A couple of pointers

[Churchil5]

First - bring back varied eta for ship classes that idea was great.

Second of all is my main idea is the introduction of the Black Market. A few rounds back PA had a system of Politics being literal in that your planet had a government, which I think was actually quite good. This should also be brought back, as it helped along a few of newer players (which are we or are we not trying to ultimately acheive?).

Oh yeah, the Black Market idea...

But first...

As everyone knows, the current system says that we build buildings on our planet and we get our ships from the Guild of Shipmakers. I think this idea should be widened up to incorporate a individual planet-based society for each option, i.e covert hackers say 'Reports From Covert Operations Headquarters (which you have to build) has indicated:' or 'Scientists from our research facilty report that the project was a sucess, and the new technology is now available.'* or something. VERY simple to implement, and then it makes it seem like your planet is being run by a system; a society. We could then tie all this in to the Government, which represents the existing restrictions (Wont let you attack in-gal/in-alliance/players under 20% of score/value). You oversee all these different departments.

The Black Market (No, really this time)

A lot of players dont join the round til later on in the game, and when they do and everyone else has already advanced a great deal, a lot will give up at this stage. UNLESS... we introduce ideas to help THESE people as well.

The Black Market will have access to half of the technology that has to be developed. But instead of you just researching (which will have to still be an option) players will be able to (only later on in the game) be able to quickly gain technology - at a price. While in first 72 ticks (protection) the player will have access to the black market, which will be able to hand the player technologies up to a certain level, to help them along their ways. Like before with the prices, the better the technology, the higher the cost. This option should only be introduced after a certain amount of ticks has already gone by (otherwise people will wait a week or so, then join up and be at exactly the same level as everyone else who has already put thye work in).

When purchased from the black market, the technology will be instantly available, allowing the player to be involved at the same level as everyone else.

*This idea will also work alongside covert ops, with 'hackers' being able to hamper the research so much it has to be restarted (this would take a lot of work and a lot of planets), which could all be reported in the New Updated News section (renamed: 'Reports' - featuring all the messages we had before but from all the departments, i.e. communication tells us about waves guild of shipmakers about ships, builders about buildings and goverment about recomended objectives etc etc).

So what do you think? (to all - the government and fleets etas as well)

[mist]

please note, the thoughts and ideas in this thread represent my own views and may or may not be respresentative of those held by the pateam. this is posted due to personal interest in the above post, not because of any relation between it and current development.

ship eta:
as has been expressed by people on other threads, cool features are cool (hence the name?). however, they have to be looked at in terms of their effect on the game, as well as their direct coolness value. as such, why do you think different etas for different ships should come back/be left out?

the black market:
interesting idea, however if the techs cost that'll hamper the new planet's roid growth, possibly leaving them in a worse position than they'd have been in otherwise. as far as i know, late starting planets in pax were given resources and techs at the start. personally, i found this made the game kindof surreal, and didn't like not having developed the planet myself. so perhaps a mixture of the two, with a starting planet being given resources, and being able to do tech quicker during protection than would be normal in the game?

issues would have to be looked though, such as people creating scan planets and getting all the scans straight off.

[MrL_JaKiri]

' A few rounds back PA had a system of Politics being literal in that your planet had a government, which I think was actually quite good. '

I don't remember that.

[Killerbij]

Originally Posted by Churchil5

First - bring back varied eta for ship classes that idea was great.

Varied eta only leads to people picking the fastest race and undefendable kill attacks. In a game where activity is one of the major factors contributing to a player's success, having even a one hour advantage leads to an imbalance.

Having eta advantages linked to smaller ships also reduces the amount of battleships and cruisers in a round. Last round we had quite balanced fleets composed out of several shiptypes. People started with fighters but even some Xandri used battleships in the end. Returning etas linked to small ships eliminates the need for the higher ship classes (at the very least offensively)

Maybe eta could be tweaked a bit more though. Returning something like overburn with a twist; like only being able to kill a maximum 5% of a target's ships and have 5% cap in exchange for an additional hour eta reduction.

