Hello, and welcome to PAX Planetarion.
The game itself has changed alot from when it was free. A few of the real changes can you find in the manual, It explains many of the changes. Main change you will find is the introduction of XP and the thing that ships do not multi target anymore. Combat ticks have changed from 3 combat ticks, down to one combat tick.
Alliances are more hard coded and works as a society more than before. The alliance can be seen as an extension of the private galaxies that was. Each alliance has the ability to hold about 70 members.
Galaxies have the 4 Commanders, GC, MoW, MoD, MoC. So basically alot of the same as before.
The biggest change perhaps is that there is only about 2k players in wich 12-1500 players plays active.
The game itself is undergoing alot of changes in this round and the next one. There is the introduction of population which is basically replacing engineering, and there is also the introduction of governments which gives you slight bonuses to your planet.
There are now 5 races. The terran, wich is the default starting race, allthough, this round i would not recommend playing terran. Terrans are armorheavy but lacks firepower.
There is the Xandathrii which is a cloaked race their ships are cloaked and only their asteroid stealers show on unitscans (everything shows on advanced unitscan though)
There is the Cathaar wich is still the emping race, it emps ships instead of killing them.
Then there is the zikonian, wich steals ships. The stealships die in the process when they steal though.
And last but not least, the Eitrades which is a merchant race ( I always think of them as Ferengies for some reason) They got a mix of every ship, and is probably the strongest race this round round.
If you want to have a laugh, play abit for fun and maybe land a few attacks you should sign up to try the game before the next round starts. The current round (Round 21) ends 1st of June.
In terms of galaxies we do no longer have private galaxies, but we have buddypacks. One buddypack is max 3 persons whom then end up in the same galaxy.
The cluster has been reintroduced earlier, and in cluster you have abit shorter eta's both in attacks and defense.
Yes, the game is still about the roids, but it is also about taking some risks and hitting the ones that are bigger than you instead of newbashing.
Irc is mainly the way to communicate with people in Planetarion. If you dont have mIRC or any of thoose programs you can use the ingame irc communicator.
About the community you will find that the it varies from person to person and alliance to alliance what you yourself will find yourself comfortable with. I would recommend that you check out the alliances recruitment threads and seek out the ones you feel you can connect with via thoose.
Alot of people will prolly say stuff like the community is shit etc, but there are still some places where the good old PA spirit can be found. Me personally would say the community is quite healthy but having a sneeze now and then.
If you got any questions or need help with anything, mIRC is the best place to be (as usual), look up people on irc.netgamers.org (irc server) in #support, or #planetarion. Me myself can be found in #tgv (the alliance i play for)
Good luck and thanks for looking us up again.
Will buddy packs still be available in that round, even though one doesn't pay?
I'll read the manual for more specifics on game play changes.
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Linear Mode
