Speedgame!

[HaNzI]

i tried the speedgame this weekend and i must say that for me to bother playing speedgame it needs to be changed. im just curious if anyone else would play speedgame if the following changes were made:


im speaking in Gametime:
- Run the game in weekends. from friday night to sunday afternoon.
- Sleeptime from 0000-1000
- Use updated stats
- Allow private gals
- 1 minute ticks

the benefits i see with this is:

- Sleep
- more players??
- more intensive fights because of more players online at the same time
- and all this leads to more fun!

Im curious if there are anyone else who would be willing to play speedgame under these terms. i would also like to hear what changes needs to be made for someone being interested to play.

[Mithrandir]

Agree - and 1 min tick so you can plan deff a bit

and there can be 1 going monday - thursday - havoc Friday

[[JungleMuffin]]

Sleeptime based on european/scandinavian time? I thought PA was played by people from all over the world?

[HaNzI]

thing is junglemuffin. if you dont have sleepmode at all you will simply lose your planet if you sleep.

and if there should be a sleepmode it has to be based on representing as many players as possible. in this case Europeans.

[Jinstarro]

I'd play it. But I'd prefer a tick speed of 2 or 5 minutes. You mention updated stats, but that means we have to play beta prior to speedgame. That's no problem though.

Instead of an official sleeptime between 00:00 - 10:00, i suggest we use sleepmode where you put your account "in sleep" for 8 - 10 hours. That means you can play the whole round without logging out if you want. You can of course not attack other players that are in sleep mode.

Lastly we should encourage galaxies vs galaxies instead of the usual alliance vs alliance.

[HaNzI]

a tickspeed of 2 minutes would only give around 800 ticks on this model.
1 minute ticks suits this game a lot better. ill adjust my thread a bit.

[hairypalms]

stupid idea plz go kill urself thats all thnx.

[HaNzI]

a sleepmode is basically 1. stop ticker 2. start ticker.
even i can do that

[lustig]

I'd like to see more interesting gametypes for speedies, like ctf's and world cup. The one minute ticks are needed otherwise its not speedgame (in my eyes at least).
Not too keen on the sleep idea, hard to implement for people around the world and doesnt give that many ticks.
Maybe give some rewards as an incentive for people to play and make the competion that bit more fun.

EDIT: Use an old round's stats or implement some test ones (thats a bit more like a beta though), just dont keep using the same ones please!

[Wishmaster]

alot of other similar games have sleepmode where u can place ur planet in sleepmode for 6hours or so, and still get resources. after those 6 hrs u automaticly go out of sleepmode and are free to be attacked again.

The speedgame was / is a pain though, and I doubt I cab to spend a weekend playing it again. I m just too good.

[Mzyxptlk]

I hear there's this thing called vacation mode than you can use if you're away from your computer for 72 ticks or more.

Changing the ship stats is a piece of cake, don't I see a problem with changing it to whatever set of stats is out there. Play around, have fun.

Preferred running times depend on both the times the admin is available and the timezones of the players. Automating this would probably be a good idea, but since it's free I doubt there's time available to change it. If there is, this would be on the top of my list.

Tick speed preference is entirely subjective, some like 30s ticks, some like 1m, some like 2m, and all sides do so without any real reasons. Leave as is.


Edited by Appocomaster to remove responses to deleted posts

[Membrivio]

I would say: priorities should be with the real game and the beta. Speedgame is currently an extra. If admins have time to do something with the speedgame, I would say Lustig had some good suggestions by sometimes changing stats and maybe have a diff ranking than alliancewise.
Though, I maintain that changes at the speedgame should be low priority, as the real game and beta are more important imo.

My two cents.

Edited by Appocomaster to remove responses to deleted posts

[Ave]

the speed games shouldnt be running days. those should be done fast, so u can play and spend one evening/night/morning and then go back to normal routins. you cant expect anyone to sit whole weekend at comp.

some special events like cups, weird stats and such can bring some interest... also the speed game could be used to replace beta.

