[Discuss] The Removal of the Prelaunch option

[Dotatrix]

I'm not with you

[max_vix]

If there was no pre launch option most of the time I wouldn't be able to play PA....my girlfriend would kill me if I got up in the middle of the night. I see why you are suggesting the idea, and it has its advantages, however there a lot of us who simply can't come on in the night for various reasons, and therefore prelaunch is essential

[kamikaze69]

but the point is that we are FORCING alliances to stop the big co-ordinated alliance attacks.....making the game more enjoyable for the individual.....

Do you not see that??? Did I not make that clear in my last post???

[wakey]

Originally Posted by kamikaze69

but the point is that we are FORCING alliances to stop the big co-ordinated alliance attacks.....making the game more enjoyable for the individual.....

Do you not see that??? Did I not make that clear in my last post???

Removing Pre launch doesnt remove the big co-ordinated attacks though, all it does is remove the ability for everyone to do so. Its actually in the small players and the solo players favour to have pre launch open to them

[kamikaze69]

What ever happened to introducing the idea of a 1 timezone alliance??? Removing the pre-launch will weaken the strength of those big alliance attacks, because even though the majority of most alliances are BST/European it will cause division in large alliances meaning they need to work around it whether it be by having only alliance members from one timezone, or having HC's and BC's in various places of the world being able to make 2 or 3 alliance attacks per day (even though smaller attacks) thus making it easier on a small player or non BST/European player to join in??? Obviously I must be the only PA player now in an alliance at GMT +12 (GMT -5 atm) when I was never in an alliance before, but I can tell you that I had NO use for a pre-launch system when I was an independent player back in round 2 and 3.

Can you see now??? If not please help me to understand why

[Ultimate Newbie]

Originally Posted by kamikaze69

What ever happened to introducing the idea of a 1 timezone alliance???

They come and go as passing fads, but most alliances realise they need people from different timezones to give round-the-clock coverage for defence in particular, but also for more flexibility in attack launch times.

Removing the pre-launch will weaken the strength of those big alliance attacks, because even though the majority of most alliances are BST/European it will cause division in large alliances meaning they need to work around it whether it be by having only alliance members from one timezone, or having HC's and BC's in various places of the world being able to make 2 or 3 alliance attacks per day (even though smaller attacks) thus making it easier on a small player or non BST/European player to join in???

Well, granted that could happen. though my experience tells me that major alliances (except for Vision, who are the Prelaunch Masters ) tend not to use Prelaunch for attacks, as it can potentially give the enemy forewarning of an attack. However, if they do use prelaunch, it means that instead of a galaxy raid starting at 0300 and with two follow up waves by 0500, instead what will happen is LTs will be spread out over 6 or 8 ticks as attackers come online to launch, or recall then launch again later. What this means is that there is about four times as much work for DC's to handle, as if the alliance is swamped with calls on one particular tick and thus not being able to cover them, there is still the potential for them to cover the next tick etc. However if the LTs are spread much further out, more attacks may be covered but at a huge cost to DC's. I believe smaller alliances and solo players do not have the same level co-ordination and tools as the major alliances - thus removing prelaunch favours the larger alliances (thus players), and hurts the smaller players.

Besides, to a solo player who only logs in once per day or two, it doesnt really matter to them if they get attacked at 0300 or at 0600 GMT - as they arent online to do anything about it anyway, nor are they a member of an alliance that is likely to cover them. The interesting 'feature' of prelaunch - that prelaunched fleets to not participate in battle - is actually a massive bonus to the small/solo player, as they can effectively place their fleet in protection, and still attack without actually having to be there to do it manually. This aspect of prelaunch favours the small solo/players, whilst still not having that much of an impact on the larger alliances (who tend to hit other active planets after the beginning of the round anyway).

Prelaunch for alliance's defence, on the other hand, is very handy, and makes the task that much easier. The obvious example is prelaunching ETA 7 Corsair defence on ETA 9 CR incoming - the Zik can then go to sleep or whatever and then come back on later to see if the attacker recalled or if the corsairs are needed elsewhere etc. This makes defending much easier, and to a large extent helps to counter the more attack oriented impact of prelaunch as i mentioned in my first point.

Obviously I must be the only PA player now in an alliance at GMT +12 (GMT -5 atm) when I was never in an alliance before, but I can tell you that I had NO use for a pre-launch system when I was an independent player back in round 2 and 3.

Back in R2 and 3, the universe was a more relaxed environment where most players could hide in the massed legions of the small alliance/solo planets and rely on anonymity as their primary level of defence. However, in the far more 'hardcore' universe of ~2k planets, small/solo players do not have this luxury. Furthermore, prelaunch assists a more offensive oriented universe - which is a good thing as it reduces stagnation, helps to promote co-operation (at both galaxy and alliance level) and most importantly, attacking is fun. The current way ship-stats are encourages this, but still attacking is at the core of a war game like Planetarion. So even though you may not have needed prelaunch in R2/3, you definately need it now as the game, and the universe, have changed in the meantime.

