pay to play, but free to see ?

[Koyochi]

One the problems with p2p is the big step new players need to take from not knowing anyting about the game, to paying for it and only then finding out whats it like. Besides all the scenarios with free rounds, or rounds with partial free players theres another major item that could help in players taking the step to p2p : a game simulator


plz let me explain and imagine this :


on the opening page of planetarion.com , next to the p2p signup links there should be a link like "check this game out for free" or something alike, and it leads to a page where visitors can experience everthing related to the game. A visitor can enter a planet/ruler name to use in the simulation , and choose a race to play with . Then the "signup" link opens up a game simulation page. It has everything just as in the real game, also with a complete game menu, and the gfx and special things of that specific race. It simulates everything of a planet of about 3 weeks old.


- status page : just as the real game, but the "message from gc" has some explanation that this page is a simulation where the visitor can try everything out, and a link to signup page. the players coords are fictional and random, because this planet ofcourse doesnt excist for real. This planet also has some resources he can spend in the simulation. those things are not stored in a server db, but rather in a cookie of the vistors browser.

- affairs page : visitors can post and read messages, and use it like real players use the real affairs page. maybe some random messages can be generated now and then where the fictional gc asks for more activity, a fictional moc lists enemy gals in cluster or a fictional mow arranges an attack.

- construction and research page : again, as real as possible. each of them a list of res/cons with most of them ready. the visitor can start a res/con and then sees how much times it takes etcetera. this could help a lot about telling the visitor about the realtime aspect of managing a planet.

- production page : just as in the game, a list with ships and their info. There are already some smaller ships and pods ready to play . With his fictional resources the visitor can try and build some more ships, and he'll see how much time it takes for them to finish.

- waves page : the simulation planet already has several waves of every kind , and the visitor can try them out or build more waves. each result would be simulated with the real formulas, so the visitor will understand how you can find roids and scan enemy planets. ofcourse, every output here is purely fictional and based on universe average values.

- resources page : some roids are ready to initiated here, and the visitor will understand how you can get resources .

- military page : here the fictional ships can be placed in squadrons, and sent to targets. So the visitor will understand how you attack and defend, and that it takes time for a fleet to arrive. (technically ,its probably a bit too much for the simulation to really let the fleet land somewhere and make a battle report of it.)

- galaxy/universe : the galaxy page contains a fictional galaxy, with random fictional planet names and random scores. Among this planets the visitor will discover his own planet and rulername, so he now knows that he is part of a small team of players. The "view galaxy" browser and the top250 lists for galaxys and planets are based on the real game database, so the newcomer can explore the real game universe, see the galbanners and galnames and tags and everything . This will tell him a lot about the alliance-based gameplay and the size of the universe . (if there is no current game running, a copy of the previous round db can be used to simulate a universe)

- news page : contains a list of news items, all of them examples of what you might expect in the real game

- battle report page : this has a list of about 5 battles, each of them several ticks. This can show the visitor how things are fought out in the game. It should have a few reports about a normal small roiding attack, where he can see that this planet captured some roids of another one. It has reports about a small attack with defence, the first tick there are some roids token but with losses, the next tick all the fictional pods were frozen and no roids were captured. This will tell the visitor how important a good fleet setup is , and the different tasks of every ship. There should also be some reports where defence was sent to another planet in the galaxy and a hostile fleet was succesfully stopped. This will learn the visitor about cooperation in gal . And there should also be some reports of a big battle, with hundreds of planets involved so that the visitor learns about how alliances are figthing against eachother on a big scale and the amount of players involved here.


Anyway... this system should give the visitor a good impression about the game, and offer a realistic (and free!) simulation for a few ticks without really "playing" it . ofcourse, after more then 24 ticks or so it wont be realistic anymore as you cant really simulate the whole database with just some variables in a cookie but thats not the point. The simulation might get them hooked to this type of game, and if they also easily find their way to the boards and irc then I think we have a good chance he might sign up and pay for the game.