[HaNzI]

then it would have to start earlier and perhaps have 15 sec ticks
make it evenings instead!
its a good suggestion tho. i would play that

[M0RPH3US]

looking at the way speedgame is atm i suggest the following changes (without recoding)

* Galsize at max 5 planets
* Announce the new round in advance (like 12 hours before) in channel topic and Forums
* Do hardresets and have 1 hour betwenn signups start and tickstart
* Start the rounds at 17 GMT and run it till next day 12 GMT
with 2 hour havoc, reset at 15 GMT the next day.
restart signups 16 GMT and ticks 17 GMT (keeping 30 sec ticks) [Have a routine when the game resets so ppl know when they can play from tick0]

additional (not that important)
* Also it would be nice to announce the winner (top planet and top gal) before havoc starts

[HaNzI]

i would love having 3 people a gal really and shutting of both the self-exile option and the exile-option.

[Fatrick]

Dust off the old R1 code floppy disk and put it in at 1 min ticks...SORTED!

[HaNzI]

or the r4 one!

ints/spids/phoenix/frigs!!! FTW!

[Fatrick]

Aye, any old pre PAX code frankly...get some good reminiscing going on As lustig said....why have a 'proper' round and a speed round using simialr stats??? May as well mix it up a bit, how hard can it be to import old code anyways?

[bitesize]

the biggest pain in any speedgame is not knowing when they happen.
- the game needs advertising in real pa before the end of the round and in pa channels (attract the attention)
- standardize the game play duration, days and time starts so if u been busy a few weeks you can still get a cheeky game in from time to time. (informs the public - cuts down the nagging by players; appoco and co know they only need show their face at certain times on certain days, freeing up their time for more creative thinking for the main game or picking fluff out of the bellybuttons - we all do it!)
- 1 min ticks is enough: less is too fast and zero def; more is frustratingly too slow (only case i can see for faster ticks is in protection 72, then 1 mins again)
- definitely have special events (as mentioned earlier), capture the flag, world cup etc (change of pace - holds the interest. different tactics :-))
- declared winner mail sent in game (definite end to round; all informed)
- no sleep time (not fair on non-Europeans and besides, if u play well enough you can get an unassailable lead on the late starters... can you/cant you... ?? the tension!!!)
- hard reset 1x per week (good housekeeping)

nothng new there, but as i can see its collated with some rationale

[HaNzI]

what i dont like about not having sleeptime or sleepmode is that the late startes can build fleets to kill the people who played and deserved to be on top. By using sleeptime and freeze ticks until tickstart the following day, you avoid this. Also by using sleeptime you avoid the playstyle when a player suicide his fleet to gain lotsa roids, then hit sleepmode and spend his res the following day.

im all for sleeptime really, not sleepmode. but if sleeptime can not be done id rather choose sleepmode over no sleepmode/sleeptime.

The game should also be about keeping the players who play from tick 1 to the end. I mean this because the more intense fighting the better gameplay.
i dont think its very "honorable" to latestart and kill all the planets whos sleeping, just because you happend to have a different timezone (like us)

The majority is european players! and even so, a weekend game can be played by US players just as easily! but it has to be made for European playerbase! NOT the other way around

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by Hanzi

what i dont like about not having sleeptime or sleepmode is that the late startes can build fleets to kill the people who played and deserved to be on top.

This is the worst opinion I've ever read. Speaking as a european player you disgust me.

[HaNzI]

if you play with 2 or 3 galmembers against a lot of other people, and fight for 7-8 hours before you finally feel a bit safe on the top, then its a bit disturbing that in those 7-8hours you then need to sleep, someone new have started playing, and while everyone is sleeping those players pick up free roids simply by buying roidfleets and nothing for defence.

thats not realistic at all and extremely unfair to those who played from tickstart. so jonnybegood stop pulling things out of context and read the whole thing.

[Mzyxptlk]

Vacation mode

[Ave]

shouldnt it be used for vacation or unavailability for some reason, not to mess normal game play or need of sleep or to keep you safe the last ticks...

if u allow the use of it to interfare normal game play... we will have issues with abuse of the tool.