Originally Posted by Churchil5

Second of all is my main idea is the introduction of the Black Market. A few rounds back PA had a system of Politics being literal in that your planet had a government, which I think was actually quite good. This should also be brought back, as it helped along a few of newer players (which are we or are we not trying to ultimately acheive?). )

Which round were there governments and what did they do? I can't recall but could have been b4 my first round (rnd 3)

Originally Posted by Churchil5

Oh yeah, the Black Market idea...

But first...

As everyone knows, the current system says that we build buildings on our planet and we get our ships from the Guild of Shipmakers. I think this idea should be widened up to incorporate a individual planet-based society for each option, i.e covert hackers say 'Reports From Covert Operations Headquarters (which you have to build) has indicated:' or 'Scientists from our research facilty report that the project was a sucess, and the new technology is now available.'* or something. VERY simple to implement, and then it makes it seem like your planet is being run by a system; a society. We could then tie all this in to the Government, which represents the existing restrictions (Wont let you attack in-gal/in-alliance/players under 20% of score/value). You oversee all these different departments. )

You basically want the news messages changed to provide a better atmosphere? I do think this would be one of those minor improvements that might be nice.

Or do you want to be able to influence certain branches of your 'government'? Which other ones would that be? And would you want a trade-off system (if one part of your government works well the other won't) (something like last round's engineering system). Or would you want a system where you give some of your income to your government branches (the amount for maximum efficiency based on the size of your planet)

Originally Posted by Churchil5

The Black Market (No, really this time)

A lot of players dont join the round til later on in the game, and when they do and everyone else has already advanced a great deal, a lot will give up at this stage. UNLESS... we introduce ideas to help THESE people as well.

The Black Market will have access to half of the technology that has to be developed. But instead of you just researching (which will have to still be an option) players will be able to (only later on in the game) be able to quickly gain technology - at a price. While in first 72 ticks (protection) the player will have access to the black market, which will be able to hand the player technologies up to a certain level, to help them along their ways. Like before with the prices, the better the technology, the higher the cost. This option should only be introduced after a certain amount of ticks has already gone by (otherwise people will wait a week or so, then join up and be at exactly the same level as everyone else who has already put thye work in).

When purchased from the black market, the technology will be instantly available, allowing the player to be involved at the same level as everyone else.

*This idea will also work alongside covert ops, with 'hackers' being able to hamper the research so much it has to be restarted (this would take a lot of work and a lot of planets), which could all be reported in the New Updated News section (renamed: 'Reports' - featuring all the messages we had before but from all the departments, i.e. communication tells us about waves guild of shipmakers about ships, builders about buildings and goverment about recomended objectives etc etc).

I like this idea; besides making the price based on the level of technology though; I would recommend planet size to be a factor here as well. Otherwise some huge planets might just focus on growth and just buy the research at a really cheap price later in the game. One question though; what half of technology do you want to make available? 50% of what? And when?

I would recommend making a tech tree release schedule. Certain technologies being available after so many weeks. Say lvl 1 of all technologies is for sale after 3 weeks. Level 2 after 6, Level 3 after 12 and Level 4 after 24 weeks. Especially in this case technology prices should be based on planet size to level of the differences of the universe. A 50k planet could for instance only have to pay 1.000.000 for a lvl 4 technology, while a 10 mil planet would have to pay 100.000.000. I would say that 1 technology is at least worth the amount of time it will take for the normal research times 25% of a planets income.

[Cochese]

'Jennifer Government' meets PA?

[Churchil5]

Not sure what you mean by 'Jennifer Government' (sounds like a B-Movie with sharon stone, but i'm sure thats not what you're refering to)... and about the government:

It was the council thing a few rounds back. i.e:
"your council wants you to build this. here, you did it, get a roid. the council wants this researched, here: take a roid. the council wants you to attack. here, have a reward: another roid"

surely someone remembers that?

[Killerbij]

aaah the objectives thingy; yeah that should definately come back. Even after having played for rounds it was fun getting bonuses for doing objectives. And I think it was of some help to the n00bs; at least they were told ingame what to do first (like any normal game).

[Cochese]

"Quests" they were called.