This idea is probably too late for r9, and with the goal of that round in mind its not really needed either. But this would be great for r10, even with a totally different gameplay this kind of system would still be very, very usefull.

[Psi_K]

That's alot of work for the "creators", however, it's an amasing idea.

There already is PAOL stuff out there, so simulating events wouldn't be all too difficult, and they would also learn how to play.

I used to play this 3 years ago when it was free whilst at college & at home it was v-fun but since u had to pay i got put off, i carried on the rp boards but that didn't last & i've returned to c if you still needed to pay seems like we do but i hope to stick around on the boards.

what was the reason behind charging as it was gud before.

[Ultramar]

This sounds like a gr8 way to get all the new players into PA that it needs. The only reason i signed up is beacuse i got my 1st account payed for me and i had a mate who was already playing. Its a sure way of getting people to play who just come across the game while surfing the web!

[Tyroka]

Indeed, sounds like a good way. but it will be much work for the creators/coders...
As of Jolt's announcement there will be a free preview round inbetween r9 and r10

Originally posted by Spinner on behalf of Jolt / SimTech
We will therefore run a free preview round for two weeks in between round 9 and 10.

This might attract new players, as well as giving the rest of the universe chance to decide whether thay want to play r10, but ofc something to attract new players with during the rounds too would be good...

[Edit] Ooops, hadn't read the other thread about this at the time posting... [/Edit]

[gzambo]

nice idea but it might have too much work involved to make it viable

[Obliterate]

i think it's a great idea

[BlueArmy]

there's planetarion offline version out there, but i dont think fifth season and jolt would like that to become a "public game"...


i dunno though

[Leshy]

It's a rather excellent idea, in my opinion

[Neferti]

certainly wouldn't hurt, if done properly - if time can be found to do it in...

[Teh_Necro]

I think the previews before r10 is indtended to give this effect, i'm going to be handing out the url on all games servers im on and trying to get as many people as possible to play the 2 week preview of the game, and i suggest everyone else does, if pa is to stay, then its going to need a lot of attention.

-Necro

[RealJames]

Two things spring to mind about this. Firstly, it's extra work, and if R10 is going to zing as much as it's being billed up to, then we shouldn't take the coders and testers away from that.

Secondly what makes this game is that every planet is ruled by a real person (or Killmark), and that to me makes it so much more. A simulated game takes away a huge aspect of the game, the community. I don't think you could ever simulate that. Perhaps would-be players should be directed onto IRC (Could we get the comm unit accessable outside of your actual planet? I suspect so.) so that they can come to #planetarion or perhaps a specific channel such as #introduction where the creators, PA team and the more mature of the player base can welcome them and explain to them what this whole aspect of the game is. If they're playing a game for pretty gfx it's not going to be PA (they're very nice, but in the end it's just web pages). They need to see behind the html pages and into the community.

[LORD-NIKO]

Yeah The offline PA is a good choice..

why not make a few changes with that..
so gfx and stuff r CLONED from PA.
and some other small changes...

u just play it offline.

the new players.. can test it and if they like it they start playing PA.

+ they learn a bit 2.

so not everyone who joins r total n00bs

[Madina]

/me gives Koyochi some candy for a 1st class idea

it also seems you have put alot of thought into it - well done

regards

Madina0r

[NightSinner]

Originally posted by Renegade1981
what was the reason behind charging as it was gud before.

To run PA costs money, and seeing as not enough was being made via advertising and banners etc, it had to go p2p. Nothing strange bout it actually.

[Scaggydo]

Originally posted by Renegade1981

what was the reason behind charging as it was gud before.

yes, i agree. the major downtime, dead servers, lack of development, near collapse of the game due to financial drought, was indeed "gud"

[Spinner]

Ace idea..if time allows, I say we do it...

[mens]

the man has spoken

Exellent idea and all those "takes too much time" comments, the creators could for example "pay" someone to do it or do a competition and payments could be accounts or something
you need to spend money to earn money..
Again;great idea!