[Ghosteh]

Originally Posted by HaNzI

if you play with 2 or 3 galmembers against a lot of other people, and fight for 7-8 hours before you finally feel a bit safe on the top, then its a bit disturbing that in those 7-8hours you then need to sleep, someone new have started playing, and while everyone is sleeping those players pick up free roids simply by buying roidfleets and nothing for defence.

thats not realistic at all and extremely unfair to those who played from tickstart. so jonnybegood stop pulling things out of context and read the whole thing.

Conversely, it allows those who were left behind at the start to catch up or at least gain a reprieve from being attacked by those at the top, who likely have a significant strength advantage in speedgame conditions.

In this case sleep is the great leveller. If you're committed 100% to winning a speedgame, you should expect not to get a decent amount of sleep.

And if you're missing sleep to achieve speedgame supremacy, you should probably reevaluate your priorities.

[JonnyBGood]

if you play with 2 or 3 galmembers against a lot of other people, and fight for 7-8 hours before you finally feel a bit safe on the top, then its a bit disturbing that in those 7-8hours you then need to sleep, someone new have started playing, and while everyone is sleeping those players pick up free roids simply by buying roidfleets and nothing for defence.

thats not realistic at all and extremely unfair to those who played from tickstart. so jonnybegood stop pulling things out of context and read the whole thing.

I'm not pulling things out of context. I'm saying your entire thread is selfish bunk. Can you seriously not look at things from any other perspective bar that of your own personal circumstances?

[Mzyxptlk]

Originally Posted by Ave

shouldnt it be used for vacation or unavailability for some reason, not to mess normal game play or need of sleep or to keep you safe the last ticks...

Ah. Unavailability. You mean, a set of circumstances which prevent you from accessing the game for a period of time longer than 72 ticks? Like the fact that you're asleep?

[Membrivio]

Originally Posted by HaNzI

if you play with 2 or 3 galmembers against a lot of other people, and fight for 7-8 hours before you finally feel a bit safe on the top, then its a bit disturbing that in those 7-8hours you then need to sleep, someone new have started playing, and while everyone is sleeping those players pick up free roids simply by buying roidfleets and nothing for defence.

thats not realistic at all and extremely unfair to those who played from tickstart. so jonnybegood stop pulling things out of context and read the whole thing.

When you play speedgame, you know that sleeping equals (probable) death. When I played the speedgame I always went to sleep knowing at least a part of my fleet would die and that my roids would be consumed by others. Only when I did not lose fleet or no roids even I was surprised. Sleep is a choice when you play the speedgame as it is made to be played full pull.
A question: Why should the players started at tickstart be protected when they choose to sleep? That would not be fair either towards the other players, aye? So, in that sense I tend to agree with the observation of JBG: you are only taking your own perspective into consideration.

Again, my two cents

[Ave]

Originally Posted by Mzyxptlk

Ah. Unavailability. You mean, a set of circumstances which prevent you from accessing the game for a period of time longer than 72 ticks? Like the fact that you're asleep?

its more a circumstance weather u wana be in comp or not... not a real stoppage from playing. ticks running 24/7 etc... no one can be expected to be online all the time.

But that is ofc how we want to see it. In that light its ok to use the feature regardless of the reason behind. Basicly it makes perfect sense seeing that one is built there.

Nor I dont want to stop people from getting the sleep that the human body needs. But you probably get my point.

[HaNzI]

i seems to be a fair number of people here who doesnt read the whole thread.

i said i want more intense fighting, and the only way to achieve that is to have as many people online at the same time as possible. IF there is a break of 8 hours or so in the game everyone would have to be there 8 hours later to start playing again. the way speedgames are now its those who play 10 hours straight from tickstart and do all the fun fighting, and there are those who sign up when the others sleep so they can pick up free roids.

if we atleast had a vacationmode they couldnt attack the actual planets.

[JonnyBGood]

Why aren't you advocating eight hour speedgames instead of the retarded self-centred drivel you're insisting upon?

