedly attacked, give them time to get back on their feet. Again it makes for a more enjoyable experience… not a good thing?

There are deeper issues in all the posts, bad or not they highlight perceived flaws and spark off other ideas.

[Linkie]

a) People can't attack _that_ small planets, besides, the bigger planets should have some advantages, they are big for a reason.

b) this is actually a good suggestion.

c) randomness is bad, PA should be about numbers, calculations etc, this is what makes PA fun.

d) cheating is not really a major problem anymore, it will also stop resend/relaunch tactics, wave tactics and so on. Maybe bigger planets needs to be attacked several times to be taken down.

[barney]

i agree with all linkies points and do think wining free accounts for freebie players is a great idea. ppl always moan about the community shrinking, which is something i noticed coming back after several rounds, this is a way to introduce new blood .

also something i was curious about was what do freebies get in havok maybe they could get all the benefits of a paid planet to give em a taste of what they missed all round and might make them more likely to pay next round

[Gate]

a) Insane idea IMO. Would make wars over quickly, and would stagnate the game as people simply wouldn't attack.

b) I agree, upgrading some active n00bs may help, but they need to make more of an impact than what you suggested IMO.

c) Admirals I always thought would be a cool idea but it would require muchos recoding, afaik. That and having your wonderfully orchestrated attack ruined by some invisible factor would be infuriating.

d) Would stop farming, but we have tools for that and I'm sure they're being improved as it is. One of hte main ways that stagnation is stopped, and attacks encouraged, is by allowing launch/recall/relaunch. Or fake followed by real, or roiders followed by killers, or killers by roiders, in order to sap defence and win a war.

In a war situation, this is a stupid idea. We'd never see any big wars any more, or any cool battle reports at big planets. It would be terminally shit, IMO.

[Troglodyte]

Maybe SOME of the idea's should be tested on a havoc game.
(Ha ha ...i can see the PA team spitting and cursing at me .)

[General Martok]

You cant test ANYTHING seriously in havoc......

[Blixxard]

Originally Posted by Troglodyte

Maybe SOME of the idea's should be tested on a havoc game.
(Ha ha ...i can see the PA team spitting and cursing at me .)

They will not be tested in havoc.

A) Is a No.
B) There are enough ways.
C) I would like something like it. Would require a overhaul of combat system. Not a round 13 feature.
D) Hence why ship fuel should/could be re-introduced.

[wakey]

Blixxard: Theres not enough ways to win an account as a smaller player. Most of the ways you have listed are almost impossible for the type of players that Troglodyte's idea is aimed at.

The game needs more paid players and the way the prize system works it ends up handing accounts to players who would pay anyway. More accounts being handed as prizes to the lower end of the game would be alot more useful as these are people whom maybe wouldnt pay BUT whom by giving them a free account would help the game immensly as you would give the lower alliances a boost and this way and make them a better place for other new players to come into

Anyway lets get this thread back on topic

[Blixxard]

Kind way of saying No.

Although prizes for:
- Highest ranking free account at the end of each month.
- Free planet that has launched the most.
- Most active free account.

I believe should be awarded with a free credit.

[mist]

i was under the impression that jolt wern't allowed to award prizes based on game performance, due to CC company issues?

-mist

[Blixxard]

Mist, idd. something along that.

To point B, the ones i have listed are the only ways. Oh and ofc, donating a skin earns you a credit.

[OrionIII]

Here is my Idea for how to balance the Game, Dont know if it is feasible, BUT, ill post it. Cos een if its not feasible it could give someone else an idea.

I Play a Game Called Master of Orion 2. At the Start of the Game, there is a Race Creation Screen. There are about 50 different aspects you can select. Each Player Gets 10 Race Feature Selection Points. And selects Bonuses and Penalties. You Can Select up to 10 points of penalties and up to 20 points of bonuses(if you selected enough penalties) The Extra Points Left over that arent used are figured into your score, as a modifer, so if i choose to not select any bonuses and select 10 pts of penalties my race has a score bonus but no racial bonuses. That could make the score think a challenge too.

Could PA be made similar? The Screen would be best put at the signup screen I think, That way we could select our racial bonuses, also make a few of the bonuses things that are added into teh tech tree also, itll make for more interesting tech trees.

[Gerbie]

Originally Posted by OrionIII

Here is my Idea for how to balance the Game, Dont know if it is feasible, BUT, ill post it. Cos een if its not feasible it could give someone else an idea.

I Play a Game Called Master of Orion 2. At the Start of the Game, there is a Race Creation Screen. There are about 50 different aspects you can select. Each Player Gets 10 Race Feature Selection Points. And selects Bonuses and Penalties. You Can Select up to 10 points of penalties and up to 20 points of bonuses(if you selected enough penalties) The Extra Points Left over that arent used are figured into your score, as a modifer, so if i choose to not select any bonuses and select 10 pts of penalties my race has a score bonus but no racial bonuses. That could make the score think a challenge too.

Could PA be made similar? The Screen would be best put at the signup screen I think, That way we could select our racial bonuses, also make a few of the bonuses things that are added into teh tech tree also, itll make for more interesting tech trees.

Yes it could but would not be easy.
The following aspects are now controled by race:
- research time
- production time
- construction time
- ship stats

Research, construction and production are scalable: there is no need to have only Natural figures (N=0, 1, 2, 3... 10%, 20%) as bonus as these are combined with the engineering priorities. Currently the game is programmed with a lot of round.down formula's in it. With some mathematical skill and some time you could find bonuslevels that would give you the best round offs (as the number of engineering settings is limited (ofc this could change as well)).

Ship stats is a bit harder: in MoO all races get a pick from the same technology to design their own ships. This is also possible for PA, but it would require either that either:
- all races get the same ships, or
- people pick a set of ships out of a limited number of sets (such as the current Terran, Cath or Zik stats), or
- people pick ship by ship from one prefabricated set of ships (allowing people to pick different types of ships, such as both EMP and cloak), or
- people would have to be able to design their own ships (this will take too much time to program to be implemented in the near future).

[Kal]

the races I think will allways be here, they are part of the game now, but the way they work could well change in the future.