How Long Left For Pa?

[Zoro]

Realistically how many more seasons will PA exist?
And at what level (number of players) would the game become unplayable?

From my perspective - I started PA in round 4 (actually half way through) when there were 180,000 planets - it didn't matter that I started half way through the round because I was introduced by a friend (joined his gal) and help him with the struggle - firstly in gal - some people were idiots in the galaxy so we destroyed them and exciled them - secondly we were being picked on by a few slightly bigger galaxies - we organised our galaxy and encouraged attacks and defence together

I didn't care about the wider universe and most importantly I didn't care about winning - infact I never ever looked at the leader board - I played the game on my level with a few friends and a made a few more friends - it was great

I don't play anymore - because there are simply not enough planets for me to have my fun
When it dropped below 10k that is when I left - I didn't want to play my part in simply being a roid collector for the top players - which is what average players have become

Now i check these boards quite regularly and I go on mIRC now and again just to see how things are going - To tell u the truth I am waiting for the day when PA has a sizable community again then I will play again

I my opinion PA should be free (which is probably not a good idea cos of costs) or the should be a ability to run more than one planet (max of 5)

what do u think?

[DrunkenViking]

Originally Posted by Zoro

To tell u the truth I am waiting for the day when PA has a sizable community again then I will play again

I my opinion PA should be free (which is probably not a good idea cos of costs) or the should be a ability to run more than one planet (max of 5)

what do u think?

lol, yer, if everyone stops playing till we get more players..........you're a rocketscientist arent you?

cant be free, not for more than a round at the time anyway. Running more planet might be an idea, however the well organised alliances would have a huge advantage and we'd be looking at earlier stagnation.

what i think anyway....

[Kal]

The game is actually growing again for the first time since p2p started, this is largely due to alliances getting old players to return and the game improving consistantly since round 10.

If everyone who said they won't play again until there are more players started playing again we would probably have a reasonable sized universe again

[aceshot]

Zoro, i am not gonna flame ya for this thread, but you are being a little un realistic, as Kal states, PA is growing again since p2p.

ok i admit, a lot of players did quit because they have to pay to play, but in realism only a few actually left.

It was just noticable, because of the amount of planets came down considerably, as you said 180k planets ( at least 4 fitfhs of those were multi planets ).

PA is gonna grow stronger now that Jolt run it, as they can advertise it more. so sit back and play

PA will go on for a lot longer than you think, its lasted 4 years already, hopefully it will go on for another decade at least

Gr[afk]nd

[Zoro]

[quote=DrunkenViking]lol, yer, if everyone stops playing till we get more players..........you're a rocketscientist arent you?QUOTE]


I only giving my opinion from the perspective of the non conected average player - because I was able to hide in old PA - no hiding place now - just getting raped by the big players is no fun

I'm sure there are many people out there just like me - not everyone wants to win and with bigger universe there is fun to be had on many levels

less than 10k players and the game isn't worth playing - just my opinion

[DrunkenViking]

and my opinion then is that if everyone thought like you, there'd be 1 galaxy left, 1:1......
ofc, more players would be nice, and ofc, would be great if the bigger planets didnt bash etc, but they've clearly stated that they wont engage any high wars with fleetgroundings and such to keep the game interresting for the common player. My suggestion to you, is to just leave the game, instead of posting here that you will and dig up all the "errors" with the game, cause there has been errors since r1, and there allways will be as long as you're not playing against bots, but real ppl. There is a "departing forum" you should visit...

[Zoro]

I haven't played since round nine - I keep coming back in the hope that by some miracle the game will become popular again then I will play - sorry for being negative it's just my opinion - At the same time as saying this I have other threads saying how I believe PA can attract more players

[XCan]

There are many games out there which are equivalent to PA but they aren't p2p. Only that leeches players away from PA. One of those was designed by a previous PA dev, and it surely has leeched me away. PA is still the most original one though. However I don't think I'll continue and play PA after this round ends. The community has become too competative to be any fun to deal with. I understand why they've become it, but that's not good enough to maintain the fun.

[General Martok]

Originally Posted by Zoro

I only giving my opinion from the perspective of the non conected average player - because I was able to hide in old PA - no hiding place now - just getting raped by the big players is no fun

Why would you WANNA hide? Ofcourse you get attacked by bigger players, that's the way planetarion works and allways have worked. The trick is to get to know enough people to defend you, and you defend them. They call that an alliance you know.

I'm sure there are many people out there just like me - not everyone wants to win and with bigger universe there is fun to be had on many levels

less than 10k players and the game isn't worth playing - just my opinion

A LOT of alliances don't play to win. In fact, only 5 alliances or so really compete for the top spots, all other alliances have more modest goals, like having fun....

I played every single round so far, and I enjoyed most of them very much. The ones who were unenjoyable had nothing to do with playerbase for me at least.