[M0RPH3US]

Originally Posted by Mzyxptlk

Vacation mode

exactly

i am against sleepmode where u get resources, but vac mode would be nice for those who want to wake up with their existing fleet

ppl can decide then if they want to pick up resources while they sleep and maybe loose their fleet or go into vacmode

[HaNzI]

Originally Posted by HaNzI

then it would have to start earlier and perhaps have 15 sec ticks
make it evenings instead!
its a good suggestion tho. i would play that

like i said jonnybgood. you have not read the thread.

this is a suggestionthread not a flamingthread, and you are acting like a kid
make suggestion or stay away from the forum.

i dont mind 8 hour speedgames at all, but if they are gonna last an entire weekend i personally think we need some kinda sleepmode

[Veedeejem!]

Seriously, in a speedgame sleep = death...

I've read the entire thread HaNzI and tbh all your post were basicly the same thing: "I went to sleep and now my stuff is dead, boo ****ing hoo"
Get over it please and listen to more intelligent people like JBG & mz.

Lets look at it from a tick point of view:
You play speedgame for 8 hours (in 1 min ticks this equals 480 ticks), somebody from the other side of the world plays the same speedgame, starts 8 hours later and plays while you sleep...
Why would it be unfair for the player from halfway across the world that has played an equal amount of time, just not when you were online, to attack you?
Just caus he lives in another part of the world?

Basicly this whole thread is about your selfish reasons, PA is a global game and people around the globe have as much right as you do to play a speedgame and have fun.

[JonnyBGood]

15 second ticks is virtually unplayable. In fact it may be completely impossible as the ticker takes like 13 seconds even in a speedgame if I remember correctly.

You almost proved me wrong in my assertion that all your posts were selfish though. Luckily for me you asked for these new eight hour speedgames to be played in the "evenings" (you do actually understand the concept of timezones right?)

To be honest your level of actual contribution to this suggestion thread has been minimal. People like bitesize have made a far greater contribution. The only original suggestions you've made have just been selfish demands that the game be altered to suit your lifestyle.

[HaNzI]

its supposed to be discussed
why dont you get it?

im suggesting things, and you jonnybgood, instantly start flaming just because you dont agree on everything.

this makes you worth 0 in this thread, as you should come up with suggestions and stop spamming the thread with whine

[JonnyBGood]

Your suggestions are objectively poor. They actively discriminate against non-european players and would discourage them from signing up both via their actual impact on the game and the perception that their custom is less desired than that of european players. Suggestions such as sleeptime and evening speedgames would in all likelihood diminish the size of the speedgame playerbase and prevent newcomers, albeit probably only a few but that's more to do with the current circumstances of the game as a whole than anything intrinsic to the related elements of the game, from playing a sped-up version of the game for a short period of time and gaining a quick insight into how PA is played. As such these suggestions are not only a) pointless and b) selfish but would in fact damage Planetarion if implemented. Given the innumerable times these sentiments have been expressed in this thread in, variously, clear, concise or expansive ways I can only assume that you can actually see the flaws in your suggestions but would rather harm the game for your own personal short-term gain. You sir, disgust me.

[HaNzI]

you didnt think about that speedgames allow US players to sign up 11-12 am and play 12-16 hours straight and then go to bed like a normal person?

the US players have always had the advantage in planetarion. with a sleepmode they lose the ability to play 12-16 hours straight.

[Ave]

the start times can variate but lets face it... having a day round is good to avoid any sleep issues. I dont see why us europeans should suffer more than rest? we are still the majority and probably allways will be

[Mzyxptlk]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

Given the innumerable times these sentiments have been expressed in this thread in, variously, clear, concise or expansive ways I can only assume that you can actually see the flaws in your suggestions but would rather harm the game for your own personal short-term gain. You sir, disgust me.

Woe upon him who underestimates the power of ignorance.

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by HaNzI

play 12-16 hours straight and then go to bed like a normal person?