[kamikaze69]

good points Ultimate Newbie, anyone got any more to add???

If not, this thread could almost be closed.....

[noah02]

hmmm I have heard that they got rid of pre launch ships being safe? can somene confirm or deny please?

[Agerus]

Originally Posted by Jackal2112

For the last couple of days whenever I had a moment to think about Planetarion, I have been wondering why Playing Planetarion has become such a majorly exhausting and overly time consuming and frustrating game. I think I found the answer for me. Because I don't know however if people would agree with my 'answer' I would like to discuss it in here;

"removing prelaunch, or limiting it severerly making prelaunch only available for lets say +2 ticks, will give people more sleep, a healthier real life and will mean better night activity for alliances and thus more defense, as people are bound to have to come online to launch anyways. Also, it will reward those who do bother to come online (and not just launch when they go to sleep and set it +2), because they have better chances to actually land attacks, as most defense will be launched early evenings as well"

I admit a rather lengthy statement to discuss, but I wanted to give it a shot anyways.

I say 'fk prelaunch'. Whose with me?

I cant agree, for a medicore player like me it will mean a lot more need for activity !

and yes more night attacks = bad for your sleep

[wakey]

Originally Posted by noah02

hmmm I have heard that they got rid of pre launch ships being safe? can somene confirm or deny please?

I hope not because when ever i raised it as a design flaw they stated it was an intended feature. Due to these responces I started encouraging less active players to use the feature to keep the ships safe and if they have infact removed this without informing people they are screwing alot of players over.

How on earth are people like me supposed to help new players when features that help them are undocumented and then when it gets out to people that this is doable they remove the damn thing

[Appocomaster]

There has been no planned change, although in the last day or so people have been mentioning that they've heard others that seemed to feel that wasn't true. A few reports came in last round of similar things, but generally someone prelaunched and the planet got deleted for inactivity or something and so the order got cancelled, so it's been noted but firm evidence would be appreciated

[Chaos]

Bah. let's just close down PA for the night each day. That should give everybody enough sleep. and no need to care about the prelaunch button. And ppl woulnd't quit PA cuz the late nights and no sleep is destroying their lives.

Yawn.. it's now 10am for me. and I still haven't gone to bed. damn pa "#%!Q/. grr.

nn ppl.

[Ginga]

Yes remove pre-launch.... you might as well ad a "find me a target, wait for the planet to go offline, and launch for me" feature :/

[smeg9]

I like Prelaunch, It gives me MORE time for R/L. It makes it easier to co-ordinate attacks when travel times differ too..

Keep it :-)

[Intruder]

Facts:

- PA had 100.000 players in past and noobs at that time didnt stopped cos of not having pre-launch feature. They leraned the game and stayed up at night.
- PA memberbase hasnt increased cosiderably after pre-launch was introduced, infact has decreased
- Even with pre-launch you have players who just dont launch when go to bed attacking only when they are online at night
- Some big alliances forbid pre-launch, but they can control if the member respects that or not efficiently. And smaller new-formed top alliances suffer from the fact their players can just set attack and go to bed, making traditional allies with few hardcore players left suck at defense and loose players to other bigger cos of some noobs who likes to go to bed instead playing wont help the game community as a whole aswell.
- This game usually atracts who uses internet a lot and usually stays online at work and then home until late night. You wont see many player who just go to bed 10pm to wake up 06 am everyday if any.


Pre-launch max +2

[paolo]

New and inexperienced players are not so active smallish players most of the time and in turn attack not so active smallish players. These smaller players don't have an active alliance and won't get defended (since they'll be exiled in the small galaxies anyway...).
The new active players get noticed quite fast and will find their way into a good alliance like F-Crew relatively quick.

My point is, new players won't need to launch at insane times during the night to succesfully land an attack. So they don't need pre-launch attacking. Most active players don't pre-lauch attack anyway, so why keep this function for a few?

I think pre-launch defence should stay to keep fleets from harm for those new (and sleepy hardcore) players.

[Chaos]

hmmz. I'm not sure what to think.

all I can do is say how it will affect me personaly.

if you remove the pre launch.
hmm.
Well. my attack launches will not be affected at all.
but defence will. as I will hafto start adding slower ships to be able to land on the correct tick.
and for ingal def. I will hafto wait for hours just to be able to launch def.
and I can't just send my ships on prelaunch if I want them out of the way.

I guess my attacks will land more often, seeing defence will get affected greatly.

before prelaunch we had 3 tick attacks and 6 ticks defence.

without any of those features. defence will become hard. and DC's will get frustrated.
and ppl will get annoyed from all the tick waiting.

I realy see no benefit from removing pre launch. only annoyed players.