[DrunkenViking]

fun is the key word ofc, action and success is nice, but the keyword is fun.
Even if an alliance cant win, doesnt have to mean it wouldnt like to see changes on the top of the rankings, even if that given alliance wont have a chance for that spot. Just the action, joy, stress and intrigues of a massive war is what makes it worth it. Ofc i can see why 1up are very clear on their point where they say that noone should massively block to take them down because they'd only be helping the second biggest alliance winning. However winning arent my ultimate goal, but having fun and experiencing action is. Stagnation and bashing arent action, however other games like ss and pia are no different, stagnation happends in every game because of pride and conservative thoughts.

edit, not talking about NoS, but my personal goals and wishes.

and before i come out like a total flamer, to awnser your question: i hope and believe that pa will not die for many years.(unless jolt got another opinion)

[alch]

zoro raised an interesting issue here, as everyone he has the right to raise any negative and positives idead concerning regarding the game and the community as long they are based on proven fact.

1. you said there is not enough players anymore- i have to say its kinda relative, there is more fun when 180k players play this game, but lets get real, in what round did you say there was 180k players?, with the round and the tool enhanced of the multihunter team, this number has shrinked not because this game has became boring or expensive but because there was maximum 30k REAL players at the peak of planetarion and i am being very generous with you, the fact is will PATEAM and jolt allow several planets to be played by one player, i doubt it, can you understand that a community wish to deal with 1 planet per player and play it fairplay, having more than 1 planet per player will make this game unfair.
Now taking the fact that the community has shrinken from 30k players to 5 k player today, i can failry assure you that, 5 k player (REAL one because the tools and the P2P system make multi a harder task than in the past) are still good number, and i can assure you that in the future, there will be more than 10k players (maybe the equivalent of real number in the round 7-8.) So lets conclude that all numbers are relative and you cannot define the real number as you will never know who is multi or who is a real player.

2. Take the second fact that the game has became P2P, a company named jolt has paid for this game, lets be serious, after the big-bang and gang-bang of the years 2000-2002, you all heard that the internet bubble has exploded and that many high-tech people have been thrown out of their job and more...
Once you could have run this kind of game based on a virtual product with virtual player where the only income would have been advertisment, today its unrealistic. jolt came and found a hard working community who is fidel to its game and understood that potential of this game, we are still playing together not because of the game itself but because we enjoy each other, they are taking money for the product in order to give us the best servers, the best people to maintain the game and the community (spinner,biffy) and i understand in the future will advertise aswell to attract more people, effort have been done and it will be more likely that the game wont be free again as long the internet bubble wont come back and company will pay fopr advertisment a lot more money they used to pay today.
Ideas were thrown and more effort were put into the making of planetarion free again, but i must say that after numerous mail and conversation with biffy, its more likely that a solution has not been found yet to make this game free , what i can guess is that numerous solution can be found to reduce the payment for the credits for the future but its something that can be done aswell.

3. So answer for you zoro and other, 180k players? never. more player in the future for planetarion, absolutely.
A free game? not in the near future, maybe when the community will increase and other marketing solution which are irrelevant today but will be relevant in the future.
To play or not to play? and why you giving your views in here? its all linked to how you see yourself in this matter, another customer of jolt or another player in a community you like? if you are another customer, buy your credit, play if you dont like it go and "bitch" and much more, its your right as customer, you paid for a product and i think you should get 100% of it, if your concept of planetarion is 180k players fighting each other and having fun, i can tell you right now. dont pay, because you will nearly do a dispute 10 second later understanding that you didnt get the product you had in mind.
But if you are the player within the community, one that enjoy being amongst friends and want to play with them together (alliance?) then you will pay and play and the only way we should hear you bitch is if you win as an alliance or got closed because you cheat. got me?

This post is not only directed to zoro but mostly to all the users who dont understnad what is PA.

This is PA:
A web-strategy online game
5k players - half of them paid - half of them unpaid.
growing.
entertaining a happy community since round1 thru round11

like it? good. dont like it? help.

thanks.

[I am Idler]

Originally Posted by aceshot

It was just noticable, because of the amount of planets came down considerably, as you said 180k planets ( at least 4 fitfhs of those were multi planets ).



Gr[afk]nd

about 50k were multis actually. give or take a few k

[mens]

if we've had as many players as similar threads like this we'd be right up there with r4.

[Gunn3r]

the stats, all the little adds-on, the way the in-game works is ace, it should have been done rounds ago.

Shame its been done so late, everyone is gone now, because I really like the in-game, not that I didn't like the old one, I just prefer this one. But the player base is slighty going up again!

[DrunkenViking]

game = better
community and spirit = worse
something like that?
i'd agree, the game is much more balanced and smooth now, tho wasnt all that unbalanced in r10 witch every ship capping and such, then it was just weird but fun nevertheless.

[Hurragutten]

I think PA got far better from PaX and further on

[Intruder]

Well, Alch did the ultimate reply above

[Precursors]

Originally Posted by Kal

The game is actually growing again for the first time since p2p started, this is largely due to alliances getting old players to return and the game improving consistantly since round 10.

yeah it is growing alright
instead of refunding people for the money they paid for speed rounds they got the "credits" back
So now I have 3 credits when i am not even planning to play PA next round
I presume you would suggest me to disitribute these credits to people who want to play? This is how the game grows alright, but i would call it robbery

[Kloopy]

I have to agree. The new version of Planetarion is a much more enjoyable game. Think back to the days of the early rounds, where alliances blocked. Whether it's down to more polite and thoughtful alliance HCs preventing the blocking, or whether it is down to the new dynamics Spinner put into this game, I don't care. The fact is that it's easier for smaller players to have fun and if you really get into the game, I think that level of fun is much higher.