I see your idea of normal and mine slightly differ.

the US players have always had the advantage in planetarion. with a sleepmode they lose the ability to play 12-16 hours straight.

And in 24 hour speedgame everyone would conventionally have to sleep. A sleepmode actively discriminates. What about this do you not get now that I've bolded it? Do you seriously think a game which actively discriminates is going to be viable in the long-term? Do you seriously think?

[HaNzI]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

I see your idea of normal and mine slightly differ.


And in 24 hour speedgame everyone would conventionally have to sleep. A sleepmode actively discriminates. What about this do you not get now that I've bolded it? Do you seriously think a game which actively discriminates is going to be viable in the long-term? Do you seriously think?

finally you make constructive criticism! gogo JBG ^^


i am totally aware of that it would discriminate some players but the wast majority will be well set.

lets say the speedgame starts at 14am saturday. thats 9am eastcoast US right? if we then play 12 hours and have a 10 hour break before playing the final hours on sunday. this means a US player can easily play the speedgame just aswell as the european player.

The ones this system "discriminates" are the Aussies, but they are already "discriminated" by the planetarion gametime, which leads me to a point you can not say is bad: planetarion runs european time!

[adjuhh]

Why not make speedgames that play for 36h and after that 22h of havoc (for the people who like that). Then a two hour break, in which new sign-up starts, and after that the new speedgame starts. Every 2,5 day a new speedy would start, which would mean there are 2 different starting times, and the day the speedgame starts changes also. This way, you can make it clear for people when a new round will start (or they can calc it themselves) and almost everyone will have a game running at a time/day that they prefer.
This way you won't need a sleepmode, because one round the euro's (might) have an advantage, the next the others I also think 1 min ticks are good, and I agree that there should be stats different from the real round. And some new/other gametypes could also be refreshing.

[Ave]

Originally Posted by JonnyBGood

I see your idea of normal and mine slightly differ.


And in 24 hour speedgame everyone would conventionally have to sleep. A sleepmode actively discriminates. What about this do you not get now that I've bolded it? Do you seriously think a game which actively discriminates is going to be viable in the long-term? Do you seriously think?

Well the speed games tend to start during evening. The US players can easily play thrue whole night. While us europeans start feeling tired at some point. Even a smaller period sleep mode allows everyone to get some sleep or do some stuff irl in between the round. Just make a button that activates sleep mode for x ticks. Its gone after one usage. If someone can stay up whole 24H good for them I assume.

I dont see any negative in position that late starters can catch up and enter the battle. The ones played from the start should have a decent lead anyway and its their own fault if they leaved easy holes to be beaten by small late starters. I cant see that happening really.

Also the americans must feel tired at some point when it comes closer to morning... so I am sure the possible lead they gained during night, they want to keep also... and so enter a mode to stay safe for a while atleast.

The americans get a huge advantage from their timezone regardless the starting date/time (aslong as the rounds dont start in the middle of the night for them) They are awake when majority sleeps and when they sleep, there is plenty of people alive watching their backs, so I dont see why we should much worry about them.

Stop the whining JBG and listen to wiser man

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by HaNzI

The ones this system "discriminates" are the Aussies, but they are already "discriminated" by the planetarion gametime, which leads me to a point you can not say is bad: planetarion runs european time!

Ignoring the irrelevant gibberish you've spent your time writing and trying to find an actual point in there to address I'm going to reiterate the point that the only fair and equitable way forward will be one that is not biased in anyone's favour. Vacation mode, alternating start-times, 24/48 hour speedgames. These affect everyone equally.

Stop the whining JBG and listen to wiser man

Ignoring the irony of being told to listen to a wiser man who can't correctly use the indefinite article. Actually I won't. Irony is awesome. Regardless this is not whining. I, as a European, would benefit from these changes. However I can actually sometimes view things from a relatively objective perspective.

[[DW]Entropy]

its a speedgame. a free game. I doubt they're bothered about dwindling numbers because some people cry to mummy when they wake up to find their planet wiped out. If you don't wanna die horribly either don't play or don't sleep. The choice is yours.