[Sun Pin]

Originally posted by Leshy
It's a rather excellent idea, in my opinion

[SYMM]

Am i right in thinking that this "planet" would never tick, and would reset when the user goes away?
If so, I can't see it being a lot of work, and is a really good idea.
Any sort of fully-working offline PA would either be rubbish, and so a bad indication of the game, or would require too much coder-time to make it worth doing (the quality of the proper game would presumably have to be lowered).

[Scaggydo]

Originally posted by SYMM
Am i right in thinking that this "planet" would never tick, and would reset when the user goes away?
If so, I can't see it being a lot of work, and is a really good idea.
Any sort of fully-working offline PA would either be rubbish, and so a bad indication of the game, or would require too much coder-time to make it worth doing (the quality of the proper game would presumably have to be lowered).

/me watches the point miss SYMM's head by a clear 4 foot..

[SYMM]

I'm sorry?
Which bit exactly missed the point?
Re-reading, I see the original poster wanted it to tick, but only for a few hours, which would effectively be the same as not at all (for "a few" to get too big would mean gross inaccuracies between a sim and the game, which is bad).
If you're referring to my point about the offline version, perhaps a quote of

Yeah The offline PA is a good choice..

may have helped those who can't keep track of what is going on in a 20-post thread...
Other than that i'm stumped?

[Koyochi]

As I had it in mind, it would indeed only tick for a few hours.

All the info would be stored on a cookie, and its easy to give that a liftime of (for example) 3 ticks. The visitor would see the realtime evolution of things he ordered, but he would be logged out before the building cycle of any ship , con/res or wave would be completed. You would be avoiding a lot of programming issues with that. There wont be a battle simulater needed either as no fleet would ever arrive on time. Just take a few battle reports from the beta round and place it on that simulated account so a visitor will understand how battles look like.

Formulas dont have to be perfect either. For the roid scanning for example, you could just give out a random number of roids between 40% and 80% of the amount of waves used. It doesnt matter if its not totally like real, just use it to tell the visitor that "gathering information and finding resources" is a major part of the game, and that some luck is involved. If that just happens to be something he likes in a game then he is already a little bit more convinced to signup and pay. This simulator is also primarly aimed at people that already understand that a good game is not always free, they just need to be shown whats "inside the box"

So its not that complicated at all, we dont even need much work from the creators directly. The real universe and galaxy browser could be based on the database dumps. (ok, small problem with galbanners then, but nm) . The people that would have to make this simulator just need access to all gfx that will be used, they need to understand how the game works and how everything looks and feels. I guess that there are enough players around who could make this with some simple php or asp.

[MrLobster]

My game is just a quick play around before playing with the big boys.

But at least it is getting better...

I wont clone the graphics from PA because thats illegal (i think), but i can use them as a basis... (-:

There are some graphics that was going to be used for last round which never saw the light of day so i will try and use them.

also anyone have a HTML4 Parser, thats a RichEdit type of componant for Delphi 6??

[DarkAngel]

very nice idea, probably the best tody, alot of though gone into it, and sure its alot of work, but if it makes the game sell, its worth it.

[Byrney]

yea i fink this wud be a gud idea. btw Lobster i d/oaded your version of oflline PA and it was all goin well untill it wouldn't let me start my game. wonderin if you knew about this and what might be causing it. if u get the time take a look would ya?

[DarkAngel]

paol never let me save it :/

[Griffin]

Very good idea Koy, though it is alot of work..

Cya around, #bugs <- we still hang around there ;-)

Sounds like a really good idea to me, even better would be to make the game free to play.....

[Zither]

Originally posted by Koyochi
- waves page : the simulation planet already has several waves of every kind , and the visitor can try them out or build more waves. each result would be simulated with the real formulas, so the visitor will understand how you can find roids and scan enemy planets. ofcourse, every output here is purely fictional and based on universe average values.

Or make it scan real planets and you end the problem of multi scan planets at once