I'm hoping that it's just a matter of time for the excitement to filter through via word of mouth to new people. Just as it took a few rounds for the player numbers and community spirit to seriously decline after pay to play. If we can consistently keep the gameplay like we had this round, then I'm sure PA will gain some players back.

Payment is down to a good level, there are competitions to win upgrades, lots of people were dishing out credits from their own pocket at the start of round, we have free starter accounts. Things -are- looking up for Planetarion and I think it's time we start to thank everyone for their ongoing support and help for the game.

[Kal]

Originally Posted by Precursors

yeah it is growing alright
instead of refunding people for the money they paid for speed rounds they got the "credits" back
So now I have 3 credits when i am not even planning to play PA next round
I presume you would suggest me to disitribute these credits to people who want to play? This is how the game grows alright, but i would call it robbery

it was only possible to buy speed game credits if you had a main game account, as the only way to activate a speed game accounts was to transfer credits from the main game. Speed game credits and main game credits are the same.

[DrunkenViking]

Originally Posted by Precursors

yeah it is growing alright
instead of refunding people for the money they paid for speed rounds they got the "credits" back
So now I have 3 credits when i am not even planning to play PA next round
I presume you would suggest me to disitribute these credits to people who want to play? This is how the game grows alright, but i would call it robbery

you should learn to plan ahead.....
(dont buy 5 credits if you're planning to use 2)

[Bashar]

Originally Posted by Zoro

I don't play anymore - because there are simply not enough planets for me to have my fun

Exactly what has caused the game so problems. Everybody who doesn't play because there are not enough people are contributing to the reason they don't play. If all such people played, I reckon the game would be a lot more fun.

[Zoro]

Bashar
You miss my point (a little)
I am saying that the game is impossible for the average unconnected players with so few planets in the galaxy. Smaller players are bashed into retirement very early on as the professionals strive for the number one spot.
I know what ur saying and it is a very obvious point to make - if everyone who liked PA played then there would be a bigger universe and everyone would be happy - BUT with the noob bashing, the blocking over the first few rounds of p2p I feel PA lost it's chance - PA has been playing catch up ever since
I only gave up when it fell below 10k planets because as I stated earlier I was not able to have my kind of fun - every time I got a certain about of roids I was attacked (and with no back up) and thus demorilised.

So Bashar what was I meant to do?
Carry on being bashed for the last few rounds being a glorified roid farm for the bigger players in the hope that eventually more people would join the game and in 17 seasons time I would be able to have my kind of PA fun again - or leave and wait til the powers that be imlement a system that makes the universe have more planets
Let's face it I know people here are saying there was more paid planets this time the trend is up - I don't want to pour cold water on this enthuasiasm BUT i doubt the trend will continue upwards to a level that would make the game playable - people still leave the game week by week and they aren't being replaced by NEW players

[arbondigo]

Originally Posted by Zoro

Bashar

So Bashar what was I meant to do?

join an alliance

[BasiltheCat]

I would like to see the 40% rule raised to say 55%, or maybe 60%, so you cannot attack such small targets. Or maybe reduce the capping rate to say 15 or 20%, and while Im at it maybe reduce the fleets to two instead of three. All these options would potentially slow the game down and help the smaller players stay in the game.

[CeeRo]

The pa community on these boards have always been (afaik) a bunch of fkn whiners. Even though I haven't been here since round 4 or so, there's still the same bs being laid out here.
"How long will pa live", bah, **** that and help it grow instead!

[Wandows]

Originally Posted by CeeRo

The pa community on these boards have always been (afaik) a bunch of fkn whiners. Even though I haven't been here since round 4 or so, there's still the same bs being laid out here.
"How long will pa live", bah, **** that and help it grow instead!

Most times whining is a reason for posting and about the only thing that keeps these boards alive , i am sure there are ppl that are happy with the current game... They just don't have anything to say here, cuz as soon as you start a positive discussion you get 389579790247590247597990247590247 replies of of stupid you are to even think posting something along that line etc etc.... no wonder the game looks bad :-)

[Chika]

In reality. PA will never recover. Due to the simple fact of P2P. Also, the fact that you have to play the game a huge chunk of time to do well. Its to strict, and just like any old internet game, people cheat and make it less enjoyable. In a nut shell, starting in a bout round 10, PA will never be fun but to only a few hundred people, every round, jolt can be sure to get those few hundred peoples money. Anyone else that comes along either goes free or goes paid and quits and doesn't come back. Yes, there are reports that the game has grown since P2P. That isn't hard when last round we only had 3k planets, and barely any paid. 2 planets is an improvement. PA is not fun anymore. It has boiled down to an egoist game.

[CeeRo]

Originally Posted by Wandows

Most times whining is a reason for posting and about the only thing that keeps these boards alive ,

Hehe, you got that right